If you didn’t already know, the US military has been struggling for the last few years. Well, decades, really. Basically, they are struggling to recruit enough able-bodied and intellectual individuals to even hit their recruitment quotas, let alone create a strong military force.
So what is one branch doing? Well, they are lowering their recruitment standards – again.
To be clear, by lowering standards, I do not mean lowering the amount of people they think they can get to sign up. Instead, they are lowering the standard on the kind of people they are signing up.
As you likely know, every branch has a certain ‘standard’ they need recruits to at least meet. You must be able to pass their physical exam, must score so much on the Armed Services Qualification Test, and must have at least a high school diploma or GED.
In 2022, after several years of not being able to hit their recruitment targets, a number of US military branches lowered these standards, mainly by lowering the required score of the ASVAB. The Air Force, for example, only requires a 65 or higher on the qualification test.
The Navy lowered their required score, too, to 50 out of 99. And now, that same branch is nixing the entire education requirement.
Yes, that means no one has to have a high school diploma or GED to enter the Navy. Apparently, adding or subtracting is not necessary.
Needless to say, it doesn’t exactly give us much hope that our armed forces will be “the best” out there if half of them never finish high school and can’t do mathematics or read. This is especially true since China is continuing to grow its military might, now estimated to be somewhere around 2.2 million very capable souls.
And by the looks of things, the problem is only going to get worse unless someone, say our next president perhaps, gets American youth off their ass and involved in patriotism.
