U.S. Navy Drops High School Diploma, GED
Requirement for Recruits — What Could
Possibly Go Wrong?
Red State,
by
Mike Miller
Original Article
Posted By: Imright,
1/28/2024 11:09:21 AM
No Diploma? No Problem! The U.S. Navy has again lowered enlistment requirements as it struggles to meet self-inflicted recruiting goals. We'll get to the latter in a bit. Spoiler: Perhaps Navy brass should have dropped Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) goals instead.As reported by Navy Times on Friday, America's naval force will now allow those without a high school diploma to enlist as long as they score a 50 or higher on the Armed Forces Qualification Test that all prospects must take. Those without a General Educational Development (GED) will also be allowed to enlist if they hit the test threshold, according to the Chief of Naval Personnel’s office.
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Reply 1 - Posted by:
Vesicant 1/28/2024 11:20:19 AM (No. 1646120)
Rum, the lash, and a tranny.
18 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
franq 1/28/2024 11:47:25 AM (No. 1646140)
There's still that pesky drug test. Maybe they are dropping that too.
My observation in the private sector is that a lot of positions go unfilled because the applicant's urine is not of the right caliber.
26 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
DiegoDude 1/28/2024 11:47:38 AM (No. 1646141)
Guess they'll go to lots of pictures in tech orders, nuke power operating instructions, ballistic missile operatibg instructions. Set the bar low enough and you'll trip over it.
29 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Namma 1/28/2024 12:01:23 PM (No. 1646152)
Let's hope the recruits know how to swim!
21 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Ruthless 1/28/2024 12:01:45 PM (No. 1646153)
Given the Sub-Zero standards of education, why does Oregon need a State Board of Education? It needs to be defunded/dismantled. It has no discernable purpose.
39 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
FunOne 1/28/2024 12:09:35 PM (No. 1646161)
These folks will be doing the maintenance on a complex, high tech $44 million aircraft.
Glad I am no longer piloting a US Navy aircraft, and I feel sorry for those who do.
36 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
DVC 1/28/2024 12:09:42 PM (No. 1646162)
Yeah, as the technological complexity used in the military systems increases steadily, what is needed is the stupider and stupider recruit.
/s off
A family member was a senior USN officer and heavily involved in statistical research about recruiting good sailors back in the 1970s, when computers became available for rapidly sorting huge masses of data.
They discovered that after many decades of giving the same standardized tests to literally millions of young men, and keeping the results, that they had a very high probability of correctly predicting which candidates would become a successful, good sailor and should be recruited. The top two factors were 1) graduated HS 2) scored above a certain score on their standard mental capability test. The sorting process required a good deal of study to understand how to tell a "good candidate" from "bad candidate", because the bad candidates were very disruptive to the system.
A candidate who didn't graduate HS had a dramatically higher probability of being a discipline problem and/or being too stupid, and untrainable to do anything useful for the Navy beyond chipping paint, to the point that they were never recruited.
Non-HS grads had to score higher in the standardized testing to be recruited, because there was good data that a small fraction of good candidates somehow didn't finish HS, but if they tested high enough, they could be good sailors. But these folks were few and far between.
Old saying, "You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear."
Still true.
50 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Starboard_side 1/28/2024 12:26:05 PM (No. 1646176)
Is this a large pool of potential candidates?
If this might help some gain useful employment, finish HS, and learn new skills it could be helpful for them.
13 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
jasmine 1/28/2024 12:29:57 PM (No. 1646182)
With Biden's millions of military aged male "asylum seekers" arriving on our soil, and with cartels helping them get here, is there any reason to believe dropping the requirement for a high school diploma is related only to the failure to meet recruiting goals? It is a fact that even our lazy MSM has taken note of "military aged men" arriving in disproportionate numbers.
20 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
padiva 1/28/2024 12:31:48 PM (No. 1646185)
Will the recruits know left vs. right?
Lefty loosey. Righty tighty.
14 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
spacer 1/28/2024 12:36:04 PM (No. 1646190)
Well what to say. I personally knew some young men that were drafted or enlisted during the Nam "war" that were not high school graduates. I knew one guy from Texas that never got out of 8th grade. Served honorably and some were real heros. One none HS grad stayed I in touch with went on to get his GED and went to college. Don't think he was the exception.
17 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Vaquero45 1/28/2024 12:37:52 PM (No. 1646194)
This will be interesting to watch. I think the emphasis on DEI will have a much greater impact than the elimination of the GED or high school diploma. I know that there a a number of jobs on the Navy requiring high intelligence, but plenty of other jobs that might be ably done by someone who scored low on the AFQT.
I joined the Marine Corps back in the 60's. I remember a number of people in my platoon who didn't finish high school, or never started it. I knew this because I was the platoon "secretary" and saw all of the records the drill instructors kept. One or two of those recruits got into trouble later on, and were gotten rid of; the rest became good Marines. A couple of them stayed for 20 years and retired. My platoon commander was a staff NCO who dropped out of school at 14 and joined at 17 to fight in Korea. He got a GED and, in addition to his duties as a drill instructor, became an air traffic controller. The armed forces provided a lot of opportunity back then for people who didn't mind working hard and applying themselves. I don't know how it is today.
22 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
MickTurn 1/28/2024 12:44:57 PM (No. 1646207)
Given the lousy Union Thug Run Screwels, is that really a BAD THING?
7 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
hershey 1/28/2024 12:47:32 PM (No. 1646212)
Man o man..not the Military I served in...sexually challenged mentally ill, homos, trannies, and now recruits who can't graduate high school or get a GED...
17 people like this.
Several above are correct - today's ships, subs, and aircraft are stuffed full of high-tech, digital gadgetry that requires skilled operators and (more importantly) maintainers. I can understand the challenge facing leadership, but this will help only in being able to claim that recruiting goals are once again being met.
7 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
nwcudagal 1/28/2024 1:11:58 PM (No. 1646230)
We are rapidly purposely dumbing down the populace. Life is going to get a lot harder for us old folks.
17 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
jimincalif 1/28/2024 1:26:25 PM (No. 1646245)
Given the state of publik edumacation, the Navy of yesteryear might be better off getting kids that haven’t completed a full course of brainwashing. EXCEPT, of course, that nowadays the Navy itself is in the DEI business.
15 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
BeatleJeff 1/28/2024 1:38:05 PM (No. 1646259)
This harkens back to the Carter years when the military had to issue training manuals in comic book form.
7 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
Banjo Willy 1/28/2024 1:42:09 PM (No. 1646260)
I can see the benefit
allow them in. Send them to flight school
and train them to be commercial airline pilots
What? Me, worry?
10 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
Geoman 1/28/2024 1:48:36 PM (No. 1646264)
Under Biden, it's ALL about DEI. The ban on white males from the rural south and southwest is rearing its ugly head. Biden's generals have tried luring recruits from NYC and other deep blue urban areas but their targeted minority recruits still refuse to join military service, even when offered hard cash. What Biden has essentially eliminated are the multigenerational recruits, whose families have a history of military service going back in some cases, to the Revolutionary War. "Too white," say the Biden generals. Having grown up in military base housing, essentially "clean and orderly projects," it was silently understood that as children of WWII, Korean War, and Vietnam veterans, we were duty bound to serve and a high percentage of us did; however, with my own kids coming of age during Obama's administration, they were relieved of their ancestral obligations to serve in the military, as Benghazi illustrated that Americans would always come in second to Muslims. Biden has doubled down on Obama's pro-Muslim bias. Trump wasn't in office long enough to reverse this terrible trend but the US has another opportunity this year to salvage our military lest it be destroyed from within.
20 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
griddog1 1/28/2024 1:54:58 PM (No. 1646267)
I feel most sorry for the drill sergeants.
9 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
Toodles3956 1/28/2024 2:13:10 PM (No. 1646272)
Bring back the draft! There are many jobs that don't require a rocket scientist. Food to prepare. Anyone can peel a potato. Scrub floors, clean bathrooms. Do laundry, I could go on & on. Each job needs done, each one important.
8 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
RuckusTom 1/28/2024 2:18:36 PM (No. 1646276)
What's the average educational level of illegal aliens? This is part of the 'service to citizenship' plan that's being whispered about.
6 people like this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
ThreeBadCats3 1/28/2024 2:27:35 PM (No. 1646281)
If you get the answer to “What is two added to two” correct two times out of three, you qualify. But with the New Math, it tales five steps to get to the answer.
6 people like this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
bighambone 1/28/2024 2:35:24 PM (No. 1646288)
They have to do that, as reportedly Biden and his leftist and socialist Democrat crew want to enlist illegal aliens into the US Armed Forces in return for granting them expedited US citizenship that includes US voting rights, and most all poor and uneducated Third World origin illegal aliens who Biden and crew would enlist do not have high school diplomas.
5 people like this.
Reply 26 - Posted by:
24tea@Mag 1/28/2024 2:38:10 PM (No. 1646289)
If they drop English as a requirement we’re in big trouble.
5 people like this.
Reply 27 - Posted by:
red1066 1/28/2024 2:42:30 PM (No. 1646291)
What's next. Jordan Peterson has stated many times that the U.S. military will not take anyone with an IQ under 83 because there isn't anything someone with an IQ that low can be trained to do in the military. Is that requirement going to change? Peterson has stated it's impossible to train anyone with an IQ lower than 83. He says, " It can't be done". Someone like that needs constant supervision.
7 people like this.
Reply 28 - Posted by:
zephyrgirl 1/28/2024 2:55:04 PM (No. 1646301)
A friend told me about her neighbor's adopted son who aced the Marine Corps fitness test, and the Marines were hot to get him until he flunked the drug test with marijuana in his system. They gave him a second chance a few months later which he also flunked. The last my friend heard, he was homeless in Oklahoma City, using stronger drugs. He nearly wiped out his adopted mother financially until she cut him off.
4 people like this.
Reply 29 - Posted by:
Gordon Mills 1/28/2024 3:05:21 PM (No. 1646309)
Because they plan to recruit criminal invaders to fill the ranks
7 people like this.
Reply 30 - Posted by:
thekidsmom66 1/28/2024 3:07:26 PM (No. 1646310)
I will point out that back in the day, this was not a requirement for enlistment. Many of the "greatest generation" would not have qualified if a GED or diploma were required. That became a requirement in the 70s for most branches (some because they had too many recruits). It actually afforded many men who not able to finish high school (because, hey, some of them had to leave school and help support their families) to receive their equivalency once they were enlisted, and to go on to receive further education. They weren't all "stupid" and, of course, they were assigned jobs based on their ASVAB testing. Some who didn't finish high school even went on to build planes, be members of the Strategic Air Command, advance through the ranks, and go on to even implement some inventions/improvements at the jobs they went to after "retiring" from the military after 25+ years of service. And yes, I am telling the true story of a person I hold in much higher esteem than a lot of people who have a high school diploma.
7 people like this.
Reply 31 - Posted by:
cor-vet 1/28/2024 3:17:13 PM (No. 1646313)
This should be interesting, since the highly trained college educated leaders (officers) are crashing those multimillion dollar ships into each other already.
6 people like this.
Reply 32 - Posted by:
rochow 1/28/2024 3:29:14 PM (No. 1646318)
Things might and will change when the useless and undignified Austin is gone and the looney in the WH. Neither of these dumber than dumb jerks are 'commanders'. Would you want to be sent into battle with your arms tied behind you? That's what both of these morons did and still do.
6 people like this.
Reply 33 - Posted by:
Jesuslover54 1/28/2024 3:42:21 PM (No. 1646335)
Remember, anything below IQ 85 is a liability. Can't train them reliably.
5 people like this.
Reply 34 - Posted by:
Lazyman 1/28/2024 3:49:00 PM (No. 1646343)
How's that all volunteer army working out?
2 people like this.
Reply 35 - Posted by:
DVC 1/28/2024 3:53:22 PM (No. 1646347)
Re #27, I think Kommie-La is proof of Petersen's claim.
1 person likes this.
Reply 36 - Posted by:
thekidsmom66 1/28/2024 4:13:19 PM (No. 1646357)
#33, those are not likely to pass the ASVAB, so....
1 person likes this.
Reply 37 - Posted by:
Mad Dog 1/28/2024 4:44:43 PM (No. 1646371)
Who's side will they be on in the coming civil war?
5 people like this.
Reply 38 - Posted by:
Msquared112 1/29/2024 6:19:51 AM (No. 1646557)
Why not just put a classified ad all over the internet that says you're looking for the most ignorant morons you can find to join the Navy and see the world.
2 people like this.
Reply 39 - Posted by:
seal010101 1/29/2024 6:47:41 AM (No. 1646572)
Join the Navy and see some of the most fascinating places in the world, despite your inability to find them on a map.
4 people like this.
Reply 40 - Posted by:
EVRgreen4058 1/29/2024 7:26:56 AM (No. 1646591)
Watch the misfits claim medical benefits for sex changes and/or any other legal maneuvers their tag-along ship-chaser lawyers can suggest? There's no way to have discipline with a group that is already DEI indoctrinated as well as uneducated. Obama's Rose Garden ceremony for the mentally unstable defector Bo Berghdal's parents was the precursor for today's mess. Everyone in the Pentagon runs scared they might be insulting someone while Biden's top honcho czar hides at Walter Reed?
4 people like this.
Reply 41 - Posted by:
broken01 1/29/2024 8:29:15 AM (No. 1646637)
Dummy Biden, Ausitn, Del Toro and Franchetti are trying to turn my beloved USN Forces into a real live McHale's Navy.
3 people like this.
Reply 42 - Posted by:
Rumblehog 1/29/2024 8:42:38 AM (No. 1646643)
As modern weapons and tactics become more and more technically challenging, what do Democrats do? Require LESS education and proven skills! We're doomed.
2 people like this.
Reply 43 - Posted by:
Bassman1911 1/29/2024 8:49:31 AM (No. 1646652)
Make no mistake about it. Recruitment is down because of our Commander in Chief.
7 people like this.
Reply 44 - Posted by:
TheTruthHurts 1/29/2024 8:50:22 AM (No. 1646654)
The Navy is not a foxhole and a gun. Ships are one tremendous masterpiece of technology. Mistakes cause loss of life and compromised effectiveness of the ship. Based on the "intelligent" decisions of elected officials I guess this dumb down is fitting. Glad my days at sea are over.
4 people like this.
Reply 45 - Posted by:
Zigrid 1/29/2024 10:29:20 AM (No. 1646718)
Take heart folks...President Trump is on his way to the White House and then things will be straightened out....MAGA train on it's way....patience....
2 people like this.
Reply 46 - Posted by:
slsusnr 1/29/2024 10:32:16 AM (No. 1646722)
To answer the title of the article, "What Could Possibly Go Wrong?" I’ll tell you what can go wrong. I was the commander of a Military Entrance Processing Station and also on the staff at Navy Boot Camp at Great Lakes, IL. On the staff at Great Lakes (about late 1984-1988), I chaired the standing committee that considered administrative discharges. During that time, the Navy dropped the high school graduation requirement. What happened? The attrition rate for recruits jumped. The experiment failed. “Those who cannot learn from history are condemned to repeat it.”
4 people like this.
Reply 47 - Posted by:
MickTurn 1/29/2024 11:56:43 AM (No. 1646806)
The Full employment act for the Criminally Insane...what could Possibly go WORNG?
2 people like this.
Reply 48 - Posted by:
swarfer 1/29/2024 5:02:46 PM (No. 1647055)
We were told that today’s military was high tech, but when you destroy the motivation to join, you’ve got to take whoever you can get. We’re lowering standards everywhere. We’re driving the country towards the lowest common denominator, the typical Democratic voter. I wonder if Boeing’s problems are a result of the same sort thing?
3 people like this.
Reply 49 - Posted by:
HotPatty 1/29/2024 9:18:21 PM (No. 1647180)
It's cool. When the top secret Sonar on the Nuke Sub fails....it can have it fixed by someone in Hong Kong. It's doesn't take a HS diploma to launch a Rocket with Nukes by pushing a button. We presently have a "President" that has the mind of a 6 year old......
0 people like this.
Reply 50 - Posted by:
Grateful 1/29/2024 11:28:42 PM (No. 1647205)
With all the global threats, this is the worst time for military social experiments. Filling positions in our modern Navy is nothing like the at-sea jobs on earlier ships and aircraft. There is no way to fill these high tech positions with minimum wage qualifying recruits. The military must always be prepared for their mission and anything that detracts from the mission is a potential disaster. That includes all the DEI crap foisted on the military services by the know nothing puppeteers of the FJB farce.
0 people like this.
Reply 51 - Posted by:
Tet Vet 68 1/30/2024 1:11:17 AM (No. 1647236)
Remember McNamara's 100,000? In 1966 in order meet manning requirements previous draft pool categorized as 1Y (too dumb to serve0 were overnight changed to 1A and drafted. I had one sent to me in Vietnam from his job in the motor pool to be a helicopter door gunner. He was too low IQ to work on jeeps and trucks so I got him to operate an M-60. Long story short he even couldn't operate a machine gun and caused damage walking on No Step areas on the aircraft. Fast forward to the all voilunteer force in the seventies and early eighties and drug use was tied to the low standards in recruiting. Well here we go again --good luck with reccruiting the bottom of the barrel .
0 people like this.
Reply 52 - Posted by:
Trigger2 1/30/2024 2:03:57 AM (No. 1647243)
This will make recruitment even worse. Brought to us by Joey and his inept and stupid demonrats.
0 people like this.