Posted on 01/27/2024 8:43:34 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The US Navy had to deliver some bad news last October. Like the other armed service branches, they missed their recruiting goals again. And they missed all of them. By a lot. The enlisted ranks goal for fiscal year 2023 had been 37,700, but they came up more than 7,000 short of that. They missed the enlisted reserve goal by more than 2,000 and fell short by hundreds in the goal for new officers. This forced them to raise the goals for 2024 even higher. But how do they plan on accomplishing that feat?
Sadly, they have resorted to the same tactic they’ve used in the past. They are lowering the standards for admitting new recruits. You previously needed a high school diploma or at least a GED to be accepted. They are doing away with the requirement, providing they can pass the Armed Services Qualification Test. And they’ve lowered the passing grade for that examination even further. (Associated Press)
The U.S. Navy is starting to enlist individuals who didn’t graduate from high school or get a GED, marking the second time in about a year that the service has opened the door to lower-performing recruits as it struggles to meet enlistment goals.
The decision follows a move in December 2022 to bring in a larger number of recruits who score very low on the Armed Services Qualification Test. Both are fairly rare steps that the other military services largely avoid or limit, even though they are all finding it increasingly difficult to attract the dwindling number of young people who can meet the military’s physical, mental and moral standards.
Under the new plan, Navy recruits without an education credential will be able to join as long as they score 50 or above on the qualification test, which is out of 99. The last time the service took individuals without education credentials was in 2000.
These are some seriously low standards for admission. Asking someone to manage to graduate high school isn’t a terribly high bar to set. And the qualification test used to require a considerably higher score. Scoring 50 out of a possible 99 is barely half. I still recall taking that test and sweating out the results even though I was ranked in the top ten or fifteen in my high school class. (Not to brag, but I almost aced it.)
The Navy had previously lowered the standards for physical fitness for recruits, both in terms of weight limits and stamina. They appear to be assuming that the recruits will burn off the weight and get in better shape during basic training. That’s generally true, assuming you don’t drop from a coronary event or respiratory issues on the drill field.
Perhaps these changes will help the Navy meet its goals this year. Perhaps not. Time will tell. But what sort of force are we putting in the field if the admission standards are this low? The world is currently in turmoil and the Navy is being tasked with significant challenges taking on the Houthis in the Red Sea, with other possible conflicts on the horizon. You really want your best and your brightest to answer the call. For some of the more basic, manual labor ratings you can probably fudge a bit, but for the assignments dealing with weapons control and communications, the military’s technical schools are as difficult as many college courses.
We really need people who are in good physical shape as well. While it’s not nearly as rough as serving in the field with the Army or the Marines, sailors have to stay on station and alert for long periods of time during General Quarters. Reloading the larger weapons systems can be grueling work. The bottom line is that publicly lowering our standards in this fashion sends a bad message to our adversaries. It’s already bad enough that we have a Commander-in-Chief who is neither feared nor respected around the globe at the moment. We’ll be taken even less seriously if Russia, China, and Iran believe our troops are a bunch of uneducated fatties. Something needs to be done to get our enlistment rates back up where they used to be and ensure that high-caliber people are once again willing to serve their country in uniform.
McNamara’s morons.
Why would a white, heterosexual male sign up to fight for a country that despises them?
Even though I am WAY past age & health requirements, maybe I could re-up & get in the Navy. All it takes(apparently) is a lowering of standards & they’ve done that already. I can still lift(maybe 30 lbs.), can’t run, but can walk slow for short distances. I could use the money. Of course this would be ludicrous to even consider, but the Navy must decide whether it is worse to not meet recruiting goals, or to have a helpless group of recruits. First they need physically fit people & then instill in them the proper qualities of serving without going to some goofy set of “woke” rules. No trans people accepted would be a start.
Do you suppose that since we no longer see any positive, patriotic advertisements and news about our military, and much negative publicity plus all the Wounded Warrior stories and the like, plays a big role in poor recruitment??
Why would a white, heterosexual male sign up to fight for a country that despises them?
______________________________________________
Bingo!
Right now the military has made it known that your career path is going to be handicapped unless you're a member of a few preferred minority groups or female. The people that the military has relied upon throughout our history to function are being told that their opportunities will be purposefully limited in favor of others who are less qualified and who do not work as hard as themselves. It isn't illogical for an industrious young person today to choose not to go into work where they know their efforts will not be rewarded, choosing other work with more potential for them.
People don't have to take a job unless they don't have better opportunities. The military has made it clear that they don't want people from what has always been their best performing demographic. The Navy will just have to suck it up and make do with the lower quality recruits they have access to now. They made their bed, lie in it.
To have a job that provides three meals a day, a place to sleep and a salary
Diplomas Aweigh!
I was a navy recruiter in the late 80’s. Asvab scores range from 0 to 99. Anyone scoring 50 would be a pretty good candidate. Over 75 was super! Each person was categorized into categories. A “cat 4” was the lowest we could enlist and their scores were something like 28 to 40. We were limited on how many cat 4 we could enlist and they did not count as a full quota fill. I would enlist people scoring 50 or above all day every day even without a diploma or GED. Scoring 50 or above on the asvab is not like getting a 50 on some high school test. A 50 is the mean score meaning half score above that and half below that...so a 50 is average. The article is misleading in that regard. If they meet moral, medical and pass the reading test I see nothing wrong with enlisting these people.
Press gangs?
Thank you.
I dropped out in ‘87 to work full time. Got my GED a couple years later. Went to boot camp in Dan Diego in ‘93 and served until ‘97 on the USS PELELIU.
SAN Diego.
Making coffee now...
SHEESH!!
When you’re about to go to WWIII you enlist anybody who can fog a mirror.
Makes sense at for our useless public highschools in Democrat voting states. It’s a phony credential.
Also a Navy Recruiter - 89/90 and you’re so right. In fact, It might IMO be a better sailor overall than a 31 RWL (If they didn’t use this term in your district it’s “Rock with Lips”) Over 50 is considered upper mental group. Seems like nothing has changed.
AT 58 I’m pretty darn sure I could pass all the entry requirements except age and get through boot camp, physically, just fine. What I couldn’t put up with is what they’ve done to my Navy.
C’mon man... I joined in 1988. I was seventeen and a high school dropout. No diploma and no GED. I had an AQFT of 69, which qualified me for service and just about any job I wanted with exception of the nuclear ratings. I retired twenty years later with a Masters of Business Management. Off topic, during that same time period I knew several kids in Colorado who purposely dropped out of high school and got their GEDs so they could go to college a year early! That loophole was closed in Colorado in the mid-nineties.
If you can click your heels together, or you just wear heels, you’re in.
You shouldn’t out shine or out smart the Commander in Chief.
The US Navy website still says that a high school diploma or GED are required in order to join. The exception is that if someone is still in high school, they can complete the paperwork before they get their diploma.
https://static.navy.com/joining/requirements/
https://www.navy.com/sites/default/files/2021-10/united-states-navy-how-you-can-join-brochure.pdf
So, if there has been any change in requirements to join the Navy, it does not reflect on their website. So far, only blogs have said that the high school graduation requirement has been dropped.
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