It is a startling sign of the continued deterioration of U.S. military forces. The U.S. Navy recently revealed it no longer requires a high school diploma or even a GED to enlist in its ranks.
For the second time in just over a year, the bar for entry was drastically lowered. In Dec. 2022, the branch announced it would begin to accept recruits who scored abysmally low marks on the Armed Services Qualification Test.
The lurch to lower standards is directly in response to the failure to recruit young Americans in significant numbers.
The Associated Press reported that all branches are struggling to fill their ranks with recruits “who can meet the military’s physical, mental and moral standards.”
Under the new guidelines, Navy recruits who did not finish high school or the equivalent must only score 50 on the entry test. That is out of 99 possible points.
Not since 2000 has the Navy accepted recruits who did not finish high school or earn a GED. There are unquestionably many who would serve but are repulsed by the new woke military under Biden’s leadership.
NAVY: Biden’s purge of conservatives from the military has hollowed our defenses. To replenish the ranks with diverse sailors the Navy no longer requires a high school diploma and allows enlistment up to the age of 41. https://t.co/vjfjV5ovXa
— @amuse (@amuse) January 26, 2024
Vice Admiral Rick Cheeseman told the Associated Press Friday that the branch gets “thousands of people into our recruiting stations every year that want to join the Navy but do not have an education credential.” This meant they were turned away.
But no more.
Cheeseman cited 2,400 who were rejected in 2023 and believed that as many as 500 of them could score a 50 or above on the entrance exam.
With this in mind, an order already went out to Navy recruiters to contact each of those rejected. “I’m hoping all my recruiters have called all 2,442 of them in the last 72 hours, and we’ll see how it goes,” he said. “We’ll try to get some test takers this weekend.”
The draconian COVID-19 lockdowns meant recruiters no longer had access to young people in the traditional educational settings.
But even as the nation returned to normal, the tight job market and higher wages meant military branches had to compete with employers. Many companies now offer college assistance, something that for years made serving the country more attractive.
In the last fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, the Navy, Air Force and Army fell short of enlistment goals. Only the Marines and Space Force met their objectives.
