WASHINGTON – The U.S. Navy is starting to enlist individuals who didn’t graduate from high school or get a GED, marking the second time in about a year that the service has opened the door to lower-performing recruits as it struggles to meet enlistment goals.

  • Neato@ttrpg.network
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    9 months ago

    It’s because low level enlisted is paid like shit.

    And now they are recruiting from those w/o HS or GED. The people already struggling to find employement.

    Poverty recruitment! Yay…

      • Seleni@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        My cousin left the navy for that exact reason. Of course, she actually had to work with Trump, so I imagine that didn’t help.

  • tsonfeir@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    Gosh, maybe no one wants to support the military industrial complex, since we aren’t getting the American dream anymore.

  • voxelastronaut@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Their recruitment ads are getting laughably desperate, too–all crazy CGI and sci-fi fantasies aimed at gullible COD nerds. They almost got me (poor kid straight out of high school, I was vulnerable) and haven’t stopped chasing me ever since. It’s been like 8 years and I still get recruitment material targeted at me, somehow–one of them even texted me like a year or two ago.

    Maybe if they paid better, took better care of veterans, and weren’t part of a bloodthirsty genocide machine slaughtering innocent people, they wouldn’t be having so much trouble.

  • trackcharlie@lemmynsfw.com
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    9 months ago

    You want a high number of quality employees? Stop reducing the standards and start increasing pay.

    Full fucking stop.

    • Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca
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      9 months ago

      People are a lot more likely to sign up if there’s no risk of actual fighting happening. With Ukraine/Russia and Israel/Palestine and potentially China/Taiwan soon I’m not surprised people are reluctant to join.

    • Everythingispenguins@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Plus a disaster for the army. It reduced its effective force because most of the men drafted with disabilities required a full time buddy to navigate most simple tasks. Literally it failed in every way possible.

      • stufkes@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Yes, this is covered in the talk as well. In one example, an officer is killed by a macnamara man because he couldn’t tell him apart from the enemy, and another where a soldier couldn’t grasp the concept of throwing a grenade in a parabola over an obstacle rather than straight ahead.

    • Sagifurius@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      Sure, but a grade 12 or not is more situational than anything indicating intelligence. Yeah it’s mostly ubiquitous now, but that doesn’t change it’s no real indication.

  • bradorsomething@ttrpg.network
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    9 months ago

    Joining the military seems much less attractive for people when your country have been fighting in foreign countries for 16 of the last 18 years of your life… who knew?

    • CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      And if the country in question didn’t openly shit on veterans (From a government policy standpoint not the actual populace).

  • Rakonat@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Surely this will not cause reliability and readiness issues over the next decade.