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Study: Waiver troops OK, but need discipline

Soldiers who join the Army after receiving moral or conduct waivers tend to stay in the service longer, re-enlist at a slightly higher rate, earn more valor awards and get promoted faster, but they also face more courts-martial and have more discipline problems, according to an Army study.

Conducted late last year by Army G-1 staff, the study was based on enlistment of non-prior service personnel from fiscal years 2003 through 2006, and the results were mixed.

The Army has come under fire for its increased use of waivers, especially those for adult felonies, to help meet recruiting goals. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have created an especially tough recruiting market, and the Army’s goal to grow its active-duty end strength to 547,000 by the end of fiscal 2010 has led some to believe the increasing use of waivers for recruits with criminal or drug records is too risky.

Army leaders have said the waivers give a second chance to people who want to serve.

“It’s worth the scrutiny because these soldiers have overcome their transgressions and [they] have skills the Army needs and wants,” said Lt. Col. Val Siegfried, chief of the enlisted accessions branch in the Army G-1.

“There is a little bit more risk to [soldiers with waivers], but we’re also seeing a lot of goodness here,” Siegfried said.

Between fiscal 2003 and 2006, 276,231 people without prior service in the military enlisted in the Army; 17,961, or 6.5 percent, received moral or conduct waivers. The study did not include recruits who received waivers for medical or administrative reasons, or prior service members who needed conduct waivers.

Compared to soldiers without moral waivers, those with moral waivers:

• Stayed in the Army longer, with an average of 19 months of service compared with 17.9 months. Analysts arrived at those numbers based on the number of people who had already left the Army either because their term of service expired or they faced adverse action, said personnel analyst Maj. Jake LaPorte.

• Had a higher re-enlistment rate, 28.48 percent compared with 26.76 percent. Those numbers were derived from the fiscal 2003 cohort, the group that had spent the most time in the Army, LaPorte said.

• Were promoted more quickly to sergeant, after 34.7 months in service compared with 39 months. Those numbers were based on soldiers who were in the infantry, or 11B.

• Had a higher rate of high school graduates, 86.58 percent vs. 84.2 percent.

• Had a lower rate of Category IV recruits — those who score lower on the entrance examination — 0.82 percent vs. 2.28 percent.

• Had a lower rate of dismissal from the Army for personality disorders (0.93 percent compared with 1.12 percent), unsatisfactory performance (0.26 percent vs. 0.48 percent) and entry-level performance and conduct (3 percent compared with 4.54 percent).

On the negative side, soldiers with moral waivers also:

• Left the Army at a higher rate for alcohol rehabilitation failure, 0.27 percent compared with 0.12 percent for those without moral waivers.

• Had a higher desertion rate, 4.26 percent compared with 3.59 percent.

• Left the Army at a higher rate with bad conduct or dishonorable discharges (0.5 percent vs. 0.4 percent).

• Left the Army at a higher rate for misconduct (5.95 percent vs. 3.55 percent) or in lieu of a trial by court-martial (2.58 percent compared with 2.04 percent).

• Appeared at a higher rate before courts-martial, 1.04 percent compared with 0.71 percent.

Siegfried said the Army goes through “a very systematic, deliberate process,” before granting waivers, particularly for applicants with felony records.

Last year, 511 of the 80,407 new soldiers who enlisted in the active Army received adult felony waivers, he said. The recruiting goal for the year was 80,000 soldiers.

“We would have made the mission in one way or another,” he said. “Do we really need these guys in [the Army]? We really don’t. It’s not as dire, in my opinion, as they make it seem out there.”

But, he said, the nation is built on second chances, Siegfried said.

“What’s important to the Army is ... what they produce,” he said. “The commanders in the field say their soldiers are sharp. That’s what’s important.”