I think we all should just as concerned with the Army lowering their moral standards as much as their aptitude standards. To my understanding a recruit can enter the Army with more than one convicted felony and/or sex offense. Not only will you have a dumber Army, but you will have a greater chance of having a more corrupt Army as well.

Another point I would like to make is that surprisingly, I have found that those people possessing a GED (or no HS diploma at all) 9 times out of 10, score in the upper mental group (50% percentile or higher) verses those individuals possessing a high school diploma. I'm telling you-- you would be amazed. Everyone who drops out of high school has their different reasons for doing so. Maybe to help out their family financially or maybe its just that the kid isn't stimulated with the course work at school. They need something more challenging. It's sad really how people automatically think that the people with GEDs are the "dumber" recruit. Although the Navy only accepts applicants with GEDs on occasion, I worry much more that one of my applicants with a high school diploma or a high school senior for that matter will fail their ASVAB test and not be able to enlist than someone who walks in with a GED etc. Heck, now days we get excited if the applicant can just pass the ASVAB (35-49 percentile/ lower mental group). For those of you that don't know the aptitude test (ASVAB) consists of ten sections, but only 4 of those sections determine a person's score. These 4 sections are word knowledge, arithmetic reasoning, mathmatical knowledge, and reading comprehension. It's basic stuff we all should have learned before we ever made it to high school. You would be amazed at the amount of people that can't pass. I've had college grads score below a 50 which is the lower mental group. It's really sad.

I wouldn't be surprised. My recruiter almost threw a parade when he saw my scores. Another guy who came in the same day to learn his was absolutely thrilled to be right around the 50th percentile.

Again, I don't think test scores are an indicator of true intelligence, but this test is really, REALLY basic.

I've been recruiting for over two years and it still amazes me on a daily basis. I agree person's intelligence should not just be based on test scores. Actually I've had a few applicants that scored a perfect score and I was looking for any reason to disqualify them. They just didn't have the common sense and basic social skills to work with people in general. Those type of people worry me too.

I did know a soldier with a BS and very high scores who had the common sense of a 5 year old. Of course, she came from a highly religious background, too. Still, a bit unnerving, especially for an MP, and knowing that her next assignment was likely to be in the field.