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Report: Pentagon To Make Entrance Exams Easier Amid Military Recruiting Crisis
The Federalist ^ | 08/21/2023 | Shawn Fleetwood

Posted on 08/21/2023 10:04:14 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

The Pentagon is planning to alter part of its military entrance exam, making it easier for potential recruits to join the U.S. armed forces, according to a new report.

On Friday, Military.com reported that the Defense Department will allow potential recruits to use a calculator on the agency’s entrance exam. Known as the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, the test “gauges academic aptitude and dictates what jobs in the military, if any, they are qualified for,” according to the outlet. It remains unclear when the change to the ASVAB will go into effect.

“We are taking a systematic approach, which will assess the impact of calculator use, and we are developing a way forward for calculator inclusion,” a Pentagon representative told Military.com.

The department’s reported change in testing policy is hardly the only instance in which the military has lowered its entrance standards to accommodate a larger swath of previously unqualified candidates for service. In June 2022, the Army gutted a branch policy requiring potential recruits to have “a high school diploma or GED certificate to enlist in the service.” A few months later, the Navy separately announced it would be lowering its admittance standards to allow those “who have lower scores on part of the entrance exam used to gauge a recruit’s ability to serve” into service.

The Defense Department’s continual lowering of entrance standards comes amid a recruiting crisis for U.S. military branches. In April, the Military Times reported the U.S. Navy, Air Force, and Army are projecting recruiting shortfalls in the “thousands” this year. While the Air Force is estimated to fall roughly 3,400 recruits short of its goal, the Navy and Army are projected to miss theirs by 6,000 and 10,000, respectively.

The crisis has gotten so bad that Navy leadership recently turned to Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley, an active-duty drag queen who goes by the stage name Harpy Daniels and identifies as nonbinary, to be a “Navy Digital Ambassador.” The program, which ran from October 2022 to March 2023, was reportedly “designed to explore the digital environment to reach a wide range of potential candidates” for military recruitment.

While factors such as poor fitness levels among potential recruits could be contributing to the Pentagon’s recruiting crisis, another likely reason is the Biden administration’s embrace of DEI ideology throughout the military. DEI, which stands for “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” is a divisive ideology that dismisses merit and discriminates based on characteristics such as race and sexual orientation.

Since Biden took office, the Pentagon has routinely mandated that its leadership advance DEI throughout its ranks. This promotion of so-called “diversity” and “inclusion” has often included preferential treatment for self-identifying LGBT soldiers. In May, for example, the Air Force authorized its military bases to host events commemorating “pride month.” Nearly a month later, the branch authorized the use of U.S. taxpayer funds to fly service members to its “pride” events in Washington, D.C.

Biden has also tapped numerous military leaders who have embraced DEI for high-ranking positions within the service. For example, the Democrat president recently nominated Col. Benjamin Jonsson, a DEI advocate, to become a brigadier general.

Shortly after the May 2020 death of George Floyd, Jonsson penned an article in the Air Force Times in which he claimed “white colonels” are the “biggest barriers” to addressing so-called “racial injustice” in the military. Jonsson furthermore encouraged his fellow “white” service members to read Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, a book that promotes divisive ideologies such as critical race theory.

Attempts by congressional Republicans to rid the U.S. military of DEI have been met with resistance from the Biden administration, which has defended such policies by baselessly claiming they “promote a cohesive and inclusive force.”



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: dei; entranceexams; military; pentagon; recruitment
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1 posted on 08/21/2023 10:04:14 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind
"...and identifies as nonbinary, to be a “Navy Digital Ambassador..."

You can't make this stuff up. Leave the digitizing to people who understand binary.

2 posted on 08/21/2023 10:06:36 AM PDT by Tell It Right (1st Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Ah, the standard left wing approach: Standards? We don’t need no stinkin’ standards.


3 posted on 08/21/2023 10:06:39 AM PDT by Da Coyote
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To: SeekAndFind

Plenty of dimwits made it in back in the ‘80s.


4 posted on 08/21/2023 10:07:48 AM PDT by gundog (It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. )
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To: SeekAndFind
Gotta keep that diversity up, right?

I'm less bothered by this than I would have been, because I realize it's not "our" military any more (except that we pay for it). If our enemy is making foolish decisions, so be it.

I love the old free USA, but those days are gone.

5 posted on 08/21/2023 10:07:58 AM PDT by Salman (It's not a slippery slope if it was part of the program all along. )
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To: SeekAndFind

Soon we will be down to whether a person simply breathes or not.


6 posted on 08/21/2023 10:09:01 AM PDT by Reno89519 (DeSantis 2024. Successful Governor, Honorable Veteran, Respectful, Respected.)
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To: SeekAndFind
The crisis has gotten so bad that Navy leadership recently turned to Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley, an active-duty drag queen who goes by the stage name Harpy Daniels and identifies as nonbinary, to be a “Navy Digital Ambassador.”

I find it interesting that the Armed Forces will now never be able to discover the reason for the problem is issues such as noted above. As this tragedy unfolds, I will remember the quote that, “Men sleep peacefully in their beds at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf”. A lot of good men are going to have to die in years to come to cover up the abandonment of the military as the ultimate meritocracy. The uniforms have become costumes and the few true Americans who are deluded into enlisting will be cannon fodder for maintaining the DOD social agendas.

7 posted on 08/21/2023 10:12:04 AM PDT by Retain Mike ( Sat Cong)
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To: SeekAndFind

Recruits will be heavily tested on CRT and Wokeness.


8 posted on 08/21/2023 10:15:46 AM PDT by chopperk ( )
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To: Retain Mike

Men embrace social agendas Any guy that behaves like a married man then deserts the woman to abortion or single motherhood is acting like someone who doesn’t care about taking care of anyone much less strangers whom the military traditionally protects and defends


9 posted on 08/21/2023 10:18:06 AM PDT by stanne
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To: gundog
Plenty of dimwits made it in back in the ‘80s.

The ASVAB is geared to 10th grade knowledge levels. Too tough for current HS graduates.

10 posted on 08/21/2023 10:18:27 AM PDT by pfflier
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To: SeekAndFind
"Pentagon To Make Entrance Exams Easier Amid Military Recruiting Crisis"

Does this mean that primates will be now qualify for OCS?!?

11 posted on 08/21/2023 10:18:55 AM PDT by Carl Vehse (Move the Overton window to the right with defenestration.)
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To: SeekAndFind
In April, the Military Times reported the U.S. Navy, Air Force, and Army are projecting recruiting shortfalls in the “thousands” this year.

Have they asked themselves why? What intelligent, patriotic 18 year old would want to join the current woke military where getting the correct pronoun is more important than defeating the enemy? Where a known homosexual can be sleeping in the "rack" next to you in the same room? And if you complain about it, you'll be disciplined or discharged out of the service. I served 4 years. But no way would I volunteer in today's US military.
12 posted on 08/21/2023 10:19:04 AM PDT by Signalman
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To: Retain Mike

Yes. Until we get our clock cleaned, and we will, you will hear politicans of nearly all stripes saying how we are more prepared and better trained because of this.

Then, when the disaster happens, as it will, all those people will be nowhere to be found.

Success in war has many fathers, but bloody failure will be an orphan.


13 posted on 08/21/2023 10:20:30 AM PDT by rlmorel ("If you think tough men are dangerous, just wait until you see what weak men are capable of." JBP)
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To: SeekAndFind

Wiki describes it: “Project 100,000, also known as McNamara’s 100,000, McNamara’s Folly, McNamara’s Morons, and McNamara’s Misfits,[1][2] was a controversial 1960s program by the United States Department of Defense (DoD) to recruit soldiers who would previously have been below military mental or medical standards.”

I was a Navy personnel clerk in the early 70s and knew several who entered under the program. These kids meant well but were not really up to it.


14 posted on 08/21/2023 10:21:41 AM PDT by jimfree (My 20 y/o granddaughter continues to have more quality exec experience than Joe Biden.)
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To: SeekAndFind

McNamara’s Morons.


15 posted on 08/21/2023 10:22:42 AM PDT by Levy78 (Reject modernity, embrace tradition. )
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To: Tell It Right
"...Navy leadership recently turned to Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley, an active-duty drag queen who goes by the stage name Harpy Daniels and identifies as nonbinary, to be a “Navy Digital Ambassador.” The program, which ran from October 2022 to March 2023, was reportedly “designed to explore the digital environment to reach a wide range of potential candidates” for military recruitment..."

Think about that for a hot second. Just think of it.

They are discouraging the people they should have in the military, and spending money, time, and resources to specifically attract people who should not be serving in the military at all.

16 posted on 08/21/2023 10:23:35 AM PDT by rlmorel ("If you think tough men are dangerous, just wait until you see what weak men are capable of." JBP)
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To: gundog

But you’re perhaps not aware how much we have dumbed down our education and young people since even the 80s?


17 posted on 08/21/2023 10:23:39 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: SeekAndFind

There is a strong and direct correlation between lower entrance requirements and higher Article 15s and other UCMJ action. I was in the Army after Vietnam, I have seen it up close and personal.


18 posted on 08/21/2023 10:26:08 AM PDT by Midwesterner53
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To: Retain Mike

I went to a military base bc this past week. What I saw standing on line was not the kind of social behavior I saw back on the 80s

People want to blame the Pentagon. People have deserted social norms in favor of No rules for dress, relationships, politeness, education

Women allow and enable men to live with no rules. Men go along with it.

The Pentagon is horrible but not far off from what culture is pushing.


19 posted on 08/21/2023 10:26:33 AM PDT by stanne
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To: SeekAndFind

Question 1: Do you have a pulse?
Question 2: Is your body temperature above 80F?

You’re In! Welcome to the New Army!


20 posted on 08/21/2023 10:28:03 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (We are proles, they are nobility.)
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