COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Recruiting: Personnel Crunch
Military Lowers Standards to Fill Ranks
Clayton B. Reid, News Max
October 28, 2007
The military has loosened recruiting standards to enlist older, lesseducated soldiers some with criminal pasts in an effort bolster
the nation's dwindling volunteer ranks.
Critics warn the new policies would leave the U.S. with military
defenses that are too old, too unskilled, and too poorly behaved to
protect America's future.
Five years into an increasingly unpopular war in Iraq, the Army
barely made its annual recruiting quota of 80,000 for the fiscal year
ending Sept. 30 after missing several monthly goals. Army and Air
Force National Guards are still short, and future recruitment is
looking bleak, officials say.
"This country is turning against the war, so people are not letting
their children join," Dr. Lawrence Korb, senior fellow at the Center
for American Progress, told Newsmax. "To attract and keep troops, the
Army is taking some extraordinary steps, which may have disastrous
consequences to the military's future."
For example, the Army is lowering the bar on requirements for
enlistment, beginning with granting more waivers to would-be soldiers
who have had problems with the law.
The U.S. Army Recruiting Command at Fort Knox, Ky., reported that the
Army allowed 1,620 enlistees with felony arrests and convictions into
the forces this year, compared with just 459 in 2003.
"This is a recipe for disaster," says Korb, who served as assistant
secretary for manpower and reserve under President Reagan. "Parents
are being told that their kids who want to enlist will be more likely
to be living in the barracks with convicted criminals."
The number of "moral character" waivers granted to recruits who would
otherwise be ineligible for enlistment jumped to 12,057 last year,
the highest total in five years. Some 18 percent of Army recruits
required such waivers in 2007, up from 15 percent in 2006.
Even worse, notes Michael Boucai, Georgetown University law
professor, "The Armed Forces' narrowly constrained use of official
criminal records entails almost complete reliance on recruits' own
confessions of wrongdoing," and many can be missed.
Federal officials admit that such recruits are more likely "to become
disciplinary cases or security risks" and "disrupt good order, morale
and discipline." Between 1990 and 1993, 26.6 percent of Armed Forces
members with a moral waiver washed out due to "misconduct, " compared
to 13.3 per cent of those without a moral waiver, the Government
Accountability Office found.
The Army also raised the maximum enlistment age twice, from 35 years,
to 40 years, and finally, to 42 years, in 2006, meaning troops will
be older. Other service branches did not increase their age maximums.
Education requirements also have been lowered. In 2003, more than 94
percent of new recruits had a high school diploma. This year, that
number dropped to just 79 percent, causing serious concern for
whether these soldiers will be able to adequately perform in an
increasingly technical military environment.
Increased bonuses for enlistment, re-enlistment and "quick-ship"
bonuses of up to $20,000 for a recruit willing to hit boot camp
within 30 days of enlistment, are making recruitment a high-cost
proposition as well, with retention alone costing the military $660
million this year, according to the Army Times.
Even with the dramatic changes, standards are likely to drop even
further, experts predict. The Army plans to expand its permanent
force from 512,000 to 547,000 by 2010, meaning even higher
recruitment goals must be met.
"One way to add more troops would be to reinstitute the draft," says
Korb. "But that won't happen, because the people and Congress won't
allow it. If that happened, we would be plunged back into the '60s
protest era overnight.
"The Army is going day to day, just praying this war ends. We'll be
paying the price for lowering enlistment standards for 10 years."
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