Stephen King has written millions of words, but even a gifted writer can be guilty of failing to engage brain before putting mouth in gear.

In early April, King told a group of students at the Library of Congress that if you don’t learn to read you may be left with few career options.

“The fact is,” King said, “if you can read you can walk into a job later on. If you don’t, then you’ve got the Army, Iraq. I don’t know, something like that.”

Obviously, King didn’t know, doesn’t know and shouldn’t have said what he did.

The “fact” he foisted upon the students is no such thing.

The illiteracy rate among U.S. soldiers has, for many generations, mirrored that in the civilian population. Naturally, during the Revolutionary and Civil wars the rate was very high, as it was among the American people in general.

In every succeeding generation, in every conflict since, the literacy rate in the U.S. and in its military has increased.

Today’s recruits, according to the U.S. military, test above the national average in reading and vocabulary skills.

King issued a muddled sort of statement a few days later about how he lives in a National Guard town, how he supports the troops, but how he doesn’t support “educational policies that limit the options of young men and women to any one career.”

King did not elaborate on those policies, and we have no idea what he means.

What really concerns us about King’s statements is the outdated sort of 1960s elitism they suggest. During the Vietnam conflict, the universal draft produced a different sort of military than we have today. Deferments were granted to college students (like our past president and our current vice president). What’s more, the children of wealthy and well-connected (like our current president) were generally able to dodge a trip to Nam.

As a result, the ranks of our ground troops were disproportionately filled by rural Americans, high school grads and impoverished inner-city teens.

Today, we have much more highly trained, highly motivated troops. While we may dislike the war in Iraq, and while we may disagree with the politicians and policies that got us into this situation, we should all recognize that fact.

Illiteracy is, of course, a national problem. It is a crippling problem for people in all walks of life and in all types of jobs. It limits a person’s income and reduces their enjoyment of life.

We live in a technical, highly complex society. Success requires a high level of reading skills, whether a young adult becomes a dentist, truck driver, auto mechanic, teacher or soldier.

We do worry that not enough children are doing enough reading to prepare them to reach their full potential in school or in the workplace.

We respect Stephen King for sharing his time to promote literacy. We hope, before he next speaks, he will be better informed about the qualifications of our volunteer army.