U.S. Military Enlistment Recruiters Reject 71 Percent Of Applicants For Army, Navy, Marines, And Air Force

United States military enlistment recruiters are rejecting 71 percent of all applicants according to the U.S. Pentagon. But for what reasons are they rejecting so many?

In a related report by The Inquisitr, even though President Obama recently touted the Afghanistan war ending, and how many US troops will be coming home, he’d still like to keep a military unit of about 10,000 soldiers stationed there for years to come. What’s more, even if you exclude the military expenses the cost of rebuilding Afghanistan will be $15 billion in 2014 alone, and $6 to $10 billion is expected to be spent every year.

As the economic impact of the great recession has hit home, young Americans have become the demographic with the highest unemployment rate in the country. Because of the lure of the military enlistment bonus, college level training, and other benefits, many Millennials have attempted to enter one of the branches of the U.S. military since they either cannot find a job or it’s too expensive to fund college on an entry level job. (This problem has also greatly contributed to the student loans crisis, which some say could cripple U.S. colleges in the coming years.)

Perhaps because of the flood of applications in the U.S military enlistment offices, the Army, Marines, Navy, and Air Force can choose to be more picky. Major Gen. Allen Batschelet, commanding general of U.S. Army Recruiting Command, claims that the “quality of people willing to serve has been declining rapidly.” Besides the normal health and weight issues, recruiters have turned down 34 million 17 to 24-year-olds in the United States because of problems with their education, traffic tickets, and even fashion items like tiny tattoos and ear gauges. The number of people applying without a high school diploma has also jumped up to 21 percent in 2007 while in 2001 that number was only 10 percent.

Retired Major Gen. Allen Youngman believes these numbers could affect the quality of the U.S. military in the long term:

“We’re trying to make decision makers see this is a national-security matter—and they need to prioritize it…. A drill sergeant could literally run the weight off a soldier as part of the regular training program. [Now] we have young people showing up at the recruiter’s office who want to serve but are 50 or more pounds overweight. They aren’t educationally qualified to join the military in any capacity, not just the high-tech jobs.”

Are you surprised the U.S. military enlistment recruiters are rejecting so many young Americans?