This is really all about financial management:
When they have too many guys, things tighten up on some typical criteria;
1. Tattoos
2. Criminal history
3. Body fat
4. Physical fitness scores
If finances are such that they can’t keep anyone, they really don’t want to call up and say that, exactly.
So they tighten up on one or more of those, and this has the effect of kicking some folks out.
There has been 100 years of this.
“So they tighten up on one or more of those”
You should have seen how loose it got after Nixon abolished the draft. There were guys coming in whose total test score was lower than either individual score was supposed to be.