Slots for soldiers go unfilled at West Point - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Slots for soldiers go unfilled at West Point

West Point has launched an aggressive, grass-roots recruiting campaign to attract soldiers.

The U.S. Military Academy hasn’t filled all its congressionally reserved slots for soldiers “in decades,” said Maj. Brian Easley, the soldier admissions officer at the academy. For the most recent class, graduating in 2014, West Point admitted 69 enlisted soldiers — 40 percent of the 170 slots authorized by Congress.

Easley and his predecessors once relied solely on alumni to steer soldiers toward the academy. Now he targets soldiers who have aced aptitude tests and whose names and scores are sent to him by Army human resources. Using Facebook or Army Knowledge Online, he e-mails candidates directly.

Easley travels to posts across the country, meeting soldiers and talking up the benefits of a free education and $950 monthly paychecks.

The academy’s brass see a major benefit from enrolling enlisted soldiers. Veterans arrive at West Point older, more mature and with a deeper understanding of the Army than teenagers straight out of high school, Easley said. A prime example, he said, is former sergeant Tyler Gordy, who became “first captain,” the highest ranking cadet in 2009, a position once held by Gen. Douglas MacArthur. In fact, since 2002, four first captains have been former enlisted soldiers.

“There’s a maturity gap between an 18-year-old who has been a high school star and a 22-year-old combat veteran who has seen the realities of the world,” said Gordy, a second lieutenant in basic officer school. “We were focused — and that attitude rubbed off on our peers.”

Easley said that last summer, the commandant gathered the former enlisted soldiers before cadet basic training and asked them to help upperclassmen teach inexperienced “new cadets” basic soldier skills, like shining shoes or marching from within squads and platoons.

But, despite recruitment efforts and the backing from the chain of command, old obstacles remain. Easley cites the academy’s tough acceptance standards, which consider only active-duty soldiers between 17 or 23 years old who are without dependents, and are sponsored by their commanders. The minimum standardized test scores — around 22 for the ACT or 1,500 on the new SAT — pose a major hurdle for troops who have been away from academics for a few years, Easley said.

Not enough soldiers sign up for free college entry exams, study at post education centers and attain above-average scores. Many soldiers need high standardized test scores and exemplary soldier performance to overshadow below-average high school grades.

Today’s fast-paced Army is part of the problem, Easley said. Overseas combat duty cuts into soldiers’ personal time and dries up their motivation for a long application process.

He is also competing with much shorter Special Forces and warrant schools, whose recruiters search for the same profile. Some soldiers don’t apply because they fear approaching a commander for a recommendation, are afraid of failing the rigorous courses, or just don’t want to lose their independence. Other combat veterans, Easley said, refuse based on an idea that at West Point “a high school kid with a year of college” will yell at them.

West Point accepted just 69 soldiers — less than 5 percent — of more than 1,500 applications, for the class of 2014. Almost two-thirds of them were required to first complete a year at the U.S. Military Academy prep school at Fort Monmouth, N.J., to brush up on schoolwork. Just 18 soldiers were admitted directly.

Easley hopes that, in a couple years, West Point will be flooded with soldier applicants, mirroring the 11,000 or so applications that come from civilians who compete for 1,275 places annually.

Roughly 200 civilians wash out of each class, over the four-year, $450,000 education, but prior-service cadets are “likely to stick around longer,” he said.

DISCUSS: OPEN SLOTS AT WEST POINT