Navy Lowers Bar To Enlist Again Amid Continued Recruiting Woes

Michael Lee at Fox News offers a piece on the U.S. Navy allowing high school dropouts to enlist. 

The U.S. Navy will start to enlist applicants who have not graduated from high school or obtained a GED as the service continues to struggle with its recruiting goals.

"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," Vice Adm. Rick Cheeseman, the Navy's chief of personnel, said of the change, according to a report in The Associated Press.

The new plan will allow recruits who don't have an education credential to enlist as long as they score a 50 or above out of 99 on the qualification test, according to the report, marking the first time the Navy has allowed such recruits since the year 2000.

 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

Navy lowers bar to enlist again amid continued recruiting woes | Fox News

I think this is a smart move.

There are many fine young dropouts just looking for a break and an opportunity, and the Navy is a good place to start.         

 

I know this as I was a high school dropout when I attempted to enlist in the Navy on my 17th birthday in 1969.

 

As many men were enlisting in the Navy at that time to avoid being drafted into the Army and fighting in the jungles of Vietnam, the Navy had no trouble finding recruits.

 

I scored high on the battery of tests, but I had to wait some months before the Navy failed to meet its monthly goal, which was when I was finally called up.  

I went on to serve on the USS Kitty Hawk as the aircraft carrier performed combat operations off the coast of North Vietnam in 1970 and 1971. 

We also visited Sasebo, Japan, Hong Kong, Subic Bay in the Philippines and other ports of call. 

I received my GED while serving on the Kitty Hawk and I completed several college correspondent courses as well.  

After my separation from the Navy in 1972, I attended Penn State, majoring in journalism, on the G.I. Bill. 

I went back into the Navy in 1974 and served two years on the U.S. Navy harbor tugboat USS Saugus at the U.S. nuclear submarine base at Holy Loch, Scotland.  

I traveled all over the British Isles, as well as Italy, Spain, France and Germany.    

After leaving the Navy in 1976, I served many years as a Defense Department civilian employee, writing news and features for Defense Department magazines in addition to overseeing security and other command support programs.

I went on to become a newspaper crime reporter and columnist, as well as a magazine writer and a crime fiction short story writer. 

The Navy was my first break. And it was not just a job - it was an adventure.