[July 07, 2015] A good friend of mine called me to complain that his son was rejected by the U.S. Army despite being an athlete and having a good academic record. This prompted him to ask me what the requirements were for those wanting to enter the U.S. military. I told him that many people hear you’re not good enough to join and that is true.
Yes, the military does have standards; mental, physical, and psychological. Approximately 75 percent of today’s young people (aged 18 to 24) are not qualified to be in the U.S. military without a waiver.1 The real problem however for our senior military leadership is that the pool of eligible young people is getting smaller. The military happens to also be getting smaller due to Congressional requirements but that doesn’t relieve the military of its specialized manpower needs.
A soldier today must be smarter than a soldier from 30 plus years ago and this is a growing trend. There is less need for Infantry soldiers and more need for engineers. An engineer must have a higher score on their military entrance exam to be accepted into that branch. Occasionally there will be a waiver issued but that is uncommon. A medical doctor with special skills, for example, can have waivers granted because of the military necessity.
Meeting the military standards on all of these requirements does not in itself guarantee placement. Yet, here are ten reasons that many folks are not good enough to be a U.S. soldier:
- Overweight (this is the most common reason)
- Criminal history (any domestic violence or felony conviction)
- Inadequate education (a high school degree or GED is required)
- Age (standards vary: minimum 17 by law, maximum by service and rarely over 35)
- Non-citizen (there are significant restrictions will allow a few to enlist as non-citizens)
- Serious medical disability or disease
- Mental illness
- Failing a military drug test for illegal substances during initial screening
- Failing the military entrance exam
- Immoral character (still on the books but likely to be measured by criminal history #2)
We can expect that the pool for manpower that the military needs will continue to shrink in total numbers throughout this century as our population ages.
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