US Army Exceeds Recruiting Goals, Again

You wouldn’t know the Army recruiting numbers were surging judging by this AP headline, Lower Standards Help Army Recruit More:

 The U.S. Army recruited more than 2,600 soldiers under new lower aptitude standards this year, helping the service beat its goal of 80,000 recruits in the throes of an unpopular war and mounting casualties.

The recruiting mark comes a year after the Army missed its recruitment target by the widest margin since 1979, which had triggered a boost in the number of recruiters, increased bonuses, and changes in standards.

The Army recruited 80,635 soldiers, roughly 7,000 more than last year. Of those, about 70,000 were first-time recruits who had never served before.

According to statistics obtained by The Associated Press, 3.8 percent of the first-time recruits scored below certain aptitude levels. In previous years, the Army had allowed only 2 percent of its recruits to have low aptitude scores. That limit was increased last year to 4 percent, the maximum allowed by the Defense Department.

The Army said all the recruits with low scores had received high school diplomas. In a written statement, the Army said good test scores do not necessarily equate to quality soldiers. Test-taking ability, the Army said, does not measure loyalty, duty, honor, integrity or courage.

This is great news for the Army yet again, so the biased media has to find a way to bash the Army with this lower test standards nonsense.  The Army is expanding thus more soldiers need to be recruited.  That is why the recruitment goal is 7,000 soldiers higher this year than last year because the Army is adding approximately 20,000 soldiers in the next few years, particularly in the infantry.

How well you do on the entry test that this AP article is making such a big deal about determines what job you are eligible for in the Army.  Generally the lower the score, the more likely you will end up in a combat arms occupation like the infantry.  You don’t need to be a test taking genius to figure out how to fire a rifle and throw hand grenades.  Especially when the recruits allowed in who scored low on the entry test all have high school diplomas.  Students who score poorly on an SAT for example are still eligible to attend college if they have a high school diploma or GED, why should they be denied entering the military?

I have always been of the opinion that if someone wants to serve their country they should be given every reasonable opportunity to do so.  However, the US media wants to feed the Vietnam era military stereotype of a military filled with uneducated and poor kids with no other options in life, when in fact the military is becoming increasingly more educated and professional than any time in it’s history.  Plus the media is continuing it’s agenda of undermining the war effort.  Surging recruiting numbers means that the US public is still supporting the war effort.  The media wants and needs the military to miss their recruiting goals in order to support their own political views that the War on Terror and by association President Bush is wrong.
Just think, all these  new recruits joining the Army now, know they are going to war, unlike past years when people may have just been joining for the GI Bill.  The fact that the Army is able to meet it’s recruiting goals while simultaneously expanding the Army is really a tribute to the American public who have entrusted their sons and daughters to the military and to all the Army recruiters out there doing a thankless job with tougher recruiting conditions including being banned from some schools and universities and being attacked by leftists, but yet they continue to do a great job filling the ranks of the US Army.