Thirteen years ago, while serving as a Marine Corps recruiter in Washington State, I learned a startling secret about the future of our national defense: the younger generations are completely unqualified for military service. Almost three-quarters of America’s youth were too dumb, too sickly, too overweight, too drugged out, or too criminal corrupt to serve in the military (the other twenty-five percent were just too apathetic).
Unfortunately, not much has changed :
In a study being released Thursday in Washington, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and a group of retired military officers led by former Army Gen. Wesley Clark will sound the alarm bells and call young Americans’ relative lack of overall fitness for military duty a national security threat. The group, Mission: Readiness, will release a report that draws on Pentagon data showing that 75 percent of the nation’s 17- to 24-year-olds are ineligible for service for a variety of reasons.Put another way, only 4.7 million of the 31.2 million 17- to 24-year-olds in a 2007 survey are eligible to enlist, according to a periodic survey commissioned by the Pentagon. This group includes those who have scored in the top four categories on the Armed Forces Qualification Test, or AQFT; eligible college graduates; and qualified college students.
According to the Pentagon, the ineligible population breaks down this way:
•Medical/physical problems, 35 percent.
•Illegal drug use, 18 percent.
•Mental Category V (the lowest 10 percent of the population), 9 percent.
•Too many dependents under age 18, 6 percent.
•Criminal record, 5 percent.
Amazingly enough, the military is still able to meet—and exceed—recruiting goals. If current trends continue, though, we’ll have a critical shortage of military personnel within another decade.
