Army Moves to Recruit More High School Dropouts

[rodeodance]

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1004-01.htm

Published on October 4, 2005 by Knight Ridder

Army Moves to Recruit More High School Dropouts
by Joseph Galloway


WASHINGTON - Army Secretary Noel Harvey and vice chief of staff Gen. Richard Cody said Monday that the Army was using looser Defense Department rules that permitted it to sign up more high school dropouts and people who score lower on mental-qualification tests, but they denied that this meant it was lowering standards.

Until Army recruiters began having trouble signing up enough recruits earlier this year, the Army had set minimum standards that were higher than those of the Defense Department.

The Army has a recruiting shortfall of 6,000 to 8,000 soldiers over the past 12 months. It hasn't fallen so short of its annual goal since 1979, several years after the Vietnam war.

Harvey and Cody addressed the recruiting issue in news conferences during the annual convention of the Association of the U.S. Army.......

[TheFarseer]

1. Good

It doesn't say much about the state of our armed forces, but I hope these kids get a chance to make something of themselves now. You know they probably weren't going to do much without a HS diploma.

[bleedingheart]

2. I guess my cousin might finally be able to join now...

although I think his mother will kill him if he does.

He has a reading disability and learning problems, his parents didn't want him stigmatized...so they just let him fail his way to high school and then he signed himself out at 18 with no diploma.

Took the test to get into the Army and they rejected him flat out...

[bemildred]

3. Cannon fodder. nt