The Wall Street Journal reported that the US military is hiring recruits with behavioural disorders, with up to 700 trainees already employed.
After revising its policies regarding which medical disorders disqualify applicants from service, the US military has now permitted 700 recruits with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to enlist, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Tuesday.
The military decided in June to allow people with 38 medical disorders to enlist as long as they hadn’t shown symptoms or required treatment in the three to seven years prior to signing up. As a result, 700 trainees were employed. Previously, these illnesses—which include congenital heart abnormalities and tuberculosis—were grounds for immediate exclusion.
According to Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, the branch would evaluate the program’s efficacy once the recruits had served for a full year.
“We want to be cautious,” Wormuth said, referring to hiring those with mental health conditions. “I think we have to constantly be refreshing our approach and looking at conditions in this society.”
Only 23% of young Americans presently achieve the requisite physical criteria for the US military, according to Wormuth, who spoke to CNBC in October. In addition, she continued, just 9% of these 16 to 21-year-olds are actually interested in joining.
According to Wormuth, this drop in fitness, along with a requirement for the Covid-19 vaccine and more alluring employment offers from the private sector, caused the Army to have its worst year for recruitment since the repeal of the draught in 1973. The Army fell 15,000 soldiers shy of its 60,000-soldier goal at the end of the 2022 fiscal year, a 25% deficit.
The Navy and Marine Corps are likewise having trouble filling vacant positions. The Marine Corps typically secures half of their target by October, but this year they are nearly 20% behind. According to sources speaking to the Associated Press, the Navy, which typically starts the fiscal year at around 25% of recruitment, only met 10% of its goal in October.
The Pentagon has made previous moves to relax regulations, which have drawn heavy criticism. During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, drug offenders and high school dropouts were permitted to enlist with waivers, which resulted in a rise in mental health problems and suicides among the soldiers.
At the height of the Vietnam War, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara drafted up to 320,000 unfit and low-IQ troops, sailors, marines, and airmen. This unqualified military personnel were unflatteringly dubbed ‘McNamara’s Morons’ by the media at the time.
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