Israeli Army Recruits Autistic Teens for Elite Intelligence Squad- Idea For Pentagon?

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Sandydesert

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https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/01/israeli-army-autism/422850/

This article caught my eye. This Israeli division sounds amazing in helping protect Israeli soldiers and Israelis. I wonder if the Pentagon has such a division for the armed forces or has ever thought about creating such a division?

Quote from article:
"And for the military, it’s an opportunity to harness the unique skill sets that often come with autism: extraordinary capacities for visual thinking and attention to detail, both of which lend themselves well to the highly specialized task of aerial analysis."
 
It makes complete sense to me, if they see results.
 
Israel still has conscription for all adults of Jewish Heritage. They need all the warm bodies they can find, God bless them and keep them safe.
 
I suspect in a country as small and threatened as Israel it makes sense - likely less so in a country as large as the USA
 
A cousin and I were just having this conversation a week ago.

His son is high functioning autistic, he is in 8th grade, doing college level math and science, at or above grade level on everything else. His son and I chat often because numbers "talk" to us, so we get why picking dates that add up to a certain number makes sense to us (my wedding day), why we choose certain phone numbers, number combinations for passwords, locks, etc. No one will play monopoly or Axis and Allies with either of us anymore. He learned to read and write in Cyrillic so that we could send "ciphers" to each other.

His son wants to go into the Military, and he wants to work in the intelligence field. His father worries because his son has a lot of social awkwardness, but thrives on schedules and time lines. He is the kind of kid that will have every thing squared away, but forget he needs a haircut, or get dressed and forget his belt. But every other thing will be so correct you can measure it. But when he is working on something that is in his area of interest, he will find and answer. He is so laser focused that nothing else matters.

Now where this kid is very strong is memory of mechanics, memorizing maps, including topography maps, snap calculations of angles and trajectories, and chemistry. He never gets lost, he memorizes the maps of the states en route to the next duty station. He can walk you through repairing the engine of a Sherman Tank. He can tune Edelbrock and Holley carburetors by ear.

When I helped him build a trebuchet, an onager and a mangonel to compare against a ballista, as a physics project, he was able to adjust the torsion of the ropes, counter balance or length of other ropes so that he could get the payloads of each to land with in a foot of each other. It was mind boggling and scary all at the same time.

I can only imagine what the Military can do with minds like that.
 
LurkingQuietly said:
Israel still has conscription for all adults of Jewish Heritage. They need all the warm bodies they can find, God bless them and keep them safe.
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I agree but I also think the Israelis have figured out that there are some jobs that can be done even better by people who are on the spectrum. Yes as a small country with a smaller population, it makes no sense to disregard someone who is uses a wheelchair from working in sometthing like the miliary accounting and finance office. In the US we have a huge population so we look for those who are physcially and mentally fit. However, I still think we lose quality people who could do a better job in a specific field because they have some type of disability. This is true in the military and civilian world. Unfortuantely in this country, if you hire a disabled person and then fire then because they dont work out, you open yourself up to a lawsuit. You always hear about children or adults who have special abilities like seeing music like colors. I have to believe they would have the abilities to do special assignments that normal people couldnt handle.
 
Magna Venari said:
A cousin and I were just having this conversation a week ago.

His son is high functioning autistic, he is in 8th grade, doing college level math and science, at or above grade level on everything else. His son and I chat often because numbers "talk" to us, so we get why picking dates that add up to a certain number makes sense to us (my wedding day), why we choose certain phone numbers, number combinations for passwords, locks, etc. No one will play monopoly or Axis and Allies with either of us anymore. He learned to read and write in Cyrillic so that we could send "ciphers" to each other.

His son wants to go into the Military, and he wants to work in the intelligence field. His father worries because his son has a lot of social awkwardness, but thrives on schedules and time lines. He is the kind of kid that will have every thing squared away, but forget he needs a haircut, or get dressed and forget his belt. But every other thing will be so correct you can measure it. But when he is working on something that is in his area of interest, he will find and answer. He is so laser focused that nothing else matters.

Now where this kid is very strong is memory of mechanics, memorizing maps, including topography maps, snap calculations of angles and trajectories, and chemistry. He never gets lost, he memorizes the maps of the states en route to the next duty station. He can walk you through repairing the engine of a Sherman Tank. He can tune Edelbrock and Holley carburetors by ear.

When I helped him build a trebuchet, an onager and a mangonel to compare against a ballista, as a physics project, he was able to adjust the torsion of the ropes, counter balance or length of other ropes so that he could get the payloads of each to land with in a foot of each other. It was mind boggling and scary all at the same time.

I can only imagine what the Military can do with minds like that.
Click to expand...

The “ABC” agencies love minds like that for analysts - the people who know how to find patterns, solve creatively, think asymmetrically. The FBI, CIA, NSA, DARPA, HLS and other Fed agencies have high school and college programs and summer internships. Just google! This path is a way to serve in a very real way, but does not necessarily require shined shoes and door-kicking. They can become experts in their field, and their work will be critical for field operations.

DARPA - now there’s a group who does Interesting Stuff.

https://dodstem.us/stem-programs/scholarships

https://www.cia.gov/careers/student-opportunities/undergraduate-students.html


https://www.intelligencecareers.gov/nsa/nsastudents.html

Fed service is a fine career path, with good benefits, opportunities to advance, move among agencies and get funded advanced degrees.
 
LurkingQuietly said:
Israel still has conscription for all adults of Jewish Heritage. They need all the warm bodies they can find, God bless them and keep them safe.
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Unless they are ultra Orthodox Jews (about 10% of the population - and rapidly growing due to high birthrates) whom don't work at all, live off of welfare (paid by those working, tax paying non-Orthodox Israeli Jews) & spend their entire lives studying the Torah.

Those Jews don't even recognize the legitimacy of the State of Israel. The Messiah hasn't arrived yet, in their opinion, so there can be no Jewish state. Of course, most believe that their version of "Israel" should extend from the Nile River to the Euphrates River.

The ultra-Orthodox won't even stand for the Israeli national anthem.

But the vote in high numbers, giving them an outsized influence.

The tensions between non-Orthodox & ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel is extreme, to say the least.
 
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