{"id":11806,"date":"2008-01-30T10:05:17","date_gmt":"2008-01-30T17:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2008\/01\/30\/it-makes-a-fellow-proud-to-be-a-solider.html"},"modified":"2008-01-30T10:05:17","modified_gmt":"2008-01-30T17:05:17","slug":"it_makes_a_fellow_proud_t","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/01\/30\/it_makes_a_fellow_proud_t.html","title":{"rendered":"“It makes a fellow proud to be a solider …”"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you can’t get enough recruits to meet your standards … well, lower your standards<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

The latest statistics<\/a>\u2014compiled by the Defense Department. and obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by the Boston-based National Priorities Project<\/a>\u2014are grim. They show that the percentage of new Army recruits with high-school diplomas has plunged from 94 percent in 2003 to 83.5 percent in 2005 to 70.7 percent in 2007. (The Pentagon’s longstanding goal is 90 percent.)<\/p>\n

The percentage of what the Army calls “high-quality” recruits\u2014those who have high-school diplomas and<\/em> who score in the upper 50th<\/sup> percentile on the Armed Forces’ aptitude tests\u2014has declined from 56.2 percent in 2005 to 44.6 percent in 2007.<\/p>\n

In order to meet recruitment targets, the Army has even had to scour the bottom of the barrel. There used to be a regulation that no more than 2 percent of all recruits could be “Category IV”\u2014defined as applicants who score in the 10th<\/sup> to 30th<\/sup> percentile on the aptitude tests. In 2004, just 0.6 percent of new soldiers scored so low. In 2005, as the Army had a hard time recruiting, the cap was raised to 4 percent. And in 2007, according to the new data, the Army exceeded even that limit\u20144.1 percent of new recruits last year were Cat IVs. <\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The article goes on to point out that it’s socially undesirable to rely more and more upon the under-educated, that retention among those without HS diplomas is substantially lower than folks in other educational brackets (meaning it’s a short-term measure at best), and that undereducated soldiers tend to be, well, less effective soldiers.<\/p>\n

\n

Third, a dumber army is a weaker army. A study by the RAND Corporation<\/a>, commissioned by the Pentagon and published in 2005, evaluated several factors that affect military performance\u2014experience, training, aptitude, and so forth\u2014and found that aptitude is key. This was true even of basic combat skills, such as shooting straight. Replacing a tank gunner who had scored Category IV with one who’d scored Category IIIA (in the 50th<\/sup> to 64th<\/sup> percentile) improved the chances of hitting a target by 34 percent.<\/p>\n

Today’s Army, of course, is much more high-tech, from top to bottom. The problem is that when tasks get more technical, aptitude makes an even bigger difference. In one Army study cited by the RAND report, three-man teams from the Army’s active-duty signal battalions were told to make a communications system operational. Teams consisting of Category IIIA personnel had a 67 percent chance of succeeding. Teams with Category IIIB soldiers (who had ranked in the 31st<\/sup> to 49th<\/sup> percentile) had a 47 percent chance. Those with Category IVs had only a 29 percent chance. The study also showed that adding a high-scoring soldier to a three-man team increased its chance of success by 8 percent. (This also means that adding a low-scoring soldier to a team reduces its chance by a similar margin.)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

But, by cracky, at least we’ve got boots on the ground!  Even if their owners can’t tie ’em.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you can’t get enough recruits to meet your standards … well, lower your standards. The latest statistics\u2014compiled by the Defense Department. and obtained through the Freedom of Information Act…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitical-brouhaha","category-job-jollies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7415,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/03\/10\/weak_minds_yeah.html","url_meta":{"origin":11806,"position":0},"title":"Weak minds. 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Alas, that approach has some serious drawbacks, since folks may...","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":134439,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/08\/25\/expected-trump-moves-forward-military-transgender-semi-ban.html","url_meta":{"origin":11806,"position":3},"title":"As expected, Trump moves forward with a military transgender semi-ban","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 25-Aug-17 4:57pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I use the term \"semi-ban\" intentionally, as the measure bans new openly transgender recruits, but leaves in question the fate of the hundreds of (openly) transgender service members currently in uniform. It does, though, make it clear that the Defense Dept. cannot pay for any medical care regimens for those\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/unnamed-7-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10661,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/11\/28\/awash_in_spam.html","url_meta":{"origin":11806,"position":4},"title":"Awash in spam","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 28-Nov-06 7:47am","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in the office, and, yikes, boatloads of spam in the company inbox. Which is a bit unusual, as the corporate spam fighters are pretty diligent about fighting the stuff....","rel":"","context":"In "Spam"","block_context":{"text":"Spam","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/computer-security\/spam"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6678,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/08\/05\/ripped_from_the.html","url_meta":{"origin":11806,"position":5},"title":"Ripped from the headlines","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 5-Aug-04 6:42am","format":false,"excerpt":"After Tuesday's little soiree at O'Hare, I was amused to read this article abou how the FAA wants airlines to cut back flights there. Really. And they're being very good...","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","block_context":{"text":"Travel","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/travel"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11806\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}