Recruitment of More People With Criminal Records Places Nation's Military in Jeopardy, Says Pitt Faculty Expert Donald Goldstein
PITTSBURGH-Leading World War II authority Donald Goldstein, a professor in the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, is concerned about the state of the U.S. military. According to data released Monday by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the U.S. Army and Marine Corps recruited significantly more ex-convicts last year than in 2006. The crimes included assault, sex crimes, manslaughter, and burglary.
Goldstein says the abundance of conscripts during WWII and the Vietnam War allowed for a more diverse and larger army, but those days are over. "Because the volunteer force is limited, the same people are serving three or four tours of duty," says Goldstein. "The volunteers are doing the best they can, but they are overworked and underpaid. It is a growing problem. The military is being forced to take people that it would not have years ago."
Department of Defense statistics reveal that the percentage of new Army recruits with high school diplomas has decreased from 94 percent in 2003 to 83.5 percent in 2005 to 70.7 percent in 2007. The Department of Defense's current goal is 90 percent. High school dropouts are more likely to drop out of the military than their peers with high school diplomas, according to the Department of Defense. Taking in more high school dropouts may not be the best strategy for boosting long-term recruitment numbers, says Goldstein.
Other factors lead to the lowering of recruitment standards, such as the army's standing commitments in NATO, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, and other related state duties, says Goldstein.
Goldstein is a military scholar and a renowned expert on Pearl Harbor. He is the author or coauthor of 25 books, including two best-sellers, "At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor" (McGraw-Hill, 1981) and "Miracle at Midway" (McGraw-Hill, 1983).
For a list of Pitt faculty experts, visit www.umc.pitt.edu/m/experts.html
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4/23/08/tmw
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