The United States'; All-Volunteer Force (AVF) is embroiled in the longest ground combat power intensive conflict in its history. The Army's massive need for Soldiers has placed so much strain on the Army recruiting system that at times recruit quality has been sacrificed to achieve sufficient troop strength. If this is true, then how much of an impact does the drop in quality have and what is the repercussion? In the last few years, media headlines have proclaimed that the US Army has resorted to accepting lower quality recruits to increase and maintain an appropriate strength level to continue current Army commitments. The ability of the Army to enlist and keep Soldiers directly affects its ability to sustain the troop levels needed in support of Army operations. This monograph examines low quality recruits and their impact on the AVF. The scope of this research covers the time period from the end of the last draft, 30 June 1973, until the present, and the research explores the possibility of a definitive link between lower Army entrance standards and negative impacts on the Army. The entrance standards consist of criteria based on education, physical waivers, criminal or moral waivers, and the Armed Forces Vocational Assessment Battery (ASVAB). ASVAB scores and recruit education level play a major role in the costs of recruiting, training, and force maintenance; therefore, higher entrance standards generate higher costs, and produce higher performing Soldiers while lower entrance standards produce lower costs and performance. Viewing the matriculation of a recruit from recruitment through the institutional Army to the operational Army as a system clearly illustrates how low quality recruits can negatively impact the Army. New recruits, as raw material are the inputs of the institutional Army. The institutional Army is the processing component of the system where the recruits are trained, educated, and molded into Soldiers. The institutional Army's products are So
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