Army to train up recruits – to become recruits

In a time when the Army in particular is having problems meeting its recruiting goals, one of the biggest reasons is that too many recruits just fail to meet minimum weight and educational standards. America’s obesity problem hits the younger folks, too, and while the popular perception of “bring ’em in, we’ll sweat it off ’em” isn’t accurate and hasn’t been for many, many years. Do we need to go into the train wreck our schools have become and the, shall we say, less than optimally educated socially promoted kids it spits out? One of the results is that the Army is looking at missing recruitment goals by 10% and fall 31,000 soldiers short of its ideal strength by year-end.

The Army sees no need to waste some of the kids on the bubble, and is establishing two courses to remedy them.

Applicants who score between 21 to 30 on the AFQT — placing them in the upper portion of the Category IV recruits, who can only make up 4% of each recruitment cohort — can participate in the academic improvement course to improve their score to Category IIIB. Applicants in that category who score between 42 to 49 can “voluntarily participate” to move up to Category IIIA and improve their job selections. Participants will retest every three weeks.

Potential recruits who enlist with 2% to 6% more body fat than the military standard for their gender and age can participate in the fitness course. Troops on this track will aim to lose 1 to 2% body fat per month, Fort Jackson post commander Brig. Gen. Patrick Michaelis told Army Times. Recruits can leave the prep course once they are within 2% of the military standard for their gender and age.

The participants will be at the course on delayed training contracts, and those who still do not meet standards will be cut via entry level separation, allowing them to rejoin in six months if they can meet standards. Recruits can only attend the preparatory course once and can only go to one of the courses — meaning if they fail both the body fat standards and the AFQT, they cannot enlist.

The programs are estimated to cost about $4 million over the next year, and the Army says it has already identified 2,000 recruits who may participate in one of the courses.

Military Times via Business Insider

This may address about 20% of the recruiting shortfall.

The service has scrambled in recent months to make whatever simpler changes to recruiting rules it can to help at the margins, including relaxing its tattoo policy, offering historically high enlistment bonuses of up to $50,000, and allowing recruits to pick their first duty station of choice, with limitations. The service also briefly allowed applicants to enlist without a high school diploma, but that effort was scrubbed after only a week due to backlash over a perceived lowering of standards.

Hat tip to Jeff LPH

Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Army