U.S. Navy Continues to Lower Recruitment Standards as Numbers Decline

Recruitment issues in the U.S. Military are not being caused by white supremacy problems, soldiers being discharged for objecting to the COVID-19 shot mandate, or woke promotional campaigns. Instead, it is the high school diploma requirement that has caused recruitment problems in the tens of thousands.

The U.S. Navy has announced that they will now enlist individuals who do not have a high school diploma or GED, as long as they score 50 or above on the qualification test. This is the first time the service has taken individuals without educational credentials since 2000.

Vice Adm. Rick Cheeseman, the Navy’s chief of personnel, stated in an interview with The Associated Press, “We get thousands of people into our recruiting stations every year that want to join the Navy but do not have an education credential. And we just turn them away.” He also mentioned that he has already instructed his recruiters to start the new expanded effort to enlist individuals without education credentials.

This decision comes as the U.S. Military faces a shortfall of about 41,000 recruits across all branches. Sen. Marco Rubio wrote that much of the recruitment shortfall is due to politics, stating that “the consequence is a generation of people who feel alienated from their own nation — and far less willing to serve.”

Adm. Cheeseman’s interview came a day before 3 U.S. service members were killed in a drone strike by Iran-backed forces in Jordan.