Recruiters quoted in last Friday’s Northern Star cited strong local enlistment numbers. However, they fail to mention inducement bonuses and lowered standards the Army has resorted to in order to meet its goals. It would be interesting to know how many of the cited recruits were from high school or junior college and how many from the university. Is DeKalb youth more easily recruited than the rest of the country? Defense Department statistics obtained by Boston’s National Priorities Project reveal that the percentage of new recruits with high school diplomas dropped from 94 percent in 2003 to 70.7 percent in 2007, an all-time low. Unfortunately, high school dropouts also tend to drop out of the military.

A similar lowering of standards was reported in recruits’ scores on Army aptitude tests, with 4 percent scoring in the lowest 10th to 30th percentile. The percentage of “high quality” recruits, i.e. those who have high school diplomas and who score in the upper 50th percentile, declined from 56.2 percent in 2005 to 44.6 percent in 2007. Dumbing down our forces creates problems for today’s high tech army involved in occupying a foreign nation. Intelligent, trained troops are necessary to operate complex equipment and make rapid decisions in tight situations. With fewer of these bright youth signing up, the Army is left to continually lower standards.

If the Army was meeting recruitment goals as these recruiters maintain, why is it issuing stop-loss orders and sending soldiers back for multiple tours of combat duty, including some already suffering from post traumatic stress disorder?

Cecile Meyer
DeKalb resident

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