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Army suspends need for high school diploma or GED
As the recruiting crisis across the entire military continues to concern leadership, the Army has suspended the need for recruits to have earned a high school diploma or GED certificate. This is only the latest in a list of dramatic steps the branch has taken during the most challenging recruiting year since the inception of the all volunteer force.
Last week, in a desperate attempt to not fail too hard, the Army announced that they will be accepting recruits who would otherwise fail to meet the branch’s standard education requirements. The only caveat to this is they have to ship off to basic training by October 1st — the end of the fiscal year.
These recruits without a high school diploma must be 18 however and must also score a 50 on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery — or ASVAB — which is still relatively low, but exceeds the minimum score of 31 required to enter the service without a waiver.
This temporary abandonment of a standard once believed to be necessary for the preservation of a qualified force follows other historic moves such as record $50,000 singing bonuses, and unprecedented reduced restrictions on head, neck, and hand tattoos.
At the half way point through the Army’s fiscal year, the branch only hit 23% of its annual recruiting goals. Now, about three quarters of the way through, it’s only at 40% of its goal. In addition to reducing standards and minimum requirements for entry, the Department of Defense also planned to reduce its size.
The recruiting crisis is the result of a perfect storm of factors, some internal, some external.
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Externally, the military is challenged by a society of military aged citizens who are overwhelmingly underqualified for service coupled with low unemployment and a competitive civilian job market.
Internally, the military faces perhaps its worst public image since the Vietnam war. Suicide, sexual assault, abuse, and other gross deviations from acceptable behavior appear to be rampant and are being reported feverishly on social media by active duty troops and veterans.
