Recruitment is down throughout all the services, in a large part because of the increasing Marxist/Woke ideology invading the military. (See We the People Pulse – How to Increase Army Recruitments?)
Lowering Standards for Navy Recruiting Is Hiring in Bad Faith (Heritage, 3 Jan 23)
Every employer—public or private—recruits workers. What sets military recruiting apart is the nature and the stakes involved in the work to be done: The job is defending the nation, and the penalties for failure are death and defeat.
With stakes this high, recruiting standards should be high as well. They are vital to both the nation’s defense and the recruit’s survival.
That’s why the Navy’s announcement that it is lowering minimum scores on the Armed Forces Qualification Test and lifting its recruiting age limit from 35 years old to 41 is worrisome. If not accompanied by added safeguards, these changes signal bad faith toward the nation and the recruit.
It’s no secret why the Navy is lowering standards: Its recruitment program is in heavy seas. The service failed to meet its 2020 recruiting goals. As a result, it has fewer people in training to serve in the fleet—and that fleet has a key role to play if the U.S. is stay ahead of the fast-rising China threat. . . . (read more)
Here’s How The Military Dropped Its Standards In 2022 To Address A Major Recruiting Crisis (Daily Caller, 29 DEC 22)
The military’s standards for committed members and new recruits have dropped in 2022 as the services struggle to overcome challenges in filling the ranks.
Army recruiting plummeted in 2022, while the remaining services just made their recruiting goals for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, according to Department of Defense (DOD) data shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation. The military is scrambling to adjust policies in a way that attracts more recruits, prompting some lowering of physical fitness and academic standards that could negatively impact military readiness, a military expert told the DCNF.
“The military and the administration are trying to overcome the greatest recruiting challenge they have ever faced by reducing certain standards,” Thomas Spoehr, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Center for National Defense, told the DCNF.
The Navy opened up the service to more prospective sailors who score at minimum levels on entrance examinations that test physical and mental aptitude on Dec. 5, Cmdr. David Benham, a Navy Recruiting Command spokesperson, told Military.com. New guidelines will allow 7,500 recruits, or roughly 20% of the new active duty enlisted cohort, from the lowest acceptable aptitude level to join.
The Air Force also relaxed entrance requirements. A new policy revealed in September allowed applicants who test positive for tetrahydrocannabinol, the active ingredient in marijuana, during their entrance physical a second chance to come clean, whereas under prior rules they would be automatically disqualified from service.
In June, the DOD shortened the minimum amount of time individuals with a history of conditions including asthma or behavioral health problems like attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder would need to be symptom-free to enlist without a waiver, a DOD issuance shows. The military has allowed 700 recruits previously diagnosed with ADHD to join without a waiver in 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported . . . . . (read more)
Woke Military Struggling To Recruit, Will Now Accept Recruits With ADHD And Other Behavioral Challenges (Gateway Pundit, 29 DEC 22)
The U.S. Military is struggling to meet recruiting goals across pretty much every branch.
Under Joe Biden, the Military has embraced left wing ‘progressive’ politics and this is surely part of the problem. The people who normally would volunteer don’t want to be lectured about diversity and systemic racism.
As a result, the Military is now going to start accepting recruits they would not have accepted otherwise.
From the Wall Street Journal:
…Under the new rules, a potential recruit who has completed high school or college or successfully held a job without counseling or medication for three years for ADHD would be able to enlist. That symptom-free period “is reassuring that they would make it through their initial entry training and hopefully have a successful military career,” said Army Lt. Col. Kim Helgemoe, a member of Pentagon’s Accession Policy, an office that sets medical admissions standards across the force. A potential recruit who has in the past been treated for depression or other mental-health ailments, or has taken any medication for such conditions, can join the military only with a waiver. . . . . (read more)
What People are Saying
(comments from articles)
” A friend of mine’s Grandson just got out of USMC Boot Camp. He went to the rifle range twice, bivouac once. diversity training the rest of the time. Sad to say that the boy feels very disappointed after his Grandfather told him what the Marines USED TO BE before he enlisted! My Buddy, his Grandpa, had no idea it had gotten that bad, me either.”
“I retired from the USAF in 2009, still work on the base I retired from and trust me, the standards started getting lowered years ago. It’s so sad and maddening to see the quality of young troops these days. Almost every young airman, and many NCOs, that I cross paths with look like they want to kill themselves, have no pride in their uniforms. I don’t know what’s going on but it’s shameful.”
“As a former Navy Instructor and Training Program Designer for the Military and a State Govt, its dangerous when your just trying to get bodies. Dropping the quality of recruits to a level of almost incompetency means mistakes will happen, big mistakes.”
“The left is turning this country into one that fewer men and women are willing to risk life or limbs to defend. Meanwhile, the Chinese have passed the US Navy in number of ships.”
“I am proud to have served in the Army back when all we had to worry about was Soviet tanks invading Western Europe. Now our Army is so concerned with gender-affirming, climate change, white supremacy, diversity and other issues that nothing is left to defend America from invasion and conquest.”
“Come from a long line of people who served in the Military. I did 20 years myself. My daughter has 16 years in, and my other two sons have served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan but not one of them wants their children to serve in today’s military when they grow up. People don’t want to serve in an organization where you’re not proud of the organization you’re serving, and it represents everything you’re against.”
“I won’t give my exact age, but i was born in the 1990’s. Here’s my reason why i chose, and continue to choose, against joining the “U.S.” military. Time has proven that the United States armed forces have recently been used to protect and defend the sovereignty of multiple foreign countries — while practically nothing is done to defend our own country’s sovereignty. Swaths of criminal migrants, who share nothing in common with our nation, are swarming our border; this is of little concern, but sending what amounts to 100 billion dollars to Ukraine for their defense is apparently a top priority. Why would I choose to potentially sacrifice my health for a foreign country while our own is losing it’s sovereignty and self-determination? Furthermore, I will not act to spread the “values” of destructive “LGBT” behavior, and the right to place elementary school children on hormone blockers and “sex reassignment” surgery. The top brass of the U.S. military’s “values” are neither mine nor of historical American values and principles. At home, our national history and heritage is being sought for removal, along with our constitutional freedoms being subject to infringement. And this human garbage by the title of Gen. Miley, who would be my superior, is expressing his desire to learn about “White rage” in a European-derived Western country!? I want nothing to do with this usurped U.S. military; and many, MANY more feel the same way. If you have a child or grandchild, wise would it be to advise against joining that which stands for nothing of value to the United States of America at this time.”
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