Recruiting goals look to be met, Army expanding BCT
Seems the Future Soldier Prep program is successful; so much so that the Army is adding Basic Training units at both Ft. Leonard Wood and Ft. Sill to cope with the improved numbers.
Driving the growth is the successful Future Soldier Prep Course, which was created at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, in August 2022 as a new way to bolster enlistments. That program gives lower-performing recruits up to 90 days of academic or fitness instruction to help them meet military standards and move on to basic training.
Created two years ago, the program has been cited as a key reason Army leaders expect that this fall they will reverse several years of recruiting shortfalls.
Last year recruiting goals were unmet, with a bout 50,000 recruits to fill a 65,000 troop goal.
The Army has 151 training companies overall that work with recruits at Fort Jackson and Fort Moore, Georgia, in addition to the 15 training companies assigned to the prep course. Army leaders have expanded the prep course, which is expected to bring in nearly 20,000 recruits this budget year and that total is expected to spike in 2025.
Yowzahs… a little simple math says almost a third of recruits will have to come through the program.
Unemployment has been low, corporate jobs pay well and offer good benefits, and, according to estimates, just 23% of people age 17 to 24 are physically, mentally and morally qualified to serve without receiving some type of waiver. Moral behavior issues include drug use, gang ties or a criminal record.
Brig. Gen. Jenn Walkawicz, head of operations for the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command, said there will be two new training companies at Fort Sill in Oklahoma and two at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri.
She added that Fort Sill and Fort Leonard Wood have the infrastructure, the barracks and the room to accommodate the new units and could take more if needed. The costs of the program are limited because the Army already had the equipment and rooms required, but there will be maintenance, food, staffing and other costs. AP
Basic at Ft. Leonard Wood…a rite of passage for many. I had doubts about the Future Prep program when they announced it, but if it’s helping candidates to meet the standards, I will happily munch on my allotted portion of crow and toast its apparent success.
I still have doubts about the Future Prep program.
Yes, it initially sounds good, with education and physical fitness. I’m all for helping people to improve themselves.
But let’s follow some groups of these less-than-stellar recruits and see how long they last, and how they perform while in.
Measure ROI and bang-for-the-buck.
In the end, I, too, may be eating crow. Old Crow, out of a bottle.
As a Signal guy I used to belong to the Association of Old Crows.
What? Old Crows. Used as messenger pigeons? (LOL!)
Radar/Microwave group.
Military industrial complex.
The Crow is a symbol of electronic countermeasures
due to their ability to “squak” fake calls etc.
Check your legs. See which one is longer. That’s the one I was pulling.
And is that association only for Navy?
I wasn’t in countermeasures, but I was in MultiChannel Microwave (35M) for a short stint.
All defense services are welcome.
It goes back to the 50’s, 60’s research
companies such as Mitre, Raytheon etc.
It’s not service specific, my dad was USAF. EW/ECM.
My dad was a member, I have a set of old crow cuff links and a tie clasp.
When Hack Stone attended the Staff NCO Academy at El Toro, they had a “boost program” for the academically challenged students, providing evening study sessions. There was zero slack time during that course, your off time was used to prepare for what you learned, putting together your PME class that you were required to present, and studying for the upcoming tests. Some of these guys squeaked by in the initial enlistment with a minimum ASVAB score, and to be honest, they haven’t gotten any smarter in the ensuing years. After completing the course, Hack Stone had a conversation with the Battalion Sergeant Major about this, and suggested that the Marine Corps adopt a program that at each reenlistment, the Marine takes an ASVAB, where they have to attain a higher minimum score in the grading areas. At the first reenlistment, if they do not reach those scores, give them a conditional two year reenlistment, then retest. If they still don’t reach the higher scores, time to part ways. No sense in keeping them in where they block more capable Marines from promotion due to their time in grade, and they will never make it past Staff Sergeant. And it is quite embarrassing when a functioning illiterate is giving you orders using words that do not exist in the English language. (“Lacksydaisy” comes to mind.)
I often wondered how CMSgt’s and Colonels could give their favorite speech, “Today’s troops are better educated than the troops that came in before” with a straight face. I swelled with pride when I heard the speech as an E-1; I checked my knuckles for drag marks when I made E-7.
Had one company gunny once send out an email advising “It would ‘be who of you’ to be at the hail and farewell.”
That dude was an absolute dumbass.
When we were being prepared for guard duty at Edson Range when I was in Boot Camp we had an MP Sergeant tell us that if anyone were to come into our area at night we were to say; “Sir; you IS in a restrict area, an you muss leave!”
I often wonder how many of the white recruits followed that order to the letter…
I am a little confused. Last year the Army brought in 50k. This year will be 55k. Yet the program is credited with 20k of that. The program is for low quality recruits who would otherwise be unable to serve. So what they are saying is they are taking a major overall dip in quality, 36% to get 10% more recruits.
And that is a success story?
Cannon fodder, or more likely now, drone fodder, doesn’t have to be the same quality as what would be needed if we were actually going into a war to win it. Systems are getting more complicated and the potential systems operators are of a lower quality. That ought to work out real well, huh. /s/
I just gave my DD-214 another hug.
Funny, I went into iPERMS (the Army’s online record system) the other day and smiled when I saw my DD-214. Nothing else has been uploaded in the past 1.5 years, but shortly after retirement, they did upload an ARCOM and my retirement MSM.
I don’t watch much footage of Ukraine v. Russia or other conflicts, but the drone strikes are indeed scary. “My war” was fortunately a series of force-on-force battles with the closest thing to a near-peer we’ve fought in my lifetime. Granted, much of the Iraqi Army ran, but there were some Republican Guard and Fedayeen who stood against us. Later in 2003, when we started encountering IEDs as opposed to the UXO we’d been warned about earlier in the deployment, the game changed. By 2013, when I was a bona fide Fobbit getting a block of instruction on IEDs, and how the enemy had mastered placing them at the exact height to take out turret gunners, I was kind of glad that my Infantry days were over. When one of our patrols got blown up by a donkey-borne IED, that only reinforced my appreciation of my position.
So, all of that to get to this: drones are effective, but not something I want to face on the battlefield. I rather enjoyed my time of conventional warfare with small arms and indirect fire. Mid-career, the indirect was the biggest threat, but a rocket’s going to hit where it’s going to hit. No need to run all panicky to the bunker like many did. Drones are scary in that, even in my prime as a young and motivated SAW Gunner in a squad full of outstanding Soldiers, an unseen and unpredictable weapons system can simply drop out of the sky and take us all out with no time for us to react. Special Forces? Doesn’t matter. Modern day McNamara’s Misfit? Doesn’t matter. Posthumous Purple Heart, maybe a Bronze Star, and the first time you get to wear your CIB/CAB is at your funeral, if there’s enough left to put in a uniform.
A sad comment: “…just 23% of people age 17 to 24 are physically, mentally and morally qualified to serve without receiving some type of waiver.”
It’s been that way for decades. The pass rate on the test is only about 55%, the physical is about 50%, moral waiver (drugs mostly) has shot way up in recent years so I’m not sure about that but probably around 15%. Felony/ DV convictions are about 9% of the population. A two time drug failure isn’t going to get in. Then you have the prior service applicant screw ups who want back in but aren’t going to because of their previous dick step.
While some of those winners have multiple points of failure, it works out to 20-25% of the population eligible to serve. Of that population about 1% are currently serving or retired from the military (although the army doesn’t currently take initial entry over age 35, some of the other services do).
Keep in mind anyone that is fully qualified likely has the most options in life as they are physically well, have at least a HS diploma, are going to be more intelligent than half the population, don’t use drugs and have no criminal record.
Those are pretty sad numbers.
What’s even more sad is that I feel I could pass the test
including the physical and do Basic all over again.
But they would have to re open Ft. Dix first.
In the name of DEI, Kumala will rename it Fort Chixwith-Dix
Drugs are a problem. Weed is legal is many states, so a number of high schoolers/young adults use it regularly only to find it can DQ them from service. It used to be just fringe elements would glorify drug use like Cheech & Chong, but main stream/prime entertainment shows people using with no consequences.
I think the consensus of many people is that military service is done by ‘someone’ else. They don’t think about it and it just gets done.
Yeah it is done by someone else. Someone a lot better than they are.
Weed has been legal across the board since 2018. I’ve heard from friends now working at various schools, that alcohol related offenses(DUI, fighting, Dom V) are way down from pre-2018 and canteen snack sales have never been…umm …higher 😉 Not like you even have to smoke it anymore. Edibles and drinks are available.
It will certainly prevent young troops from falling into alcoholism as it has greatly reduced the usual dumb, drunk mistakes.
No word if it has lessened the number of stripper marriages.
I wonder, does time spent in the Future Soldier Prep Course count towards the first enlistment? Does it count toward time in service for promotion? Does it count toward VA benefit eligibility? Is this time paid? If all the above are true, then it’s really just an extra (up to) 90 days tacked onto basic training.
The time from when you contract till you report to basic counts as IRR time. This really only helps if you do your contract and get out. It will shorten your callback time in the case of a call up. Otherwise it does nothing. Note that you can still get promoted during this time if you meet the qualifications, such as finding an enlistment. This can be a nice pay boost to say up to E3 or even E4 if you earn a degree.
Well good for Big Army, maybe something good will come out of the Prep Course long term.
The SpaceChairForce family is battling with recruitment medical challenges for our eldest son at the moment. I think this is partially related to the military recruitment “mental” challenges Big Army (likely all the services) are dealing with concerning the current generation of young people – well meaning doctors over diagnosing & prescribing ADHD & ADD medications. Since my son got one blurb in his records about possible ADHD behavioral issues in school & prescribed a medication he never took (mom & dad were like “WTF” & we switched his kid doctor) – active duty ChairForce recruiters balked & started saying all kinds of waivers were needed. Then even stopped talking to him or returning his calls. Luckily we knew some great Air Guard folks & now the Air Guard is working with him, down to one simplified medical waiver & we think he’ll make it in. Because he wants to serve like his old man; really wanted to travel & see the world but the Air Guard team he’s working with does that without the active duty signup so a big win to live locally but still serve. This despite his old man being gone to the sandbox all the time during his kid years which likely contributed to his behavior “act ups” later on… I’m not going to win any “Dad of the Year” contest but such was GWOT.
All these doctors “over” diagnosing & prescribing drugs for what we elders types would call typical teenage actions – ooh boy I had those issues before I signed up for the Cold War ChairForce – is certainly not helping the pool of available recruits.
I hope someone spends some time crunching the data on the overuse of those ADHD & ADD drugs on kids of this period – might point out that we created some of these current “zombies” ourselves. Ugh…
Any admission of “guilt” when it comes to medical stuff is going to require hoops to jump through. One of my favorites was when a motivated young person would tell us that they had asthma as a baby. “Was it documented?” “No.” “How do you know you had it?” “My mom told me I wheezed when I was 2 months old.” “Well, we’re going to need medical records showing that this is no longer a condition affecting you.” Usually, it wouldn’t be us at the Recruiter level, but rather the Counselors at MEPS that would get these confessions, making the entire process leading up to their disqualification a waste of time.
Some Recruiters are less than honest and will lead non-qualified Applicants on for months while waiting for categories to open. I spent over two years waiting on a blood pressure waiver to be approved by the Virginia Army National Guard, which I’m pretty certain had never been submitted. I scored well on the ASVAB but had a GED, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I’d have magically been enlisted when GEDs were acceptable. 9/11 solved that problem, as the ARNG Recruiters were on Defense Supply Center Richmond, which was locked down like every other installation, while an Army recruiting station was only a mile or so from me. Later, as a Recruiter myself, I encountered a number of young people who I thought were in the Louisiana Army National Guard, only to find out later that they had low ASVAB scores or other issues and were being baited along as backups to make numbers when categories opened up in the last few months of the fiscal year.
As a recruiting company commander I had van loads laid on for the end of the quarter and year. We also had the option of three MEPS to use and would always use the one that was most likely to pass a particular problem.
When I joined a had a huge scar on my knee from knee surgery and injury when I was five. They wanted medical records from 15 years earlier at Ft. Belvior. I don’t know if that ever happened or not but I did get in on the second time.
I gotta admit I’ve tried to stay out of his whole recruitment process to avoid “inappropriate command influence” pushing him to one job or another. Although did mention the “post employment” benefits of the military-industrial complex and staying employable by not screwing around.
So when the MEPS medical issue hit I was annoyed and confused – why the *&%# didn’t the recruiter say such & such waiver would be needed day one or it might even be an issue? Made me feel like he hadn’t properly prepped us which left me doubting his skills. Come to find out from our Air Guard friends that this active duty recruiter isn’t “high speed, low drag”; but it’s our win as I think the kid will like the Air Guard unit better – awesome people I’ve found so far.
His roommate at MEPS is already at basic, couldn’t remember if he was going Army or Marines, but was a solid kid & I’ll pray he makes it. Both did comment though there was a significant amount of their fellow MEPS attendees that cycle that didn’t seem “high speed, low drag” on the mental level. Which really gave me pause…
As some have mentioned, did we really lower the standards that far?
I was DA selected RA recruiter in New Jersey from ‘82 to ‘85. Processed all types of waivers for medical, moral, etc. that would probably be considered mild in today’s recruitment environment. I always appreciated it when applicants would admit to smoking weed (even though they were as straight laced as the come) or getting busted for something, just to fit in with their new found friends at the MEPS… they got an earful from me during the 60 minute ride back to their. Easy waiver, but a pain in the arse if the person lived, worked, or went to school all over the place! Speaking of traveling all over the place… I had one applicant that needed a moral waiver for trespassing. After driving all over the state and hell’s half acre running police checks, I arrived at the last town on my list. I had been driving all day and I was beat. I handed the police check card to the little old lady in tennis shoes (she probably wasn’t too old, but I was a 26 year old SSGand she headed to the file room to look this guy up (paper files). She came out with a smirk on her face just laughing her arse off. I asked her what was so funny… she said “well sergeant, this is one you’re not going to get!” She hands me the police check, and watched as I read it. It was late in the afternoon and most of the employees were gone for the day. I sighed, took a deep breath with a serious look on my face, paused and the let out an obnoxious and loud belly laugh… The clerk looked puzzled and ask me “what’s so funny?” I paused, and then slapped my hand on the countertop with a loud bang, and told her in a snarky tone, “it’s just fricking hilarious that I won’t be able put this yardbird in my Army, around my wife and children. This knucklehead is staying right here in your community where he belongs!” She wasn’t very happy about what and… Read more »
So is this program like pre-boot camp before boot camp then?
That would be the future soldier program, that is the pool of DEPs after contract. This is the future soldier prep program. This just gets them to where they can pass the test or get a GED to join.
Hopefully recruiters are not doing recruiter things and using it as a chance to find someone else to take the test for them, not that anyone would do that. They told me in 2005 that it was impossible to do that but I found out it was quite possible.
“We need someone to help catch cheaters. You will go to the test as someone else, Myron Q Schmudlapp. Try hard to get away with it. Here is how….”
Yeah, no thanks there ‘Sarge’.
Here’s my take: lackluster individuals are going to become lackluster Soldiers, with some exceptions. The Future Soldier Prep (FSP) program might generate enlistments, but how many will complete their first term? Temporary recruitment numbers won’t necessarily lead to long-term retention numbers. While it’ll be good that we get immediate junior enlisted, what happens when a large number of those junior enlisted get separated during their first term, or decide that they’ve accomplished more than they ever thought possible and exit once their contract is complete? The NCO Corps will eventually experience the fallout of this experiment, as junior NCO ranks will be filled with the detritus of FSP enlistees who’ve managed to both stay in and put up with the nonsense that goes along with military service these days. Granted, not every SGT and SSG will be a thick brick, but these days it’s not unexpected to see SSG LaToya standing 5 feet tall and weighing 250 lbs. handing out an “Army Accommodation Medal” for “mandatorious service”.
“detritus”
I learned a new word today.
My thinking exactly (see top comment above).
But at oh-dark-too-damn-early pre-caffeine, the brain synapses weren’t fully fired up enough to express what you just did.
Thanks.
If the problem is couch potato recruits, versus previous farm kids, it should work. Provide the physical side they never had, establish the habits, and they might just do well.
Saw plenty of “not raised right” suddenly discover self discipline and succeeding, and run with it. “Wow. Wish I had learned this at five.”
I was -so- skinny, and barely passed push-ups out of OSUT. Legs like small trees run near max, but no chest. But folks stayed with me and taught me how to get what I could, so I wasn’t a PT stud, but did well enough to get some compliments.
If all they get is honest motivation, and leaders who lead by example, this can work. If things are back to mid 70s “me, my ass, my career”, then legions of stud recruits will fail.
Yeah. Gotta clean house above O-5. Pronto. And likely above E-6.
Gah.
Lemme think … when I was a tech school instructor, my favorite students were the ones I had to tell which thing was a wrench, a screwdriver, and a hammer. (As long as they were honest about it and didn’t tell my daddy stories of how he had taught them to rebuild crawler tractors before they started 1st grade). These know nothing students didn’t bring the throbbing headaches the know-it-alls brought. I suppose it was the know nothing recruits’ attitudes, the honest desire to improve and succeed, that makes me think of them as having been a pleasure to work with. Of course, that does not include the students who were dumber than dish soap and liked it that way. I had no regrets, after trying everything to get them up to speed, taking them to the Group Commander to plead the case they be discharged.
“Mandatorious…”. That’s fuggin funny because I’ve heard it repeated that way.
Embarrassing as well
worser, mandantory, turrent, linelight, irregardless, … were bad enough when the CMSgt said them; they were painful when he put them in writing.
I rewrote a whole bunch of handwritten award recommendations. Some of those folks might as well have used a crayon. Call them up ” … tell me what Schmudlapp did, like a bar story.” It then flew. What was written would not.
Active voice and interesting story goes far.
…
At the request of a very senior and sneaky SFC, managed to get a duplicate AAM certificate for a retiring SFC with one added line of text.
After the mandatory “and reflects great credit….yada…” some clerk added “He is an outstanding Fuckhead.”
Signed by the battalion commander.
Delivered.
(Grin)
SFC T, miss you.
I stole that from a fellow Recruiter years ago. I think he played things up, as he had been on the University of Miami football team and liked to self-depreciate (he was maybe 5’9″ but was jacked as hell, so he liked to say he was too small for the team and act like he was undereducated). He was also our “ghetto” Recruiter, working extremely well in the inner-city schools and supposedly having a questionable background himself that made him more relatable. Anyway, he was an E-5 in the Quartermaster Corps whose promotion points were sky-high, so he was busting his ass to get a meritorious promotion to E-6. He’d constantly ask our Station Commander how many more contracts he needed to get his “‘mandatorious promotion”. He eventually got it, converted to full-time Recruiter and made E-7, and recently retired. Just one reason I maintain my Book of the Face account despite rarely posting on it. Oh, and while I work on my finger strength making lengthy posts, that guy, a former company commander who retired as an LTC, and a bunch of other former peers and seniors remind me that if I get off my ass, I too might be able to gain some physicality. I’m lazy, stuff hurts, and it’s a lot of work, but some of those guys I used to know are in their 40s and 50s and looking like residents of Mount Olympus if Crossfit was popular back in the day.
Does anybody but me remember Ft. Polk. It’s where draftees were abused to see if they were fit for Tiger Land Advanced Infantry Training. And Warrant Officers wannabe pilots wrung out to see if they could take the stress of combat flying.
Lower the numbers and recruitment was met.
Lower the standard and the standard is met.
We used to have a ‘ Fat Camp ‘ for recruits who couldn’t pass fitness standards and it worked quite well.
Sure, there were plenty who gained it back but just as many who became heath and fitness oriented.
If they need extra help with fitness, they are still a good investment IMHO.
However, if they are dumb as rocks…not much to work with there.
Also known as The Donut Brigade or The Pork Chop Platoon.
We had the Spartan Performance Triad in 2nd BDE, 3ID. I lucked out, having come down on Drill Sergeant orders and self-motivating to drop some weight and get in shape just months earlier. Long story short, we got a new BDE CSM in from Delta Force, who despised Regular Army Soldiers. Maybe that sounds too harsh, but he didn’t like being responsible for a brigade full of variously sized and shaped Soldiers when he was used to being with some of the most elite Soldiers we have to offer. Such is Special Operations, though, the community is small enough that you have to sometimes branch out if you want the promotion (like CSM Hardy moving from 75th RGR to the 101st for a couple of years while waiting for a CSM position to open with the former). So, the Triad: fuel, activity, rest. The CSM ran it up the chain, the Division CG blessed off on it, and everyone in the brigade who failed height/weight or didn’t meet a threshold for PT scores was sent to Camp Oliver. Camp Oliver was where 1/75th Ranger was originally stationed (and there’s an early 1970’s Rakkasan etching in the concrete because, well, Rakkasan is gonna Rakkasan), and it’s on the outskirts of the Fort Stewart training area. Cell phone service is problematic, there’s little in the way of climate control, and while there is a DFAC, it’s like any other training facility in that it’s barebones and requires the training unit to provide food and personnel to run it.
From what I heard, the Soldiers, ranging from junior enlisted to field grade officers, went out there for three weeks, where they were supposed to have their diet, exercise and sleep schedules monitored. Food was in short supply, sleep was a bit hot or miss due to the heat, and exercise was about 2 hours a day regardless of individual needs or abilities (medical profiles, etc.).
USAF had the “Baby Whale” program at Lackland in the late 60s, early 70s. That was my father’s last station before retirement and I routinely went on base the summer of ’70 and saw the baby whale flight a number of times. There were limits, but some of them were just a bit fluffy and filled some rather large jeans quite well. Drugs and crime would still keep you out, but fat was something they could help.
Fat camp meets McNamara’s Morons. And at a slightly increased cost. Good to see that all-volunteer concept working out so well and those higher standards maintained.