Navy recruiting rebounds, but it will miss target to get sailors through boot camp
WASHINGTON — Thanks to several new recruitment programs, the Navy is set to reach its goal of recruiting 40,600 by the end of September. But a surge in last-minute applications means it won’t be able to get them all through boot camp by next month.
Navy Vice Adm. Rick Cheeseman said the service will be about 5,000 sailors short of getting all the recruits through the 10-week training course in Great Lakes, Illinois, by the end of the fiscal year. Although they have signed initial contracts, many are still months away from reaching boot camp or the fleet.
The Navy failed to its total recruiting goal for two years running. And those gaps are hurting its ability to fully man its warships. The Navy is short about 22,000 sailors to fill ship paychecks, and the vast majority of those — about 20,000 — are in the lowest ranks.
“We’re not at the point where we can’t do things — I want to make sure that’s clear,” Cheeseman said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We’re all working together to make sure our ships are ready to do the things we’re asking them to do.”
All the military services have struggled in recent years to attract recruits in a tight labor market where companies are willing to pay more and offer good benefits without the demands of service and warfare. It’s also hard to find young people who can meet the physical, mental and moral standards of the military, which has strict limits on drug use and criminal convictions.
Last year for example, The Navy, Army and Air Force failed to meet their recruitment targets, with the Navy about 6,000 short. The Marine Corps and the tiny Space Force have consistently met their targets. This fall, all but the Navy are on track to meet their numbers and have largely recovered without some of the more dramatic steps the Navy has taken, including accepting recruits with very low test scores.
The latest wave of Navy recruitment has Cheeseman and other leaders optimistic that changes made to bring in more sailors are starting to work. And he predicts full success next year.
“We’ve recovered so dramatically in the last four to five months that I really have a problem with phasing,” Cheeseman said. “Because we were short from October through February, we’re trying to get all these people through at the end.”
As a result, he said, the training camp is running at full capacity and he will only be able to deliver 35,500 by the end of September.
One of the most significant changes in recruiting was the Navy’s decision in December 2022 to significantly expand the pool of applicants by luring young adults with very low test scores, recruiting recruits who do not have a high school diploma or a GED — both rare steps that are severely limited or avoided by other services.
Cheeseman said about 17 percent of this year’s recruits are so-called Category 4s — the lowest end of the testing scale. That percentage is much higher than the military standard.
The services typically limit the number of Category 4 recruits to no more than 4 percent of their enlistment total or refuse to admit them at all. The Navy, however, has argued that it needs the lower-scoring recruits to fill a wide range of jobs that require intensive manual labor.
Recruits who score 30 or lower on the Armed Services Qualification Test fall into Category 4, and Cheeseman said the Navy used to accept young men and women who scored between 10 and 30 out of a possible 99. Recently, however, he said, they stopped accepting those who score between 10 and 20, “because I just don’t need them anymore.” But the Navy continues to accept those who score between 20 and 30.
Hiring underperforming candidates traditionally raises concerns about potential disciplinary or other problems in the future.
Navy recruiters have had some success in recruiting people without a high school diploma or equivalent, as long as they scored above 50. That change, implemented early this year, has yielded about 400 recruits. Many of them, Cheeseman said, score quite well on the aptitude test, averaging about 63.
The other big change was the launch of a new Future Sailor Preparatory Course, modeled after one the Army started two years ago and that was a huge success. The Navy began its program in April 2023, and so far about 2,900 sailors have taken the academic course and at least 1,850 have completed it. About 300 have taken the physical fitness course.
The preparatory course is designed for recruits who do not perform well in school or physical tests. The course lasts three weeks and can be extended to a maximum of 90 days.
Cheeseman is optimistic about the future, saying the Navy has expanded the training camp’s staffing levels to ensure it can handle the full mission in the coming year.
“Our recruiters are great. They’re doing a great job. They’re crushing the mission,” he said. “We’re headed in the right direction. I can sustain the numbers we need to get to 40,600 next year starting Oct. 1. No problem. We’re ready.”