Military Recruiting and Moral Waivers - If You Ain't Gay, There's a Way!

Got a letter in the mail.
Go to war or go to jail.
And it won't be long,
Till I get on back home

My recruiter told me a lie.
"Join the Airborne and learn how to fly."
But it won't be long,
Till I get on back home.
- Old U.S. Army marching cadence.

From 2004 to 2005, the number of recruits brought into the Army with serious criminal misconduct waiver jumped 54%, drug and alcohol waivers increased 13%, and misdemeanor waivers increased 25%.

November 21, 2006
The dubious use of ‘moral waivers’

I can appreciate the fact that military recruiting in the midst of an unpopular war is difficult. I can even appreciate the need to alter minimum standards in order to make it easier to fill the ranks. But “moral waivers“? (thanks to K.Z. for the tip)

A CBS4 investigation shows how the U.S. Army is accepting more applicants with criminal records, including drug problems, through a system of “waivers” to bypass regulations.

With a high demand for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army has struggled to meet its recruiting and retention goals in past years. However, in the 2006 fiscal year, the Army exceeded its goal by enlisting 80,635 new troops…. The factors for an increase in enlistment include the change of the age limit from 40 to 42, a lowering of aptitude test score standards and an increase in what the Army calls “moral waivers.”

Nationally, the Army has increased its acceptance of moral waivers from 7,640 in 2001 to 11,018 in 2006.

The CBS affiliate in Denver decided to put these “moral waivers” to the test, seeing exactly who would qualify to receive one. A woman who claimed to have a marijuana possession record, for example, was told, “You could still be an officer with that. It may slow it down a bit … it requires a waiver.”

Upping the ante, the CBS affiliate sent another person into a recruiting station, claiming he was a gang member.

“Does it matter that I was in a gang or anything like that?” he asked the recruiter.

At first, he was told the Army doesn’t accept enlistees who were gang members, but then the senior officer stepped in.

“You may have had some gang activity in the past and everything, ok, and that in itself does not disqualify you,” he said.

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