Waiving in recruits
Army letting in more criminals, people with medical problems
By Kelly Kennedy
Staff writer
The number of waivers given for recruits entering the military with misdemeanor offenses and medical issues jumped sharply in 2005 after four years of steady decline.
From 2004 to 2005, those admitted with “serious criminal misconduct” marks jumped 54 percent, to 630 recruits. Those with drug and alcohol waivers leaped 13 percent, to 737 recruits; those with misdemeanors spiked 25 percent, to 4,587 recruits.
Overall, the number of recruits granted waivers increased from 11.98 percent of 77,587 recruits in 2004, to 15 percent of 73,373 recruits signed up last year. In 2001, just 10 percent of 75,855 recruits were granted such waivers.
And the trend appears to be continuing, as Army figures show the percentage of recruits who needed medical or moral waivers stands at 15.49 percent in the first three quarters of fiscal 2006.
The increases came after a year of missed recruiting goals: In fiscal 2005, the Army missed its goal of 80,000 new recruits by about 7,000 people.
Some worry that those numbers, taken in conjunction with lowered test-score standards and changes in the Army’s tattoo policies and high-school diploma requirements, may be changing the Army’s makeup from a professional one to an Army made up of criminals and slackers.
But Army officials argue the waivers are for minor offenses, that the academic qualifications have gone back to what they were five years ago, and that recruiting standards for so-called “moral waivers” — or soldiers let in after substance abuse or criminal offenses — haven’t changed.
“We’re dealing with the people who present themselves for enlistment,” said S. Douglas Smith, spokesman for the Army’s recruiting command. “And we realize that people sometimes make a minor mistake in their lives, and we think we need to look at those people on a case-by-case basis.”
The medical waiver numbers may also have gone up due to changes in medical requirements for asthma and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, as well as the Army performing better criminal background checks than in years past, according to studies conducted by Rand Corp. and the Government Accountability Office.
“Fifteen percent [of recruits needing medical or moral waivers] is about the historical level for the Army,” said Beth Asch, military manpower expert for the Rand Corp. “It’s the high side of historical, but typical.”
Smith said only three of 10 men and women between 17 and 24 qualify for the military in all categories. And according to a Rand Corp. study, the Army has three-quarters of the numbers of potential recruits to draw from as recruiters had in 1980.
There’s also a higher crime rate that knocks down the numbers of potential recruits, according to the report: Violent crimes and weapons violations rose one-third from 1980 to 1992.
“The standards have not changed,” said David Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, during a press briefing last week. “We aim for the department as a whole to have 90 percent of our new recruits … be high school diploma graduates. We aim to have 60 percent score in the upper half of the mental distribution. As you also know, we aim at high moral standards, which generally means any serious offense and you’re disqualified.”
Serious criminal misconduct waivers that require a general officer’s approval include aggravated assault, vehicular manslaughter, participating in a riot or having two drunken-driving convictions, as well as larceny, illegal possession of a controlled substance or arson. Misdemeanor offenses that can be waived by a lieutenant colonel include assault, curfew violation, public intoxication, one drunken-driving incident, fake ID, criminal mischief or resisting arrest.
Smith said there has been no change in the way criminal waivers have been granted in recent years, but societal changes have affected who is eligible.
For example, since the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999, many schools have moved to a zero-tolerance policy for offenses. In some cases, that has meant school officials bring in police when students bring in water guns: No guns — period.
“Today, young men and women are being charged for offenses that in earlier years wouldn’t have been considered a serious offense, and might not have resulted in charges in the first place,” Smith said. “Standards also vary from state to state.”
And the changes in society seem to go both ways: In the early 1990s, drug use decreased significantly from 37 percent of all youths in 1978 to 12 percent in 1992. It rose again to 25 percent in 1997 and has stayed steady, according to a book released this year, “Assessing Fitness for Military Enlistment: Physical, Medical and Mental Health Standards,” by the Committee on Youth Population and Military Recruitment.
The number of recruits allowed in with drug and alcohol waivers also went down and up during those years. Part of the declining trend from 2001 to 2004 could be explained by a change in Army policy. The Army used to require a waiver for recruits who had tried — but not been charged with — using any kind of illegal substance.
The Army still requires recruits to disclose prior use, but “yes” answers to those questions have not required a waiver since 1990.
The increase in waiver numbers for criminal conduct and misdemeanors might be explained by another change: “Until [1999], we didn’t do police checks on all applicants — only those who told us in the application process that they had a criminal issue,” Smith said.
Defense investigators used to perform federal crime checks on recruits, but that system did not always include a fingerprint, so crimes were being overlooked. That process has improved just recently because military recruiting in-processing stations are equipped with electronic fingerprint scanners.
“We’re doing what I think everyone would agree is the right thing now,” Smith said.
In 2005, the Army changed the way it handles potential recruits with asthma, ADHD and blastomycosis. The standard for asthma used to be people with “an episode since age 14” couldn’t be recruited. The regulation has changed to say “reliably diagnosed and symptomatic,” which means thousands of people are eligible with a waiver who could not join before.
According to “Assessing Fitness for Military Enlistment,” soldiers with waivers for asthma were more likely to complete their tours of duty than other soldiers even though, historically, asthma has been one of the top 10 medical disqualifiers.
People with blastomycosis, a flu-like disease caused by a fungus, may also join with a waiver if their disease does not get in the way of their job duties. They could not join before the change in regulation.
And those with ADHD may join with a waiver if they can “demonstrate passing academic performance” and if they haven’t been on medication for 12 months.
Waivers come down to an evaluation of the recruit’s ability to stay in the Army: The Army doesn’t want to spend money to train soldiers who won’t make it.
For that reason, they’re working to improve the mental health questionnaires potential recruits fill out. “It’ll be much more intense — anything they can do to screen to avoid high attrition rates, such as better screens for depression or suicide,” Asch said.
She said she is more worried about test scores than criminal backgrounds, calling those who don’t score higher than the 30th percentile “just on the lower end of qualified.”
Before last fall, the Army required that no more than 2 percent of recruits score between the 15th and 30th percentile on the military aptitude test. Now the Army has upped that to 4 percent of recruits, which is what the Defense Department has always allowed. And some weight has to go to Smith’s point about allowing people a second chance. In the old days, “Go to war or go to jail” meant a second chance — an opportunity for a person to become a soldier and change his life. Any former soldier — whether he liked the military or not — will say, “It helped me grow up.”
Staff Sgt. Jose Vasquez, with the 316th Chemical Company out of Fort Folk, La., came in under a waiver in 1984 after admitting to smoking pot. “You know, I didn’t get arrested or have charges,” he said. “I was just honest.”
Vasquez said he moved from being a kid living at home who had rarely left his hometown to an adult who traveled on his own and spent his first tour in Germany. “I just got tired of working day-to-day fast food,” he said. “I had a great career in the military and deployed three times from 1984-1995.” After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Vasquez decided to serve — and deploy — again.
“I do truly enjoy the military and all the ups and downs that come with it,” Vasquez said. “I think it did help me grow up quickly and make me accountable for my actions.”