Coronavirus: Thread

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US Army's Recruiting Crisis Worsens As Test Scores Drop,
Disqualifications Rates Surge

https://www.armytimes.com/news/2022/09/15/test-scores-drop-disqualification-rates-rise-at-army-recruiting-shops/

The US Army has a major recruiting problem and can't find enough young
people who meet the basic requirements to enlist, according to Army
Times.

Lt. Gen. Maria Gervais, second in command for Army Training and
Doctrine Command, sounded off Thursday about the troubling
developments. She highlighted disqualification rates for potential
recruits jumped from 30-40% (pre-Covid) to a whopping 70% this year
due to obesity, low test scores, and/or drug use.

Gervais pointed out the service has experienced a "nosedive" in
recruits since July 2021. She explained Armed Services Vocational
Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) scores were 10% lower during the virus
pandemic in 2020-21. That figure has since increased to 13% for the
most recent high school graduating class.

Perhaps America's youth was dumbed down during Covid with at-home
schooling via daily video conferences. The latest Education Department
data confirm reading and math scores plummeted. Maybe those kids were
playing too many video games or trading 'meme stocks' or posting
useless videos on TikTok during the pandemic instead of opening a book
and learning something valuable.

Besides failing to meet academic standards, obesity was another driver
of higher disqualification rates. Also, increasing drug use among
youngsters didn't help.

The challenges of today's youth put combat preparedness in question as
liberal war hawks are determined to spark World War III in Ukraine and
or in the Taiwan Strait.

Gen. Joseph Martin, vice chief of staff for the Army, warned in July
that the recruitment goal for 2022 could be slashed by a quarter. He
said the total size of the Army (including active and reserve
components) will decrease by 10,000 troops this year and between
14,000 and 21,000 in 2023.

Perhaps lowering the standards to meet targets is a question the
service should ponder. Even though the quality is more important than
quantity, in tumultuous periods like today, where the world is
shifting from a unipolar world to a multipolar world, conflicts tend
to ignite -- and the US -- one who has overseen the unipolar world for
decades -- will fight 'tooth and nail' to maintain the status quo.

At least the youth have one thing going for them: obsession with
violent video games has desensitized an entire generation to all sorts
of violence where war might not be a big shock.

Remember, the service's recruitment crisis has been an ongoing issue
but has worsened in the last few years. We pointed out it's "another
signal of declining support for the federal government and its
institutions."

Maybe because the military has gotten too 'woke'? You know the saying:
"go woke, go broke" -- this can also happen to empires...

The shrinking pool of eligible youth due to obesity, low test scores,
or drug use should be a national security threat to US health and
security.