US Army has announced that it will continue to recruit high school dropouts in order to compensate for not having reached 40% of its recruitment goal. There are only 90 days remaining in FY2022. My colleague, Alex Parker, covered the initial story in US Army Jettisons GED Requirement Amid an Ever-Woker Defense Department’s Desperation.
The Army, along with the other services, faces an ongoing crisis to fill in the ranks amid a convergence of issues, including an increasingly competitive civilian job market and the military losing some public awareness in the absence of a major conflict. So far, the Army has only hit about 40% of its recruiting goals this year.
The service announced that on June 23 it would remove the requirement to complete high school. However, the conditions were that all enlistees ship quickly to boot camp. Training will begin Oct. 1.
However, it was mocked online, and accused of being a desperate move, which lowered the standards for filling in any Army positions that were available.
“Some people have frankly become very self-conscious of the news coverage,” an Army official with direct knowledge of the policy change told Military.com.
Let me tell you a little bit about myself before I get started. As most of you know, I’m a former infantry officer. After I had resigned from the command of a light-infantry company, I was appointed as an inspector general investigator for US Army Recruiting Command. As part of this assignment, I had to attend the Command’s course for recruiting company commanders so I’d know what was expected of the people I was investigating. As a part of my investigation, I was responsible for investigating misconduct and malfeasance, as well as accompanying inspection teams during their rounds. This was my job for three and a half years.
The article used by Alex has some major stupid in it that I’d like to clear up. The Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) measures “aptitude,” not “potential academic ability.” The test presumes the applicant can read English. If you can’t, either because you are not proficient in English or not terribly literate, you will not do well. The range from 0-99 is the AFQT score and corresponds generally to IQ. People who are Cat V (Cat 1 through 9) cannot be enlisted under federal law. People scoring 10-30 (called Cat IV, or “rocks with lips”) may not exceed 20% of the force (or 80% of the general officer corps…just joking). Take a look at Title 32 CFR § 66.6 for more details. Cat IVs are usually processed for enlistment and kept on a string in the “Delayed Enlistment Program” until the Army opens the gates toward the end of the FY. Then the recruiter calls his Cat IV pool and says, “Johnny, if you still want to join the Army, be ready to leave at 4 a.m. tomorrow.” The window for Cat IV only stays open for a short time because the 20% threshold is reached fast. The same applies to the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery or ASVAB. While the AFQT is used to determine eligibility, the ASVAB allows for eligibility in specific fields. Each career specialty has what is referred to as a “quality cut.” That refers to the percentage of troops in each of the mental categories assigned to that specialty. I don’t know what the pecking order is now. The top three in order of descending importance were Military Intelligence and Infantry when I worked at the Pentagon. The various supply and administrative specialties were of the lowest quality.
Army applies a premium to applicants scoring 51 and above. This is called Category IIIA or I-IIIA. The Army also places a premium upon applicants who have a high school diploma or equivalent (high school diploma graduates, or HSDGs).
The perception is that the Army values HSDGs based on educational attainment. This is false. These are the two most important things for the Army.
The decision to stop working is one of your lifestyle choices. An HSDG is more likely to enlist in active-duty for three years than a kid who quits high school. The number of HSDGs is a measure of how weak the army becomes as the troops fall behind earlier. It also reduces the ability of recruiters to bring in more soldiers for the replacement of those who have not made it.
The point of this is not to bore you but to impress upon you that recruiting is a helluva lot more than “get on the bus.” It is a highly scientific process that seeks to provide the training base with a soldier with the aptitude to master the skills required to join the field force. This process aims at providing the field force with a soldier that will not commit misconduct and who completes a term under honorable conditions. There are always exceptions, of course. But if your goal is to recruit tens of millions of soldiers every year, it’s important to concentrate on what makes a soldier successful and not the high school dropout or convicted felon, who may go on to earn the Medal of Honor.
The Army’s willingness to fill a substantial portion of the 60% of the FY2022 recruiting goal with kids who they know will not complete their first term of enlistment shows the level of desperation. The recruiting field force will be required to continue recruiting for the usual amount of soldiers in a couple years. It will also have to be recruiting to fill vacancies left by non-HSDGs. As the minimum educational requirements are relaxed over time, there will be more open positions to fill.
Only qualified candidates will allow you to select the most talented applicants. Task & Purpose, which is usually a hot mess of leftism, gets a lot of the structural issues correct. It is now more difficult to place recruiting ads before prospects due to the changing media landscape. Prospects are no longer able to reach recruiters via their landline phones.
The problem is not solved by technology alone. Word-of-mouth is the key to success for the Army. Parents, grandparents, teachers, and coaches are all key to spreading the word. This is dependent on the perceptions of the Army by the public. After the Vietnam war, the Army’s reputation was tarnished by people who did not view the Army as a positive force. Between 1975 and 1982, it took courage or desperateness to join the Army because that was the fastest way to be socially excluded.
The Army appears determined to destroy 40 years worth of reputation just for being awake and dyeing its hair magenta.
Simple reason the Army is not able to reach its recruitment goals: it declared it doesn’t need heterosexual males nor integrity.
The Army’s leadership decided over the last decade that wake indoctrination was more important than Duty, Honor and Country. When the Army opened its museum at Fort Belvoir, naturally, it included the gallery of “firsts.” The first “openly gay general,” Army Major General Tammy Smith, is featured. The discussion about her career does not include the fact that she was an illegal soldier who served in the Army despite the sensible policy of excluding homosexuals from military service. If you’re able to live long enough to allow the Army to believe the lie, lying can be okay. Check out The US Army, an institution that has been corrupted down to its core.
The Army is currently engaged in war on both its history as well as the demographics that historically have provided it with recruits, young officers, and combat arms.
Army Recruiting used to use a mnemonic device to help young men, especially those aged 18-21, who had graduated high school with a score of 31 or more on the AFQT to decide whether they want to enlist. It is called TEAM. TEAM stands for Team. It doesn’t matter what you do, because the Army does not sell that product.
In the most recent Army advertisement campaign, there were no ads that targeted white men of working class or middle income. Two profiles in particular are from immigrants. The profiles of three women are among the five. Trois of the five officers are women. None of the examples are combat arms…I know the Aviation branch claims to be, but they are delusional.). However, it did feature a “Heather Has Two Mommies” archetype.
According to the Army, the Army describes the advertising campaign as follows:
“‘The Calling’ showcases how five Soldiers answered their call to selfless service,” said Command Sgt. Major Charles K. Masters II, Army Enterprise Marketing.
“Soldiers across the Army stepped up to share their personal stories with America to breakdown the stereotypes associated with those who serve.
“Their inspiring stories highlight the diversity in the Army as we continue to be a Team made up of great people.
“One common thread you will see throughout this campaign is our soldiers all believe in something bigger than themselves and strive to make a difference in the world.”
They are trying to discredit the stereotype that military personnel are mostly men, which is a problem because most of them are heterosexual and/or white. Another stereotype that they want to discredit is the Army’s involvement in wars.
What is the point of these ads convincing a young, heterosexual man that the Army has anything for him?
Mike Ford, my good friend, writes at AFNN this regarding the current circumstances.
Finally, let’s return to where we started. Consider the issue of replacing old farts like me, with competent, motivated young men to fight our nation’s wars. Our Soldiers (Marine Sailor, Airman, and Soldiers) want to be heroes. He doesn’t want to live in a wire and be unable to save his fellow citizens. He doesn’t want to have to rely on team members who are so mentally disordered that they cannot figure out what sex they are. The young men don’t like being constantly harangued because they are MEN. They don’t want to be continually browbeaten by lesser men for demonstrating the attributes that are necessary to win wars…the manly attributes necessary to protect our citizens. The Army doesn’t need to worry if it thinks that its recruiting problem is now.
RedState: Mike was my managing editor. I hired him as the front-page writer, but he declined an offer from AFNN (an emerging think tank) that offered a more lucrative deal.
The Army would rather have a small number of the “right” recruits than an Army that can fight and win wars. The American public is well aware of this fact. If the average 18-year-old hasn’t kept up with what is happening, that key group of “influencers” the Army relies upon to carry its message to young men and women about the Army has not.
You can read more of my coverage of the Army’s self-destructive spiral in these posts.
Female Combat: What a Virtue of Weakness? It Gets People Killed
Army ROTC Cadets will wear heels
Marines: Male units perform better. Sec Navy: What’s a few dead Marines
Social Justice Warriors undermine military training
Does West Point begin a whitewash of the Commie Lieutenant Scandal
The Official Outrage Over Tucker Carlson’s Critique of Joe Biden’s Military Shows Just How Lost Our Military Is
SecDef Austin, JCS Chairman Milley Prove They are Completely Devoted To Critical Race Theory at The Expense Of Combat Effectiveness
Dan Crenshaw’s Reports on CRT in Our Woke Military Shows That the Institution Is Rotten and the Long March Through It Is Nearly Complete
It is hard to believe that a young man would choose to become a member of an organization that views masculine virtues as harmful, criminal or ineffective.
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