I saw a segment on this last night on VICE News. (If you're looking for a decent news source and have HBO, VICE News is a pretty good source, because they leave as much opinion out of their reporting as they can).
Seems that not only are they giving waivers to people for things they wouldn't have waived before, but they have also increased the body fat percentages that you can enlist with. When I was in, body fat percentages for females was only 25 percent before they would be kicked out. Now? They are letting them enlist at 30 percent body fat or less. 30 percent is actually considered obese.
And, when I was in recruiting from 1999 until 2002, if you failed a urine test more than three times, you were considered disqualified. Now? They are giving lots more waivers for marijuana use. I remember there were a couple of times the recruiters asked me to do a urine test off the books if they failed, but to use it if they passed, because they didn't want to lose the applicant. If they failed a urine test, they had to wait 30 days before taking another.
This is a really tall order by the way. Why? Because only 30 percent of the people in America who are age eligible to serve are qualified. That, coupled with a stronger economy and better job market, combined with the fact that we still have conflict zones in the ME where most will be deployed to, makes it really hard to get people to join.
I remember that for a couple of months after 9/11, most people were really leery about enlisting because they didn't want to go to war.
Seems that not only are they giving waivers to people for things they wouldn't have waived before, but they have also increased the body fat percentages that you can enlist with. When I was in, body fat percentages for females was only 25 percent before they would be kicked out. Now? They are letting them enlist at 30 percent body fat or less. 30 percent is actually considered obese.
And, when I was in recruiting from 1999 until 2002, if you failed a urine test more than three times, you were considered disqualified. Now? They are giving lots more waivers for marijuana use. I remember there were a couple of times the recruiters asked me to do a urine test off the books if they failed, but to use it if they passed, because they didn't want to lose the applicant. If they failed a urine test, they had to wait 30 days before taking another.
This is a really tall order by the way. Why? Because only 30 percent of the people in America who are age eligible to serve are qualified. That, coupled with a stronger economy and better job market, combined with the fact that we still have conflict zones in the ME where most will be deployed to, makes it really hard to get people to join.
I remember that for a couple of months after 9/11, most people were really leery about enlisting because they didn't want to go to war.