Army reports drops in test scores, qualifications
The Army reports a rise in ASVAB test failures, from 10 to 13% (in panic-speak that’s a 30% increase!!!) among high school grads. Coupled with obesity, and drug use the Army is disqualifying 70% of applicants. That’s up from 30-40% pre-Covid. Let’s just say “almost doubled”.
Each year an estimated 110,000 individuals meet recruiters with an interest in joining the Army, he said. That number hasn’t changed substantially. What has changed is the disqualification rates, he said.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, between 30% and 40% of those interested in joining were disqualified for service for several reasons. Since COVID, that rate has increased to nearly 70% in the first 48 hours of screening, he said.
Obesity, drug use and poor academics drove most of the disqualifications, he said. Drug use is a growing concern.
Fewer Americans have a relative in the military or live near a base. And younger Americans rely on their peers and their own news sources to learn.
“Name your platform, the Army’s not there and the things being said about the Army are not positive at all,” Hendrex said.
Possibly counterintuitive, but the trusted source remains a young person’s parents, research shows. But, like most of America, Hendrex said, many parents only know the negatives about military service — post-9/11 war drain, amputations, Traumatic Brain Injury, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and ongoing reports of sexual assault.
She said that parental support for military service dropped dramatically, more so for parents than soldiers themselves, on the Joint Advertising Market Research and Studies, a Pentagon report that surveys personnel.
Maj. Gen. Johnny Davis is transferring from heading Cadet Command to take over Army Recruiting Command in the coming week.
Davis, on the panel, posed his own, early question: is six weeks of recruiter training enough and are they covering the right areas, the right skills?
Obviously the “only say negative” media is largely responsible… but to me it also looks like the Army needs to reduce its bad image side (want to live in moldy barracks? I sure wouldn’t. And I went to school in WWII classrooms!) Plus it looks like the Army is busy advertising where potential recruits aren’t, and ignoring where they are.
I do note recruiters are being blamed (as always). Guess you guys just don’t work enough. (See: scapegoating) And for those placing bets, the recruit in the picture is male.
Is that recruit a male? Or is it that the recruit IDENTIFIES as male?
It’s that wokism crap that prevents me from recommending to anyone that they consider serving. After having spent 30 years in the Marines – a career that I dearly loved and often miss – I recognize the ruin that has befallen the service over the last 13 years.
And for perspective, I served with Gen Milley in Afghanistan in 2008-2009 when he was DCS-O for CJTF-101 and I was assigned as an individual augmentee to the JOC at Bagram. I was proud when he was appointed as CJCS; I’m only disappointed now.
“Father enlists son at same Japan post where he joined Army”
https://www.army.mil/article/259989/father_enlists_son_at_same_japan_post_where_he_joined_army
I used to have hair like that and I’m Irish.
It was after I got out though back in the early seventies.
Had a great career in the military industrial complex.
Now retired and bald as an egg. Still Irish though.
If he reports with all the hair, he might end up being nicknamed “Gossamer. ” 😀
My father wouldn’t let me have hair like that (my mother neither, for that matter). WTF?
You gotta remember that at the heart of it, officers are political appointees. They have to play the political game, or they will not go far. We were less afflicted by that nonsense in the Corps, but it was still there.
If that recruit gets in, the barber will have to take a vacay after shaving his head!
Religious exception.
“Father enlists son at same Japan post where he joined Army”
https://www.army.mil/article/259989/father_enlists_son_at_same_japan_post_where_he_joined_army
“He will also soon weigh a bit lighter when he cuts off his impressive afro hairdo he began growing during the pandemic, which he plans to donate to a local charity.”
“I’m not sad I have to shave it off, but it will be unfortunate to see my bald head,” he said, smiling. “My head is going to look so small.”
He couldnt go to the barber because of covidiacy
Grows out hair for charity. (Usually wigs for kids on chemotherapy)
Brilliant. Like. Glad we got that one signed up.
…
Me, I went rebel and found a bootleg barber defying covidiacy.
“Army’s Top General Vows Not to Lower Recruiting Standards Despite Trouble Finding New Soldiers”
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/07/28/armys-top-general-vows-not-lower-recruiting-standards-despite-trouble-finding-new-soldiers.html
“The Army’s top general is vowing not to lower the service’s standards despite a recruiting crisis reaching a head with a shrinking pool of young Amercans eligible to serve and difficulty enticing new soldiers.”
“What I don’t want to do, and we’ve done this historically, is lower standards and convince ourselves that’s the right thing to do,” Gen. James McConville, the Army’s chief of staff, told reporters Thursday. “We’re not going to achieve squat.”
“Quality is more important than quantity,” McConville.”
Good luck with that 😂
Yep.
“Army Secretary Blames Bad Press for Making Recruiting Woes Worse”
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/09/14/army-secretary-blames-bad-press-making-recruiting-woes-worse.html
“Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth blamed negative media coverage about the service for exacerbating its recruiting slump, including stories about mental health issues some soldiers face and seemingly rampant sexual assault across the entire military.”
“For parents and influencers, there are concerns over psychological harm,” Wormuth, the Army’s top civilian, told soldiers at a conference Tuesday, adding that the coverage of those issues is creating a warped perception of the service. “Parents see headlines about suicides and sexual harassment and assault in the military.”
She is not wrong but she also fails to mention people would rather do other things than join the “woke” Army.
“Name your platform, the Army’s not there and the things being said about the Army are not positive at all.”
Not just the Army, sports fans! I have nothing good to say about ANY of the branches, anymore. And I wouldn’t recommend serving in any of them to anyone who is not already a “woke” SJW.
The REST Of The Story Behind The Picture Of The Recruit In The Photo.
Please…Never Judge A Book By It’s Cover.
The name of the Recruit is Ke’Shaun Joell, a US Army Military Dependent living with HIS parents at Camp Zama, Japan.
KUDOs to HIM. At least HE volunteered to serve our Country. We know many his age who do not want to join and serve our country.
He ships off to Fort Jackson for Basic Training in October with the goal of being a Financial Management Technician.
BTW…His Father is a CW2 at Camp Zama with the 35th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion. His Grandfather served at Camp Zama as a First Sergeant for USARJ.
“Father Enlists Son At Same Japan Post Where He Joined Army”
https://www.army.mil/article/259989/father_enlists_son_at_same_japan_post_where_he_joined_army
“While in the Army, he plans to use tuition assistance to tackle college courses and certifications to help him get an entry-level job in the financial sector after the military.”
He wants to join and he has a plan, good for him. He is at least one step ahead of the rest of his generation.
👏👏👏👏👍👍👍👍
Yeah, no. I was a recruiting company commander for two years. The dud rate of screened applicants has been at least 60-70% since the mid 90s. A 13% fail rate on the ASVAB isn’t that bad. Some of the larger cities (looking at you Houston, Chicago, New Orleans) can’t even get to a 50% pass rate.
Drug use has picked up so that is a thing but mostly it is going to be other physical. Fat, over Medicated (ADHD), Asthma, tattoos and a host of other issues knock out about 40% right off the top.
Okay, if the factors cited by the Army aren’t that far off the statistical norms, based on your insider’s experience, does that mean the cultural factors cited by many here at TAH are having as great an influence as we seem to think? And is DoA obfuscating about those reasons because it is politically inadvisable in this current administration?
Seeing the father son story above makes ol’ Poe wonder if there is a steep decline in enlistments coming from such families. What percentage of new enlistees come from families with stronger military ties, families that may now be discouraging such service because of the conservative, negative messaging so many of them are exposed to?
As a recruiting company commander, you had access to the inside numbers and probably spent an inordinate amount of time analyzing them. Do you think wokeism having as much of a dampening effect as many of us think it is?
I encouraged my son to enlist and he did, he seems to have no regrets about it. I’m not sure wokeism is a huge factor. For them COVID was the over riding concern through training that killed all the fun and made everything extra painful, and given the population of recruits, needlessly so.
The current political leader… probably. I enlisted under Reagen and there was more of a sense of being a part of something greater than yourself in those days. There is no leader at a national level that inspires or motivates or encourages service. It’s all about handouts, blaming others for their own problems, doing their best to avoid responsibility for anything, and poor little old “me”. Couple that with flagrant abuse of power at the executive level, a leadership that throws their protectors under the bus at every opportunity and so the perception is that the hill isn’t worth the climb.
Just keep in mind, there are only 7 motivations for JOINING the military but unlimited motivations NOT TO
Parents taking their kids to a shrink and having them medicated out the butt… hello permanently disqualified (PDQ).
BTW…
The Constitution of the United States was signed 235 years ago today.
We The People….
Leftists are still upset. Silly Leftists.
Joining the Army would be actual work and it’s hard. Why join when you can get everything for free as long as you vote for certain people who will promise you free stuff?
Yes, being a member of the Free Shit Army (FSA) is much more appealing to these 18 to 35-year-olds.
Not specifically us, but our generation parented these kids. A lot of parents didn’t do their job.
The way things are being done in ALL the branches these days I don’t recommend anyone serve anymore.
Until we get rid of the top brass that insist upon using the military as a testing ground for social engineering rather than what it is intended for; defending the sovereignty of the nation and the Constitution through the use of violence, and other non-politically correct means.
I remember McNamara’s hundred thousand. We had one in the stockade. Not a prisoner- an MP! A real dud. (This was after we were told MPs were all OCS qualified). I heard many of the hundred thousand also wound up in the stockade- as prisoners.
My PSG in 1989 was a proud member of McNamara’s experiment. Stupidest, most useless human being I ever encountered.
I had no idea any of them were allowed to stay in as careerists.
I had one of McNamara’s Morons as a Platoon Sgt in the Corps. I think they let him stay in out of pity. They knew he wasn’t even qualified to be the night shift janitor at a Waffle House.
Be all you can be- be the minimum standard!
Who WOULDN’T want to join the Army? I mean, you’ve got the senior enlisted advisor to the Chief of Staff of the Army pushing food stamps on service members. WHAT A DEAL
https://www.foxnews.com/us/army-suggests-food-stamps-soldiers-battling-inflation.amp
I served for over 30 years and I would not recommend my worst enemy to join. Combat Training takes a backseat to pronoun choices, worn out equipment, enlisting non-deployable recruits (transgenders), and a CinC who could care less how many servicemembers die (Afghanistan) if he can score points; all make me tell young people to run like hell away from the military. Not in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would say that even 5 years ago, but now, I don’t want to feel responsible if some kid gets killed and I was the one who recommended they enlist.
Why would anyone with options join this shit show? Seriously between the Afghanistan and Iraq debacles, horrible leadership, political and military, and now a woke indoctrination with gender neutral, leftist agenda , what are they offering? Apparently food stamps, and the possibility of going to war unprepared and then promptly disregarded when our leadership class gets bored. The quality of recruits is going to plummet and without a draft they will have to deal with it like they always do, they’ll just lie.
Looks at picture of CinC.
Looks at the disastrous bug out from Afghanistan.
Plays recent speeches.
Points to “The Red Brandon” pic.
….
Why is anyone surprised recruitment is way down?
[…] This ain’t Hell… covers the Army seeing a big drop in qualification and test scores […]
The Pirates Cove
Vets have a much higher rates of divorce and suicide. They enter the job market 4 years behind many with mental issues from PTSD
Here we go again… 🚨
I was actually in that briefing, along with several hundred infantry, armor and cavalry officers and NCOs. None of the panel mentioned the elephant in the room which is that the likelihood of veterans to recommend service has continued to drop. But they are all telling us to get out and talk up the army. Fortunately everybody recognizes sending old timers like me out doesn’t work because the young don’t relate to us.
The Army brought a lot of this issue on themselves.
Just saying.
My supply of shocked faces is as barren as my field of phuques.
“But, like most of America, Hendrex said, many parents only know the negatives about military service — post-9/11 war drain, amputations, Traumatic Brain Injury, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and ongoing reports of sexual assault.”
Forgot to mention the white-hating racism.