Army Lowers Bar for Recruits Miami Herald | October 04, 2005 Army Secretary Noel Harvey and Gen. Richard Cody, the vice chief of staff, said Monday that the Army is using looser Defense Department rules that permits it to sign up more high school dropouts and people who score lower on mental-qualification tests, but they denied that this meant it was lowering standards.
Until Army recruiters began having trouble signing up enough recruits earlier this year, the Army had set minimum standards that were higher than those of the Defense Department.
The Army has had a recruiting shortfall of 6,000 to 8,000 soldiers during the past 12 months. It hasn't fallen so short of its annual goal since 1979, several years after the Vietnam War.
Harvey and Cody addressed the recruiting issue in news conferences during the annual convention of the Association of the U.S. Army.
The Department of Defense "standards on qualification tests call for at least 60 percent Category 1 to 3 [the higher end of testing] and 4 percent Category 4," the lowest end, Harvey said. "The other services follow that standard and the Army National Guard always followed it as well. But the active Army chose a standard of 67 percent in Categories 1-3, and 2 percent Category 4." It now will use the Defense Department guidelines.
Cody said that increasing the number of people with General Education Diplomas allowed to enlist in the Army wasn't really a lowering of standards. GEDs are certificates granted in lieu of high school diplomas to dropouts who can pass an examination.
The Army's figures show 6.5 percent of all enlisted soldiers held GED certificates at the end of 2004, the last year statistics were available. The Army plans to keep its limit on new soldiers with GEDs at 10 percent in any year.
He said the number of soldiers on recruiting duty is increasing from 9,000 to 12,000, and the Army is asking Congress to increase enlistment bonuses from a maximum of $20,000 to a new limit of $40,000 for some who choose branches where there are shortages. The advertising budget for the Army was being boosted by $130 million.
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Army tops recruit goal by lowering standards Lower test scores allowed, but high school diploma still required
Updated: 2:55 p.m. ET Oct 9, 2006 WASHINGTON - The U.S. Army recruited more than 2,600 soldiers under new lower aptitude standards this year, helping the service beat its goal of 80,000 recruits in the throes of an unpopular war and mounting casualties.
The recruiting mark comes a year after the Army missed its recruitment target by the widest margin since 1979, which had triggered a boost in the number of recruiters, increased bonuses, and changes in standards.
The Army recruited 80,635 soldiers, roughly 7,000 more than last year. Of those, about 70,000 were first-time recruits who had never served before.
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According to statistics obtained by The Associated Press, 3.8 percent of the first-time recruits scored below certain aptitude levels. In previous years, the Army had allowed only 2 percent of its recruits to have low aptitude scores. That limit was increased last year to 4 percent, the maximum allowed by the Defense Department.
All high school graduates The Army said all the recruits with low scores had received high school diplomas. In a written statement, the Army said good test scores do not necessarily equate to quality soldiers. Test-taking ability, the Army said, does not measure loyalty, duty, honor, integrity or courage.
Daniel Goure, vice president of the Lexington Institute, a private research group, said there is a “fine balance between the need for a certain number of recruits and the standards you set.”
“Tests don’t tell you the answer to the most critical question for the Army, how will you do in combat?” Goure said. But, he added, accepting too many recruits with low test scores could increase training costs and leave technical jobs unfilled.
“The absolute key for the Army is a high-school diploma,” Goure said.
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About 17 percent of the first-time recruits, or about 13,600, were accepted under waivers for various medical, moral or criminal problems, including misdemeanor arrests or drunk driving. That is a slight increase from last year, the Army said.
Of those accepted under waivers, more than half were for “moral” reasons, mostly misdemeanor arrests. Thirty-eight percent were for medical reasons and 7 percent were drug and alcohol problems, including those who may have failed a drug test or acknowledged they had used drugs.
The Army said the waiver process recognizes that people can overcome past mistakes and become law abiding citizens.
More recruiters, big bonuses Army Brig. Gen. Anthony Cucolo said that adding more recruiters enabled the Army to identify more recruits. “We got the right people in the field in the right places in the right numbers,” said Cucolo, the chief spokesman for the Army.
About two-thirds of the recruits qualified for a bonus — an average of $11,000 each. Some in highly valued specialties, such as special operations forces, can get up to $40,000 in extra cash.
The Army National Guard and the Army Reserve both fell slightly short of their recruiting goals. The Reserves recruited 25,378 of the targeted 25,500; and the Guard recruited 69,042 of the targeted 70,000.
Military Lowers Standards To Fill Ranks The Army Is Taking Chances On Recruits With Rap Sheets Comments 30 July 30, 2007
Army Cuts Recruiting Standards To meet its recruiting targets, the U.S. Army is lowering its standards, even taking recruits with criminal records — despite the risks. Kimberly Dozier reports.
(CBS) The longer the war continues, the harder it's proving to fill the U.S. Army's ranks. A strong economy also means there are easier jobs around.
So the Army is accepting a growing number of new recruits with everythging from health and weight issues to lower academic test scores to criminal records.
The number of incoming soldiers with prior felony arrests or convictions has more than tripled in the past five years. This year alone, the Army accepted an estimated 8,000 recruits with rap sheets, reports CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier.
Most are guilty of misdemeanors, but around 100 in the past year had felony convictions.
"Burglaries and narcotics are probably our two top categories," according to Col. Sheila Hickman.
In the Dallas recruiting office, Staff Sgt. Anthony Garcia says he enlists only those who are ready to leave that past behind.
"DUI, drug paraphernalia charges, more than three curfew violations," Garcia says. "It could be anything minor or some stuff major."
No violent crimes, but for "major stuff" like breaking and entering or arson, the military grants what's called a "moral waiver."
It's an old formula judges used to pronounce: Join the Army or go to jail.
But today, recruits are going from boot camp to a hot war in Iraq. Some former Pentagon officials call it a recipe for chaos.
"In order for the Army to meet its quota, which is going up … they have to resort to giving, taking more and more chances on people," says Lawrence Korb of the Center for American Progress.
Some chances work out. Cpl. Angelo Vaccaro was granted a waiver. He was awarded two Silver Stars after he was killed rescuing wounded soldiers.
But then there's former Army Pvt. Steve Green, also awarded a waiver, who is on trial for raping and murdering an Iraqi girl, then killing her entire family.
"The stakes are very high," Korb says. "You're going to give these people lethal weapons… so you better be damn sure that this man or woman has the self-discipline and the strength to be able to use that weapon only when he or she must."
Yet across the services, commanders are not told when someone has a record. The idea: With no stigma, the recruit has an equal chance to succeed.
"We've always been an Army that's been known to give patriotic citizens second and third chances," Hickman says.
They are risking their lives for those second chances, but officials also admit the people they really want are being driven away.
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