A US Senator has claimed that one of the military’s recruitment systems is contributing to the alarming decrease in the number of people entering the armed forces.
During a recent Armed Services Committee hearing, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts grilled the heads of the military recruiting commands on an alleged glitch in MHS Genesis, the military’s official electronic health record system.
She said many healthy candidates are being held up in a lengthy medical review due to conditions as minor as a childhood wrist sprain.
The system also reportedly flags applicants with manageable or long-healed injuries, requiring them to obtain a medical waiver. Last year, one in seven recruits needed to submit such a waiver before joining.
According to Warren, this procedure adds at least 70 days to the entire application process for every recruit.
“Now obviously we want a screening process that catches disqualifying medical conditions. But do each of you agree that it is a problem if our process is creating unnecessary barriers to enrollment?” she said.
A New Tracking System
Starting in January, the US military said it will begin tracking why some recruits back out before joining up.
The new system will collect data on medically disqualified applicants and ensure that they are given a choice of whether to proceed with a medical waiver request.
The tool will also record why aspiring soldiers abandon the recruiting process.
“We cannot afford to lose people who have already demonstrated a willingness to serve,” Warren stressed. “These are the people who say ‘I want to do this.’ Especially if the only barrier is something that would be quickly dismissed by a medical review.”
Missed Recruitment Goals
For the past two years, the US military has seen a significant decline in the number of people joining its forces.
The US Army alone missed its fiscal year 2022 recruitment goal by 15,000 after only hiring 45,000 new servicemen out of the 60,000 it initially targeted.
In the following fiscal year, it again fell short of its “stretched goal” of 65,000 recruits – only contracting 55,000 new soldiers.
Meanwhile, the US Navy had a similar experience when it only recruited 30,000 new sailors, or 80 percent of its targeted 38,000.
Top military recruiters blamed the decline on a highly competitive labor market and the declining interest of young people in serving.
To address shortfalls, the US Army in October announced a sweeping overhaul of its recruitment strategy, first with the creation of a workforce dedicated only to recruitment.
