After the military branches have struggled for several years to hit recruitment goals, the Pentagon has announced it is making a key entrance exam easier to pass by allowing test takers to use a calculator. That longtime military test is known as ASVAB, or Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, which dates back generations.
A calculator is already allowed in many math classes and for college tests such as the ACT and SAT, news website Military.com pointed out in its story.
The bigger problem is recruitment shortfalls which are expected by the Army, Navy, and Air Force when the fiscal year ends, which will mark two years in a row, the story said.
Bob Maginnis, a retired Army colonel, studies national defense at the Family Research Council. He tells AFN the public doesn’t want to hear the words “draft” or “conscription” but maintains the United States is unable to maintain a fully capable armed forces.
“And I've long proposed the idea of returning to some sort of conscription, whether it's national service in the civilian corps or it's the military conscription,” he says. “We need to do that. I think there's a loss of patriotism across the nation's youth."
