The United States' All-Volunteer Force (AVF) is embroiled in the longest ground combat power intensive conflict in its history. The Army's massive need for Soldiers has placed so much strain on the Army recruiting system that at times recruit quality has been sacrificed to achieve sufficient troop strength. If this is true, then how much of an impact does the drop in quality have and what is the repercussion? In the last few years, media headlines have proclaimed that the US Army has resorted to accepting lower quality recruits to increase and maintain an appropriate strength level to continue current Army commitments. The ability of the Army to enlist and keep Soldiers directly affects its ability to sustain the troop levels needed in support of Army operations. This monograph examines low quality recruits and their impact on the AVF. The scope of this research covers the time period from the end of the last draft, 30 June 1973, until the present, and the research explores the possibility of a definitive link between lower Army entrance standards and negative impacts on the Army. The entrance standards consist of criteria based on education, physical waivers, criminal or moral waivers, and the Armed Forces Vocational Assessment Battery (ASVAB). ASVAB scores and recruit education level play a major role in the costs of recruiting, training, and force maintenance; therefore, higher entrance standards generate higher costs, and produce higher performing Soldiers while lower entrance standards produce lower costs and performance. Viewing the matriculation of a recruit from recruitment through the institutional Army to the operational Army as a system clearly illustrates how low quality recruits can negatively impact the Army. New recruits, as raw material are the inputs of the institutional Army. The institutional Army is the processing component of the system where the recruits are trained, educated, and molded into Soldiers. The institutional Army's products are Soldiers which are the inputs to the operational Army. The performance of Soldiers during Army operations collectively corresponds to the Army's operational performance. This research shows how lowering entrance standards increases the potential number of applicants in the recruiting pool by allowing previously ineligible people to enlist in the Army. The measures that were investigated to determine low quality recruits negative impact on the Army are the number of recruits discharged before the end of their enlistment and retention. Also, this monograph examined what mitigating systems or processes the Army has established to prevent low quality recruits from negatively impacting the AVF. The AVF continues to exceed the expectations of its framers, and comprises the best military force in the country's history. Failure in the Vietnam War resulted in national angst about the draft. Political and senior Army leaders do not want the AVF to fail. Therefore, it would seem that the U.S. has placed almost all of its bets on the AVF. The current conflict has stretched the AVF near the breaking point and its vulnerabilities have been realized. Selective Service continues to be funded and administered by the government as a potential option in case the AVF is stretched beyond its elasticity.

Approved for public release; Distribution is unlimited. The opinions and conclusions expressed herein are those of the student-authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College or any other governmental agency. (References to these studies should include the foregoing statement.)