July 20, 2019
Army Recruiters Signed Off On Hundreds of Recruits Who Hadn't Passed a Required Fitness Test
Our best and brightest?
by Task and Purpose
Over 300 soldiers were found to have enlisted after either failing a required fitness test, or never taking it at all, according to documents obtained by Army Times.
In 2017, the Army was straining to meet its goal of 476,000 active-duty soldiers, meaning the service had to bring in 68,000 recruits. The Occupational Physical Assessment Test was new, and Army Times reports that recruiters implicated in the investigation — 297 of them — "figured the recruits would sort out their fitness levels at basic."
According to the report obtained by Army Times, recruiters "perceived that they were under pressure by the mission increase and the requirement to fill training seats during a historically low period of accessions into the Army to ship recruits as quickly as possible."
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/army-recruiters-signed-hundreds-recruits-who-hadnt-passed-required-fitness-test-68102
