Waivers make for good soldiers, Army says

[unhappycamper]

Waivers make for good soldiers, Army says
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Feb 15, 2008 16:49:03 EST

A new Army assessment shows that recruits who receive moral, medical or other waivers to enlist are less likely to drop out of basic training, have lower rates of personality disorders and re-enlist in higher numbers than those who meet enlistment standards without a waiver.

People who entered the Army with waivers were also more likely to be high school graduates, were promoted to sergeant about four months faster than those without waivers, and were more likely to receive medals of valor, according to Army data obtained by the House Armed Services Committee.

With the number of people with waivers having grown to about 24 percent of all Army recruits, the assessment has raised a fresh wrinkle in the debate over whether increasing use of moral waivers to meet recruiting goals is hurting the military — and if so, by how much.

Rep. Jim Saxton, R-N.J., a senior committee member, mentioned the statistics during a Thursday hearing to challenge the notion that the case-by-case decisions to relax standards were hurting the military.

“We find in some cases soldiers with waivers have done better than those without,” he said.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/02/military_waiversstudy_080215w/



uhc comment: Army goes batshit crazy.