Military Lowers Standards To Fill Ranks
The Army Is Taking Chances On Recruits With Rap Sheets
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Army Cuts Recruiting Standards
To meet its recruiting targets, the U.S. Army is lowering its standards, even taking recruits with criminal records - despite the risks. Kimberly Dozier reports.
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A strong economy makes joining the Army less appetizing for many, so the military has had to reduce its standards to meet its enlistment goals. (CBS)
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So the Army is accepting a growing number of new recruits with everythging from health and weight issues to lower academic test scores to criminal records.
The number of incoming soldiers with prior felony arrests or convictions has more than tripled in the past five years. This year alone, the Army accepted an estimated 8,000 recruits with rap sheets, reports CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier.
Most are guilty of misdemeanors, but around 100 in the past year had felony convictions.
"Burglaries and narcotics are probably our two top categories," according to Col. Sheila Hickman.
In the Dallas recruiting office, Staff Sgt. Anthony Garcia says he enlists only those who are ready to leave that past behind.
"DUI, drug paraphernalia charges, more than three curfew violations," Garcia says. "It could be anything minor or some stuff major."
No violent crimes, but for "major stuff" like breaking and entering or arson, the military grants what's called a "moral waiver."
It's an old formula judges used to pronounce: Join the Army or go to jail.
But today, recruits are going from boot camp to a hot war in Iraq. Some former Pentagon officials call it a recipe for chaos.
"In order for the Army to meet its quota, which is going up … they have to resort to giving, taking more and more chances on people," says Lawrence Korb of the Center for American Progress.
Some chances work out. Cpl. Angelo Vaccaro was granted a waiver. He was awarded two Silver Stars after he was killed rescuing wounded soldiers.
But then there's former Army Pvt. Steve Green, also awarded a waiver, who is on trial for raping and murdering an Iraqi girl, then killing her entire family.
"The stakes are very high," Korb says. "You're going to give these people lethal weapons… so you better be damn sure that this man or woman has the self-discipline and the strength to be able to use that weapon only when he or she must."
Yet across the services, commanders are not told when someone has a record. The idea: With no stigma, the recruit has an equal chance to succeed.
"We've always been an Army that's been known to give patriotic citizens second and third chances," Hickman says.
They are risking their lives for those second chances, but officials also admit the people they really want are being driven away.
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As for letting in criminals-ast least they know how to use a gun already. It is also the chance you take when you let them in, and too, why waste these potential human resources in jail when we have a war going on and if they live through it think of all the extra training they will have-ojt- to take back to the streets! Not all will do that I am sure.
It is up to the individual to step up and become more than a street person. Crimes are also done by people who are in and have somewhat decent backgrounds. You just never know!!
Re: "But then there's former Army Pvt. Steve Green, also awarded a waiver, who is on trial for raping and murdering an Iraqi girl, then killing her entire family."
Get it straight CBS!
Green and the other U.S. soldiers involved, reportedly executed this 14-year-old girl's parents, executed her 7-year-old sister, and gang-raped the 14-year-old, prior to executing her as well and setting her corpse on fire, in an effort to cover-up their crimes.
When they were finished, these soldiers stuck around the home, and prepared themselves a chicken dinner.
We should have kept the bar and tossed Bush in the hole a long time ago. The whole lot of those traitors and thieves named Bush.
Many have joined the service, for any number of reasons. Opportunity, GI Bill, benefits, to change their life, and sometimes, from a sense of duty.
Most of the posters here, have no knowledge of those motivators, and so the spew their childish drivel.
"The system/Government/President/military is bad".
Well, none of those things are bad, but those who slander all of those things certainly are.
Sincerely, A concerned mother.
Most young people today are reaching the same conclusion as Bush, Cheney, Pearl, Wolfowitz and the Clintons 40 years ago, that their country's current military adventure is simply not worth their lives. Many would gladly serve in the military, if what they are fighting for makes sense.
For most of our young people, no incentive is sufficient to convince them to serve in a war that does not have the support of generals, Congresspeople and most of the US. They are looking at the long waits for medical and mental health care, and the inadequate commitment to veterans' care and saying no thanks.
out of prison. We can send in convicted killers
who have nothing else to loose, if they go to Iraq and kill some taliban fighters then we can
pardon them
Will my middle finger suffice? Turn their lives around? Yeah, why be a shoplifter or pothead when you can be a murderer, officially sanctioned by the U.S. government?
And as for "fishingbabe," if your son's lifelong dream was to be in the military then he should have stayed out of jail, shouldn't he? Hardly surprising, though, raised by a mother that refers to herself as a "babe." People wonder why kids become criminals---because people like you think that just having a crotch entitles you to squirt your offspring onto the rest of us. Now you want to unload him on the taxpayers and the military. Sounds to me like you both need to take responsibility for your own actions and live with the consequences.
How much of our military secrets are being used by these gangs to further their attempts to take over cities? Sending prisoners is not the answer and i'm not sure what the answer is,but what I do know is if we americans don't get off our lazy ***** and fight the goverment on our turf now,what will america be like in the next 50 to 100 yrs?
Slowly I'm seeing people revolting in their own little ways to fight back the goverment and their policies,whether it be the lady who hates bush or the militia or anyone else who has a voice,we should speak out and we should do whatever it takes to get our goverment back on track FOR THE PEOPLE.
How about a stupid war in Iraq that forces the soldiers to serve tour after tour after tour with no end in sight?
The economy where lots of people are working for peanuts had nothing to do with the lack of recruits.
THIS IS TOTALLY BULL ***!!!!!!!!!!!
Soldiers get FREE EVERYTHING. You want to raise their BENEFIT payments? They get FREE education. FREE medical care. FREE life insurance. HEAVILY discounted dental insurance. FREE housing and food. Please understand the value of what a soldier gets. An E-2 with all these benefits may only get paid 12,000 a year, but add on all these things he would otherwise have to pay for, he makes nearly $30,000 his first year. An E-6 may get paid $24,000, but the value of those benefits add up to around $60,000 per year. After he gets out, honorably, he still gets FREE education and FREE health care by VA, and his family gets education at a discounted rate. So, you want to raise his benefit payments? Come on lady, get real.
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by sjv4488
August 1, 2007 1:05 PM PDT
- A follow-up story that discusses all of the services would be very interesting. The real number is over 1,600 moral waivers.
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