In a Tuesday press conference, Reps. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., and Gil Cisneros, D-Calif., announced their joint amendment’s introduction, calling it pertinent to military readiness and the well-being of American troops.

“That is almost 300 future airmen and women who would not be finishing their training at their expected date,” Cisneros, a former under secretary of defense for personnel readiness, said in the briefing. “This has completely set back the Air Force’s expected recruitment class from entering the future squadrons on time.”

This move comes after a flu outbreak sickened hundreds of trainees at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, and killed one. Castro, whose district houses Lackland, confirmed that 284 trainees contracted the flu, four have been hospitalized and one has died.

Over a week ago, the Air Force announced that the training wing at Lackland suffered a localized outbreak over the three weeks prior but did not mention how many trainees contracted the flu.

Keon McDaniel, a basic military trainee from the 737th Training Support Squadron at Lackland, died on June 16 at Brooke Army Medical Center due to a medical emergency. Lackland officials said an investigation into the cause of his death is currently underway. Air Force officials declined at the time to comment on if his passing was related to the flu outbreak.

But Castro, who requested an investigation into McDaniel’s death in relation to the flu, revealed Tuesday that the Air Force confirmed that the trainee did die from the outbreak on base, according to a release.

“This is a tragedy that could have been prevented were it not for the reckless actions of Secretary [of Defense Pete] Hegseth,” Castro said in the statement.

The outbreak caused lawmakers to express concern over the current optional flu vaccine policy for service members and Pentagon civilian personnel that went into effect in April, two months before the outbreak.

Hegseth announced that service members would no longer be required to get the annual flu vaccine, citing the prior policy as “overly broad and not rational.”

Last week, the Pentagon granted exceptions to policy requests, or ETPs, to military services and some federal agencies, allowing for the slight reversal to be included into Hegseth’s guidance.

The services with ETPs granted by Under Secretary of Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata include the Department of the Army, Department of the Navy and Department of the Air Force.

Given that the Marine Corps and Space Force are under the Department of the Navy and Department of the Air Force, respectively, the services are also included in the exceptions.

The Pentagon declined to comment on if all trainees would be required to get the flu vaccine or when the exceptions were requested and granted. The Associated Press reported that all trainees for basic military training would now be required to receive the vaccine, citing a Pentagon official.

Castro confirmed in the Tuesday briefing that the Air Force’s exception to vaccinate all trainees was not approved until after the outbreak occurred even though it was requested about a month prior.

Houlahan said that there has been no indication of flu outbreaks at bases other than Lackland, but it is considered an “ongoing concern.”

“Now, nothing’s ever perfect. You could get the vaccine, and you still may get the flu or any other disease that may come forth, but it does make a difference,” Cisneros, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said in the press conference.

The representatives that brought forth the amendment last week criticized their Republican counterparts for previously rejecting the measure’s inclusion in the final NDAA rules package, prompting another push to revert the policy to again require all service members to receive a flu vaccine.

The NDAA is currently moving through both chambers of Congress, with the House and Senate versions awaiting full consideration on their respective floors.

The Army signed contracts with 62,050 recruits, or 101.72% of its goal, while the Navy brought in 44,096 recruits, exceeding its target by more than 8%. The Air Force recruited 30,166 airmen; the Space Force brought in 819 Guardians; and the Marine Corps met its goal of 26,600 recruits.

Collectively, the five services achieved 103% of their active-duty recruiting mission, according to Pentagon officials.

After several years of recruiting shortfalls, military leaders have highlighted recruiting gains in congressional testimony, public remarks and service announcements.

For new recruits and the units waiting to receive them, however, signing a contract is only the first step. Recruits must still complete initial training, occupational schooling, technical certifications and, in many cases, security clearance requirements before joining the operational force.

As recruiting numbers improve, questions remain about how long it takes recruits to become mission qualified and contribute to military readiness.

How quickly recruits move from accession to operational qualification can affect force generation, unit staffing and long-term readiness planning.

Military leaders routinely report recruiting totals and accession goals, but the time required to transform recruits into fully qualified service members can vary significantly by specialty, training requirements and follow-on certifications. Those timelines help illustrate how quickly recruiting gains translate into trained personnel available to operational units.

Little public info on path to readiness

There is no single timeline for becoming fully mission capable. Training requirements vary significantly by specialty, with some support and administrative fields producing qualified service members in a matter of months, while highly technical and special operations pipelines can take more than a year and, in some cases, several years.

To determine what information is publicly available about how recruits become operationally ready, Military Times reviewed readiness documents, service training materials, congressional reporting requirements and Government Accountability Office reports.

The services routinely publish recruiting totals, accession targets and shipping figures. Army, Navy and Air Force leaders regularly testify before Congress about recruiting performance and often release updates throughout the year.

As of publication, Military Times was unable to identify a publicly available, department-wide metric measuring how long it takes recruits to become fully mission capable.

The absence of publicly available reports does not indicate whether the department tracks those timelines internally. Among the systems DoD uses to assess readiness are the Defense Readiness Reporting System and the Chairman’s Readiness System. Those systems primarily focus on unit personnel, equipment, supplies, training and mission capability.

GAO reviews of military readiness describe DoD readiness assessments that include personnel, maintenance, training and mission-capability measures. In a 2023 review, GAO reported that resource readiness ratings measure the status of personnel, equipment, supplies and training, while mission capability ratings assess whether units can accomplish their designed missions.

Military Times asked the Department of Defense whether it maintains a department-wide metric measuring the average amount of time required to move recruits from accession to operational qualification and, if so, whether that information is reported to Congress or made publicly available. In response, Pentagon Press Operations referred Military Times to the military services for information on accession-to-readiness timelines.

Requests for additional information were also sent to the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Space Force regarding whether they track the amount of time required for recruits to become fully mission qualified and whether those data are reported outside the services.

Federal law requires the Defense Department to maintain a comprehensive readiness reporting system.

Under 10 U.S.C. § 117, the secretary of defense must ensure the system objectively measures the capability of the armed forces to carry out national defense missions and includes assessments of unit readiness, training establishments and defense infrastructure. The statute also requires readiness policies to be applied uniformly across the department through a single authoritative reporting system.

The law does not explicitly require reporting on the amount of time needed to move individual recruits from accession to full mission qualification. Military Times was unable to identify publicly available documentation showing that accession-to-readiness timelines are included as a standardized department-wide measure.

Timing differs by service and specialty

Military officials do not generally define readiness solely by branch. Training pipelines are largely determined by occupational specialty.

Training timelines vary widely. Some support specialties may require only a few months of initial training, while combat arms, technical and specialized career fields often require substantially longer pipelines. Highly technical career fields, including cyber, intelligence and nuclear specialties, can require 12 months or more of schooling and follow-on qualifications, depending on specialty and qualification requirements. Special operations pipelines frequently extend well beyond a year.

Army recruits complete Basic Combat Training, followed by Advanced Individual Training in most specialties, while some combat arms occupations use One Station Unit Training, which combines both phases.

Depending on military occupational specialty, follow-on schooling can last from four weeks to more than a year. Infantry recruits complete One Station Unit Training, which typically lasts about 22 weeks.

Marine recruits spend approximately 13 weeks at boot camp before moving to Marine Combat Training or the Infantry Training Battalion, and then occupational specialty schools. Depending on specialty, Marine training pipelines can extend for several additional months.

Navy recruits complete approximately nine weeks at Recruit Training Command before reporting to “A” schools. Job training ranges from several weeks to more than a year, particularly in highly technical communities such as nuclear propulsion.

Air Force recruits complete 52 days, or roughly seven and a half weeks, of Basic Military Training at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland before entering technical training. Depending on specialty, technical training can last from several weeks to many months, particularly in cyber and special warfare career fields.

Space Force Guardians attend Air Force Basic Military Training before entering specialized technical pipelines focused on cyber, intelligence and space operations.

Completing occupational training does not necessarily mean a service member is immediately considered fully mission capable. Newly assigned personnel often complete additional local certifications, field exercises and collective training requirements after arriving at operational units.

Navy officials said readiness is generally measured through demonstrated proficiency rather than time spent in training. Capt. Candice Tresch, public affairs director for the Chief of Naval Personnel, said sailors first complete initial training, and then continue qualifying at their commands through warfare qualifications, emergency drills and unit-level training.

“There’s really no specific [timeline], in six months you go from the street to proficient sailor,” Tresch told Military Times. “It’s a continuous progression.”

Tresch said qualification timelines vary by specialty, command and operational requirements. Operational demands can also accelerate or extend training schedules.

“It’s not really time-based. [It’s] can you do the mission?” she said.

Constraints to military training, readiness

Government Accountability Office reports, congressional testimony and publicly available military documents describe factors affecting military readiness and training, including schoolhouse capacity, instructor availability, maintenance requirements, security clearance processing and equipment availability.

Recent GAO reviews identified training limitations, personnel shortages, maintenance delays, sustainment challenges and infrastructure constraints affecting readiness across the force.

One GAO review examining sailor-led ship maintenance found that the Navy did not track and report certain personnel data, including the number of sailors assigned to ships but unavailable for duty. GAO recommended that the Navy collect and report additional personnel information to improve oversight and the quality of information provided to Congress.

The services already report numerous readiness measures, including personnel levels, training status and mission-capability rates. Military Times did not identify publicly available documentation showing that those readiness measures include standardized timelines for moving recruits from accession to full mission qualification.

Congress receives regular updates on recruiting performance and unit readiness. Military Times did not identify publicly available documentation showing whether Congress receives standardized, department-wide data on how long recruits take to become fully mission capable.

The services routinely publish detailed recruiting data, including accession totals, shipping figures and boot camp graduations. Whether DoD also maintains or publicly reports a standardized measure tracking how long recruits take to become fully mission capable remains unclear.

Navy officials told Military Times that readiness is generally measured through demonstrated proficiency rather than a fixed timeline and said qualification timelines vary by specialty, command and operational requirements.

At publication, the Army, Air Force, Marine Corps and Space Force had not responded to Military Times’ requests for comment.

Staff Sgt. Johnny “Joey” Jones, a Fox News contributor, reenlisted in the Corps on Wednesday in a ceremony held by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon Hall of Heroes, according to the Department of Defense.

“A lot of work went into saying, ‘Hey, this is the kind of American we want back in uniform,’” Hegseth said in the ceremony. “Not just because of what he did and what he’s done in uniform but because of how he represents the fighting men and women of our country.”

Jones enlisted in 2005 as a radio technician before deploying to Iraq in 2007 as a machine gunner, per a Pentagon release. He then requested to change his MOS to Explosive Ordnance Disposal and later deployed to Afghanistan in 2010, according to the Sentinels of Freedom, a veterans scholarship and support program that Jones joined in 2012.

During his time in Afghanistan, Jones disabled over 85 improvised explosive devices. In August 2010, however, Jones stepped on an IED, resulting in the loss of both legs above the knee.

Starting in 2019, Jones became a Fox contributor “wingman” for Hegseth and spoke on military analysis and veterans’ services.

“How Joey talks about [service] on television [is] so that the American people understand it and connect to it in a visceral way,” Hegseth said at the ceremony. “You could talk about it academically, you could talk about it from a detached perspective or you can talk about having lived it the way he has.”

In his remarks at the ceremony, Hegseth highlighted last year’s Marine Corps record recruiting numbers, saying he hopes Jones’ reenlistment motivates younger Americans to join the military.

Jones said during the ceremony that he had more to give after medically retiring 14 years ago. He called it a “debt,” highlighting that he was able to be on TV while other service members continued to give to the country, “shy of their life and maybe a couple legs,” he said.

“The last job I had in uniform, my job was to get better. It was to heal. It’s a very selfish thing,” Jones said. “The Marine Corps paid me to get better, and then I retired, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But it was unfinished business.”

Jones said he strives to change the perspective that society has of the men and women who got injured in combat and saw the worst of war. He said there’s more to give — if not through reenlisting, then by serving the community.

He remembers former Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. James Amos telling him, “Once a Marine, always a Marine,” not knowing that he would “cash that check” almost 20 years later.

“If there’s an opportunity for me to serve, there’s no reason why a no-legged 40-year-old staff sergeant [should not] be able to put the uniform on, other than these men believed it,” Jones said. “The goal here is to open that door for anyone else that has something left to give.”

Having been medically rejected three times before ultimately receiving a medical waiver to join the Air National Guard in 2018, I know firsthand how illogical and infuriating this process can be. But, it was through my efforts advising over 400 similarly rejected applicants that I realized that larger-scale change is needed. By my calculations, over 15,000 applicants are medically rejected each year without applying for a waiver, with even more denied at the recruiter’s door or self-selecting out from applying at all. At a time when the military is facing a recruiting crisis, shouldn’t it be doing everything it can to bring in applicants who are ready and willing but currently unable to serve?

More than 15,000 applicants per year rejected without a waiver appeal

How many potential recruits is the military missing out on? According to a 2022 Accession Medical Standards Analysis and Research Activity report, 1.35 million applicants received a physical at MEPS from 2016-2020. Of that population, 13-16% were medically disqualified, yet only 47-66% of disqualified applicants applied for a medical waiver. By my calculations, from 2016-2020, as many as 85,000 applicants were rejected and did not apply for a medical waiver.

Why would an applicant not request a waiver? The answer comes down to incentives — and who actually does the paperwork. For most applicants, recruiters determine whether or not to submit for a waiver review. However, recruiters are evaluated by the total number of recruits they bring in, often based on monthly or yearly quotas. This disincentivizes them from prioritizing applicants who require waivers, which require more work, take more time, and may ultimately result in rejection. Additionally, recruiters are neither medical professionals nor empowered to evaluate an applicant holistically, which, in fact, is the intent of the waiver process. So, recruiters are unfortunately being put in the position of effectively making waiver decisions when they decide not to submit an applicant at all.

Let’s take 2020 as a case study, when the military services saw the following numbers of applicants, disqualifications, and waivers based on AMSARA’s 2022 Annual Report:

• Army: 120,500 applicants, 14% disqualified (16,750), 8,500 did not apply for waiver.
• Navy: 46,300 applicants, 16% disqualified (7,400), 3,100 did not apply for waiver.
• Air Force: 39,500 applicants, 16% disqualified (6,200), 2,500 did not apply for waiver.
• Marine Corps: 42,500 applicants, 14% disqualified (5,700), 1,800 did not apply for waiver.

So, in 2020 alone, 36,000 potential service members were rejected and 16,000 did not apply for a waiver. When you consider the previous four years as well, 192,000 applicants were medically rejected and 85,000 did not apply for a waiver.

It is important to note that these numbers are an underestimation of total applicants, since recruiters often exercise a “pocket veto” that prevents applicants from processing at MEPS or appealing for a waiver. Additionally, these disqualification statistics do not include the increased rate of disqualifications under MHS Genesis, an electronic health records system launched in 2023, which automatically flags civilian medical and prescription records. This forced disclosure of any and all potentially relevant medical records — which may be outdated, inaccurate, and irrelevant to an applicant’s ability to serve — will now cause only more hurdles.

The question remains: how many of these rejected applicants might be able to serve if given the opportunity to apply for a waiver?

Automatically push all applicants for a waiver

In the near term, a simple fix to this problem would be to automatically push all disqualified applicants for a waiver review. This would immediately double the number of applicants receiving waiver reviews and consequently increase the number of waivers approved. It would end the pocket veto of recruiters, who can slow roll or prevent applicants from applying for waivers. And it would give all applicants a chance to be evaluated holistically as to whether the potential risks they pose are outweighed by the value they bring to the military despite their medical conditions.

Waiver approval rates are currently 60-70%. How many of the 85,000 applicants currently rejected without a waiver might receive one if given the opportunity? There is no way to know for sure. But if we assume, for example, that 25% might be waived, the military could have received 21,000 additional recruits in the past five years. While this would not solve the entire military recruitment crisis, this improvement would result in a significant step towards improving the military recruitment crisis and is wholly within the military’s control.

Tailor medical requirements to job requirements

Requiring all applicants to apply for waivers is only a band-aid solution. Given current qualification standards prevent 77% of American youth from being eligible to serve, changing these standards would increase the supply of potential applicants to much more than just 23% of American youth. The long term solution, therefore, is to tailor military medical standards to military roles (i.e. MOS/AFSC). The military already exercises more waiver flexibility for jobs which are not physically demanding, such as chaplains, lawyers, and doctors, and has increased medical requirements for physically demanding jobs, such as fighter pilots and special forces. Why not expand this practice to all career fields?

Today, many military roles such as intelligence, logistics, or cyber, while critically important, are no more physically taxing than their civilian equivalents. Shouldn’t these roles have lower medical barriers to entry? Each Service could grade each MOS/AFSC as high, medium, or low risk from a physical and medical perspective and update standards and waiver recommendations accordingly. Just like applicants are currently waived for a specific branch, in the future they could be waived for specific jobs. If they wanted to switch, their medical status would need to be taken into consideration.

The needs of the military

Some will argue that tailoring medical standards and waiver guidelines is tantamount to “lowering standards.” I agree that not all conditions should be eligible for a waiver and that neither fitness standards nor job requirements be lowered. Deployability should be considered as well, yet deployability for support functions often means working on an established base or even deployment in place. Overall, the point is that medical standards should match the job, not be needlessly strict and standardized.

At the end of the day, the needs of the military come before any individual applicant. But what, exactly, are the needs of the military? Right now, the military needs to recruit thousands more qualified, competent, and fit individuals per year. The military can make simple changes to eligibility right now to open the floodgates of applicants who are already ready and willing to serve. The question remains whether the Department of Defense will choose to do so.

Joe Schuman is an Air National Guard officer and has published multiple articles on military recruitment issues as well as advised over 400 applicants on navigating the military medical waiver process. The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Defense. He can be reached at joeschuman1234@gmail.com.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., sent Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin a letter Wednesday seeking answers about whether Military Health System Genesis — a medical records platform that the military first used for screening recruits last year — has slowed the recruitment process by forcing qualified applicants to secure medical waivers.

“While some of these flags merit review, the system is also delaying enlistees with manageable or long-healed injuries,” the letter states. “This may delay recruits’ enlistment processes if medical conditions require applicants to obtain medical waivers, which can take weeks or even months to be completed.”

The letter cites a Military Times report this spring in which recruiters from across the services alleged Genesis was making it harder to fill the ranks as the military struggles to meet its recruiting targets.

These shortfalls are expected to leave the Army, Navy and Air Force well short of their recruiting goals when the fiscal year ends Sept. 30.

“It is essential that recruits are healthy enough to enlist in the military,” the Senate Armed Services Committee members wrote. “However, DoD needs to examine the steps it is taking to ensure that the process of enlisting and obtaining waivers does not impede the recruitment process.”

Genesis has complicated recruiting because, when applicants try to join, the system pulls all their health records, often unearthing medical conditions that require them to seek waivers or that disqualify them entirely, recruiters said.

Some of these conditions may have healed long ago and have no bearing on applicants’ potential to serve, according to recruiters.

As the enlistment process stretches out, some young people lose interest in serving, recruiters said.

“It comes to the point where they’re like, ‘This is too much work, I’m just gonna go apply at Starbucks,’” a Navy recruiter told Military Times earlier this year.

A Pentagon watchdog report from May confirmed that medical waiver processing times had grown across the services.

Warren and Blumenthal’s letter cites the chief of naval personnel, Vice Adm. Rick Cheeseman, reporting that the time between first interview and contract for Navy applicants rose from 33.8 days to 63.4 days after Genesis was put in place.

Even after making some fixes, the processing time for prospective sailors was still at 59.9 days, according to the letter. The Navy is working with the Center for Naval Analyses “to better understand the root cause of these delays,” according to the senators’ letter.

“We urge the other services to also evaluate these delays and implement policy changes as soon as possible to address these inefficiencies,” the senators wrote.

Maj. Gen. Edward Thomas, the head of Air Force Recruiting Service, said in February that the congressionally mandated Genesis system “wasn’t ready for deployment in recruiting.”

Warren and Blumenthal’s letter also cites Military Times reporting showing that the number of applicants seeking waivers has soared, though the Pentagon’s data was inconsistent with that of the services and the Army refused to provide data. Army Times reporting revealed the branch mobilized Reserve doctors to get through a medical waiver backlog.

The senators requested data on processing delays and waivers, and asked what steps the military is taking to evaluate changes to what disqualifies applicants from service.

Defense Department officials said this spring that Genesis does not reduce the population of qualified applicants — it just confirms their physical and mental readiness to serve. Officials did not answer questions regarding whether they believed Genesis had played a role in the current recruiting crisis.

In Wednesday’s letter, the senators also sought answers regarding how DoD protects the private patient records in Genesis.

The Genesis system is based on a product by Cerner, which Oracle acquired in June 2022. In its role as a broker of online data, Oracle has come under scrutiny for alleged violations of people’s privacy, the senators wrote.

Warren and Blumenthal also raised concerns that service members and their families may need to provide a credit card number to log on to the system, potentially creating a barrier to access.

Recruiters previously told Military Times that one way Genesis hampered recruiting is by making it harder for applicants to downplay medical conditions. It used to be that applicants could get into the military by fudging aspects of their self-reported medical histories, recruiters said.

“Now that Genesis exists, we can no longer hide things,” one Marine recruiter told Military Times.

The letter from Warren and Blumenthal didn’t address that aspect of Genesis’ reported effect on recruiting.

The senators requested answers from Austin’s office by Oct. 11.

The Office of the Secretary for Defense didn’t immediately respond to Military Times’ request for comment on the letter.

The Defense Department Inspector General assessment, released Friday, found that the branches all review and approve medical waivers in the same way.

However, “the Services’ processes did not include tracking whether active-duty enlisted applicants who were permanently disqualified requested a waiver, or were encouraged to pursue one,” the report states. “Nor did the Services track the reason a waiver was not requested.

“By tracking the reasons for not processing a medical waiver, the Services could better understand barriers to entering military service, inform change to recruiting processes, and improve outcome for active-duty enlisted applicants,” the IG states.

Recent data suggests that recruits requiring waivers have become a significant part of the future force.

At least 1 in every 6 military recruits were given waivers to enter service in fiscal 2022, the highest percentage in at least 10 years, according to a Military Times investigation earlier this year.

Leaders of the Army, Navy and Air Force told lawmakers last month that they expect their services to fall short of recruiting goals this fiscal year.

The Army is expected to be short about 10,000 active-duty soldiers, while the Navy will miss its active duty enlisted goal by 6,000 sailors, and the Air Force will fall short of its active duty enlisted recruiting goal by about 3,400 airmen.

The Marine Corps is expected to meet its recruiting goals for fiscal 2023.

The IG looked at all active duty enlisted applicants that were permanently disqualified from service in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps due to a medical condition in fiscal 2021 and 2022.

All told, the services processed 54,206 medical waiver requests in that time frame and approved 77 percent of them from active duty enlisted applicants, according to the report.

Their survey did not include the Space Force, National Guard, reserve components or officer applicants.

When officials at 65 U.S. Military Entrance Processing Command locations nationwide medically disqualify an applicant, the applicant can request a waiver through the branch they are trying to join.

But the services “could not readily provide all of the requested data for active-duty enlisted applicants” that were disqualified by the processing command.

The services are not required to track if an applicant waiver was recommended or requested, the report noted, but added that the services should track and analyze the barriers applicants face when it comes to the medical waiver process “to maximize opportunities for enlistment across the Services.”

The IG also found that recruiting commands faced “delays in medical waiver processing” due to the Military Health System Genesis, which was brought online in March 2022 at Military Entrance Processing Stations, where applicants are medically examined before they can sign up.

Genesis is a medical records system for service members, families and veterans that aims to make it easier for doctors to share medical information. It came about as part of a congressional mandate that the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments digitize health records. In the context of recruiting, the system allows processing stations to look at applicants’ civilian medical records, including hospital visits and prescriptions.

Some recruiters told Military Times earlier this year that Genesis makes it harder for applicants to omit portions of their medical history, a development some believed was contributing to the current recruiting crisis.

As a result, many more applicants are getting flagged, and the time to process applications and waivers is getting longer. Applicants don’t formally sign up until they’re cleared, and that longer process gives them more time to back out.

The IG report recommended that the services stand up tracking to better capture data on whether rejected applicants are offered a medical waiver request, while documenting the reasons such a waiver might not be requested.

The services all concurred with the recommendation but varied in plans to implement such reforms.

U.S. Army Recruiting Command aims to provide a “corrective action plan” by November and also requested a Defense Department-level review of the entire medical waiver process because the command’s own analysis of the complete medical waiver processing time found that it could take 70 days or longer for a waiver determination to be made.

Navy Recruiting Command officials told the IG they would determine by later this year whether the existing applicant tracking system could start capturing such data.

The Air Force Recruiting Service will work to create a field in the recruiting information system that would document if a disqualified applicant chooses not to proceed with a waiver and the reason why they did not, a process that will take four to six months.

Marine Corps Recruiting Command leadership told the IG that “establishing a tracking mechanism for applicants cannot be implemented in the current recruiting information system,” but said such functions could be a part of future systems.

“The Marine Corps Recruiting Command will continue to encourage the DoD medical standard working groups to evaluate medical disqualification standards and remove barriers so that more applicants are medically eligible for military service,” the report states.

Consider President John F. Kennedy. As a young man, he suffered a host of painful, disqualifying physical ailments, such as back pain and ulcers, but leaned on his father’s connections to get around the required Navy medical exams.

Lt. Kennedy went on to command a patrol torpedo boat that a Japanese warship sheared in half during World War II, and he later received a Purple Heart and Navy and Marine Corps Medal.

In recent decades, the lies told to enlist haven’t approached those extremes.

Nonetheless, fudging medical histories has been a key step on many troops’ path from applicant to recruit, according to a group of active-duty military recruiters who spoke with Military Times for this story.

“What it takes to get in the Army is, quite frankly, a lot of fraud and perjury,” one recruiter said.

But this tacit tradition — technically a crime — largely stopped in 2022, the same year the military’s recruiting numbers fell precipitously and today’s recruiting crisis came to the fore.

That year, the Defense Department brought a new medical records platform, known as Military Health System Genesis, online at Military Entrance Processing Stations, where applicants are medically examined before they can sign up.

Now, a year after Genesis was first used by MEPS, some military leaders acknowledge the new system has hindered recruiting.

Multiple recruiters on the ground, from different services and locations, are more blunt in their assessments. They say Genesis has ended an applicant’s ability to gloss over or knowingly ignore minor medical issues, such as past use of ADHD meds or inhalers, before signing up.

In the process, those recruiters say, it has turned the military’s stream of applicants into a trickle and made a recruiter’s already-difficult job even harder.

“Nobody says it out loud in the wrong company, but the whole DoD knows that before Genesis we were able to put people through with a lot of different things, within reason, because whatever that applicant decides to disclose is whatever that applicant decides to disclose,” Joe Brown, a Marine Corps recruiter and staff noncommissioned officer in the South, told Military Times. “Now that Genesis exists, we can no longer hide things.”

Five recruiters who spoke with Military Times were given pseudonyms in this report and granted anonymity for fear of reprisal.

Broad concern

The recruiting crisis has evoked concern among leadership and on Capitol Hill. The Army missed its fiscal 2022 goal by 15,000 soldiers, and the other branches, except for the smaller Space Force, barely made quota or had to pull extensively from their pools of delayed-entry applicants.

Officials told lawmakers this month that they expect the shortfalls to worsen this fiscal year.

Political leaders and partisan pundits blame today’s recruiting crisis on everything from so-called “woke” diversity training to kids these days being too fat and lazy to cut it.

Military brass have blamed an under-educated public, a roaring civilian jobs market and bad perceptions of service fueled by negative headlines.

But multiple recruiters who spoke with Military Times blame Genesis above all else.

“When Genesis hit the scene, it was a night-and-day difference,” Navy recruiter Peter Harris, a petty officer, noted.

Once an applicant signs their consent, Genesis vacuums up the entirety of their medical history, flagging past and present health issues.

That makes it harder, some recruiters say, to squeeze applicants through despite past maladies they did not disclose — such as ADHD, depression or a years-old broken bone. Recruiting numbers suffer as a result. Previously, such applicants could enlist if they concealed, or genuinely had forgotten about, these issues.

Genesis is, broadly, a medical records system for service members, families and veterans that aims to make it easier for doctors to share medical information. It came about as part of a congressional mandate that the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments digitize health records. The contract for Genesis, awarded to Leidos, is worth $5.5 billion, according to the Government Accountability Office.

In the context of recruiting, the system allows processing stations to look at applicants’ civilian medical records, including hospital visits and prescriptions.

Genesis came to the military’s 67 MEPS locations in March 2022, when the head of U.S. Military Entrance Processing Command heralded it as “a leap in medical modernization.”

“The new electronic health record will follow applicants from the moment they walk through ‘Freedom’s Front Door’ into active duty, and eventually into the VA system,” Col. Megan Stallings, the command’s leader, said in a release at the time.

While multiple recruiters told Military Times that the system is flagging more applicants, Pentagon spokeswoman Lisa Lawrence said in an email that Genesis “does not reduce the population of qualified applicants.”

“Prior to screening at (MEPS), an individual has, or does not have, disqualifying medical conditions,” she said. Genesis “merely confirms the physical and mental readiness of applicants by enabling authoritative review of their health history.”

Lawrence said Genesis “is not the root cause behind the Services failing to meet their recruiting mission,” but she did not respond by Military Times’ deadline to emailed follow-up questions directly asking if the Pentagon believes Genesis was playing a role in the recruiting crisis.

Lawrence blamed, in part, low willingness of young people to serve, as well as “the residual effects” of the COVID pandemic that prevented recruiters “from meeting with youth and their influencers in our high schools.”

But data provided by the Pentagon shows each service exceeded its recruiting goals in fiscal 2020 and 2021, when pandemic-related lockdowns and disruptions to everyday life were far more prevalent.

In a nod to the current recruiting reality, the Pentagon in November began a pilot program that updated regulations for 38 medical conditions that would allow some recruits to join as long as they met certain timelines for previous treatment and diagnosis. The pilot will be in effect through June, Lawrence said, and then the DoD will analyze whether it would make sense to extend the program.

To ease the ongoing recruiting crisis, senators have urged the DoD to allow applicants who had sought treatment for some mental health issues.

“We disqualify young men and women if they’ve seen a psychiatrist or if they’ve been on medicine for mental health, and yet we want them to try to improve themselves,” Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in March.

“There are still people who are eager to join — it’s just really, really hard to actually get them in,” said Harris, the Navy recruiter. “Because, you know, they can see their medical history. I think that would be the biggest issue as to why recruiting numbers are so terrible.”

New hurdles

Smith, a soldier who has spent the last few years recruiting, admitted he helped applicants massage their medical history to get them in before Genesis — up to a point. He wouldn’t, for example, allow someone with asthma to get through.

But of the 30 applicants he recruited, he said, “only one was clean as a whistle.” In some cases, the problem wasn’t medical; a history of marijuana use was also something he would “grease wheels for.”

The recruiter also lied about his own medical history to enlist.

As Smith went through the applicant pipeline, officials requested medical paperwork for a procedure he underwent years ago, but he had no way to get those records.

“My recruiter, for me to get in, just made up medical paperwork, made up a doctor and submitted it,” Smith said. “And that’s how I joined. That’s what it takes, or else I would never be in.”

He’s not the first Army recruiter to speak out about Genesis’ impact on the mission. Three other Army recruiters voiced similar concerns to Task and Purpose in September.

Some young people whom Genesis flags acquire waivers and go on to enlist.

At least one in six military recruits received waivers to enter service in fiscal year 2022, the highest proportion in at least 10 years, according to service data.

But some, dispirited by delays caused by Genesis, back out entirely, while others end up unable to join, recruiters say.

Meanwhile, recruiters say they still face the pre-Genesis pressures to make their quotas, despite the new hurdles.

“I’ll walk around Walmart at 11 o’clock at night just begging someone to sit down in my chair so I can go home,” said Jon Johnson, a Marine recruiter. “I’ve got a wife and two kids. This sh-t’s not it.”

Yes means ‘your enlistment stops’

Recruiters have a tongue-in-cheek saying about how an applicant’s answers to yes-or-no questions on the military’s medical history questionnaire decides their fate.

The form requires yes or no answers. Hay fever? A change of menstrual pattern? Broken bones?

“Yes” stands for “your enlistment stops.” “No” stands for “numerous opportunities.”

“You never had asthma. You never had ADHD,” the Navy recruiter said. “You broke your leg when you were six? “Don’t talk about it.”

In the Air Force, Genesis’ arrival is disqualifying more applicants during the medical process, while making medical screenings longer, Maj. Gen. Edward Thomas, head of Air Force Recruiting Service, told Military Times in February.

Applicants don’t formally sign up until they’re cleared, and that longer process gives them more time to back out.

“Genesis is the right thing to do — it’s mandated by Congress,” Thomas said. “But it wasn’t ready for deployment in recruiting.”

“If MHS Genesis had not been implemented in recruiting at the same time that the recruiting market had a sharp downturn, it would have been far more manageable,” he added.

The Army did not directly answer questions about whether Genesis is driving recruitment challenges, but Army Recruiting Command spokesman Maj. Tom Piernicky acknowledged that sorting through the medical records Genesis flags “is time consuming and labor intensive, and has added an element of complexity to the accessions process for initial entry applicants.”

“The Army is committed to maintaining high enlistment standards, and MHS Genesis has helped the Army to better determine an applicant’s suitability for Service from a health and safety standpoint,” Piernicky said. “With regard to current challenges, the Army, along with the other services, continue to face unprecedented recruiting conditions due to a combination of factors.”

Navy Recruiting Command spokesman Cmdr. Dave Benham said the access to additional information that Genesis provides increases “average processing time,” but that the system allows the Navy to make more informed decisions regarding an applicant’s medical history.

“It also means fewer cases of Sailors entering the Navy that later go through medical review boards for pre-existing conditions that were not disclosed at accession,” he said. “Our recruiters are working hard to consider the entire person and to reduce barriers to enlistment where possible, while still ensuring we deliver on that mission.”

Marine Corps spokesman Jim Edwards blamed the same societal factors as the Pentagon and other services, as well as “media inflation,” for the struggle.

Genesis, Edwards said in an email, “has extended the contracting timeline for some applicants, but it is not the sole or main factor driving recruitment difficulties.”

“Our hard-working Marine recruiters continue to accomplish the assigned recruiting mission and we remain on track to accomplish the FY23 accession mission,” he said.

Delayed gratification

Recruiters said common holdups for applicants include ADHD medication, antidepressants and counseling. Mental health was also a common reason that applicants sought medical waivers in FY22, according to data provided by DoD.

Diagnoses of mental health conditions are higher for Gen-Z than for older generations. The American Psychological Association reported in 2019 that Gen-Z and millennials are more likely to report their mental health as fair or poor, and more report receiving treatment or therapy, compared to Gen-Xers or baby boomers.

Recruiters were quick to add that Genesis creates hurdles even for applicants who do what’s legally required of them: honestly report what they remember of past medical conditions. Some applicants have forgotten about issues that left no long-term effects but require additional documentation once they pop up in Genesis.

Don Wilson, a Marine staff NCO recruiter, said he thinks a screening system like Genesis has benefits in ensuring that only applicants ready for the rigors of the military can join.

But he wishes applicants didn’t get flagged for having attended counseling after a difficult life event or being prescribed an EpiPen years ago.

Recruiters say the increased disqualification of applicants caused by Genesis makes it that much harder for them to hit their monthly quotas, exacerbating the long hours and grueling sales pitches that have long defined military recruiting.

Such applicants can still make it into the military if they provide additional medical documentation or secure waivers for certain conditions, but recruiters say that is often easier said than done.

Marine recruiter Johnson and others said Genesis increases the time between a potential enlistee walking into his office and shipping to boot camp, even if they are fully qualified.

And when dealing with impatient teenagers, time isn’t a resource recruiters can afford to waste.

Johnson recalled a 17-year-old girl who came into his office and who was clearly in outstanding shape and healthy enough to ship off to Marine basic training.

Yet health records pulled by Genesis showed that she had sprained her wrist as a child, an injury that hadn’t required surgery, stitches or painkillers, Johnson said.

He had to chase down documentation proving she was good to go, and it took two months to get her processed, Johnson said.

Recruiters for other services echoed the Marine’s take: that Genesis makes processing too long, allowing kids to back out or change their mind before they have signed their contract.

“I had to battle the disinterest” of the teen, Johnson said. “For most people, they’re looking for instant gratification. That’s also a common trend we’ve seen out here: If I can’t get them something now, they generally leave.”

“It comes to the point where they’re like, ‘This is too much work, I’m just gonna go apply at Starbucks,’” Navy recruiter Harris said.

Adapting and overcoming

Factors besides Genesis make it challenging to recruit.

In addition to poor fitness and low desire to serve in the military among teenagers, recruiters said many schools do not welcome them onto their grounds, a challenge exacerbated by the pandemic. Some parents don’t want their babies to take on the military’s risks.

But these problems existed long before today’s recruiting crisis, the Marine recruiter Brown noted.

“Since the Marine Corps existed, there’s been obese people,” he said. “There [have] been low test scores. That’s something we’ve always dealt with.”

What’s new is Genesis.

Before 2022, Brown said, he had never missed a monthly target during his four years as a recruiter.

Then came Genesis. He started missing his goals, and it took him a few months to get back on track.

Meanwhile, the services are working to adjust to the longer recruiting timelines associated with Genesis.

The Army last year activated some of its Reserve doctors to deal with a backlog in waivers.

In addition, the Army and Air Force have instituted a Genesis “prescreen” so that applicants and recruiters can better understand what parts of a medical history will be relevant and require documentation at MEPS before they arrive at the processing station, according to service officials.

Navy and Marine Corps officials said that, as was the case before Genesis, recruiters review an applicant’s medical history with them to determine if they have any medical conditions that will need to be addressed at MEPS.

Still, several recruiters told Military Times that their leaders’ response to recent shortfalls has been to tell them to work harder. Make more calls. Improvise, adapt, overcome.

Brown said he used to work about nine hours a day as a recruiter. Now it’s up to 12, plus weekends. He said that’s less than most of his peers.

These days, Harris, who has been a Navy recruiter since before Genesis, said many recruiters he knows are on antidepressants — one of the very things for which Genesis screens applicants.

Military Times reporters Rachel Cohen, Davis Winkie and Meghann Myers contributed to this report.

With many in the military community searching for avenues to get the vaccine, or anxiously waiting their turn, this will give increasingly more options to about 3.4 million people enrolled in Tricare Prime. Currently the actual vaccine is free because it’s paid for by the federal government. But those who give the shots, such as civilian clinics and pharmacies, are allowed to charge an administration fee for the process involved in getting the shot into the arm.

As an example of possible fees, Medicare pays providers who administer COVID-19 vaccinations $28.39 to administer single-dose vaccines. For vaccines that require two doses, the initial dose payment is $16.94, and $28.39 for the administration of the final dose, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. But even these rates are adjusted by geographic area.

Normally, if Tricare Prime patients don’t get a referral from their primary care physician for health care outside the military system, they will have to pay a point-of-service charge to that outside provider.

The waiver is retroactive to Dec. 13, and will apply for the period of the declaration of the COVID-19 national emergency, according to the announcement.

This doesn’t include active duty service members. They pay nothing for their health care.

The Defense Health Agency “believes the widespread need for COVID-19 vaccines and the fact that supply of these vaccines may be limited is a special circumstance necessitating the waiver of the referral requirement for Tricare Prime enrollees so they may receive a COVID-19 vaccine” at other locations, according to the announcement.

On the other hand, Tricare beneficiaries who prefer to get their vaccination at a military treatment facility are eligible to get it there, even if they don’t get their routine care at an MTF. That doesn’t mean the vaccinations are available, though.

Military treatment facilities are at various stages in opening up eligibility for the COVID-19 vaccination, and in many cases, beneficiaries can get their vaccinations more quickly through their local or state health departments. In most areas, active duty family members don’t fall into the eligibility categories yet because of their age, as the eligibility in many areas is open to those 65 and older, and those with underlying medical conditions, in addition to those in higher-priority categories who are vaccinated first. But as more vaccine becomes available, and eligibility opens up, the waiver for Prime enrollees will provide increasing options.

The federal government has launched the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program for COVID-19 Vaccination, a collaboration between the federal government, states, territories, and 21 national pharmacies and independent pharmacy networks to increase access to the COVID-19 vaccine. The CDC provides a list of these pharmacies here and advises people to check the websites of the individual pharmacies to determine if they have the vaccine available, and if they are eligible for vaccination.

Beneficiaries are also encouraged to check the Facebook pages and websites of their local military treatment facilities to see whether they may be eligible, and to see if their MTF has a supply of vaccine. MTF websites may also have information. Check here to find your local MTF’s website, or search online for the name of the MTF.

“We’re the only section with power still.”

“He’s been cutting off the breakers behind the building,” said a Navy recruiter next door separately told a Guilford Metro 911 operator.

The ominous scene was set just minutes before that same man started firing shots into a recruiting station, where Marine Corps and Navy recruiters worked.

Just after 6:20 p.m., according to 911 reports obtained by Military Times via a records request, the man fired four shots into the building, sparking nearly 10 calls to 911 from people nearby.

“There’s a guy out here shooting at our windows,” a Navy recruiter said at 6:21 p.m. The recruiter, who had barricaded himself in the office, identified the weapon as a 9 mm handgun based off its sound.

Before opening fire, the shooter had gone behind the building and attempted to cut off the recruiting center’s power, according to three 911 calls and a source with direct knowledge of the incident, who spoke with Military Times and asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak to media in an official capacity.

Police later recovered a Glock 43 9 mm pistol from James Alexander Cooper, the suspected shooter, when he was arrested near the scene.

No Marines or sailors were hurt, according to Navy and Marine Corps officials and previously reported by Military Times. Army and Air Force personnel were not present during the shooting, according to Army and Air Force officials.

Cooper remained in custody in Greensboro Jail Central as of Monday on a slew of criminal charges both stemming from the alleged shooting incident and other run-ins with law enforcement.

He had tried to join the Army multiple times before the shooting, according to an Army official and the source with direct knowledge of the incident.

His most recent disqualification from enlistment had come earlier that day, according to Kelli Ward, a spokesperson for U.S. Army Recruiting Command.

Local FOX affiliate WGHP reports that witnesses saw “Cooper leave the career center, appearing disgruntled and shouting about CIA and 9/11 conspiracy theories” after learning of his latest disqualification. He allegedly obtained a firearm and returned later, though.

He is charged with firing a weapon into an occupied building, a class E felony in North Carolina, in addition to six misdemeanor counts of assault with a deadly weapon, and a misdemeanor concealed-carry violation, according to court records.

Cooper has separate pending charges for felony vandalism, felony theft, felony forgery, felony possession of a stolen vehicle, felony larceny and felony breaking and entering. Cooper was also cited for a hit and run in 2019.

Now a fuller picture of the event emerges through new surveillance footage, public records and 911 calls obtained by Military Times.

‘We are barricaded inside’

A Marine’s life may have been saved that day, by force protection measures implemented following the 2015 Chattanooga shootings, where a lone gunman attacked a Marine Corps recruiting station and the local Navy Operational Support Center.

The source with direct knowledge of the incident credited a bulletproof office cubicle with protecting a Marine from injury. Navy officials reported that troops were able to successfully barricade using the cubicles and bulletproof benches.

In the wake of the Chattanooga attacks, the Defense Department also established procedures for recruiters to arm themselves.

At least one Marine was armed and prepared to defend his troops if the attacker had continued his assault.

“We are barricaded inside the Marine recruiting office,” a Marine in the office next door to the Navy recruiters told 911. “The shooter is outside, and he shot through the door. … Our Gunnery Sgt. has an armed weapon right now.”

Another 911 caller was in the parking lot when the shooting began.

“We turned off the lights in our car and we’re laying down,” said a woman to the operator.

The Marines were able to monitor the suspected shooter using the building’s security cameras, he told the 911 dispatcher.

Military Times obtained surveillance video of the shooting courtesy of Recruiter Times, a popular Facebook page devoted to the Army recruiter experience, and confirmed as authentic by the previously referenced source with direct knowledge of the incident and the footage’s origins.

The first video depicts a man, believed by law enforcement to be Cooper, walking down the sidewalk in front of the Battleground Avenue recruiting center, firing a handgun into each glass door.

Exclusively obtained interior footage of the Marine Corps office shows a Marine seated in a bulletproof office cubicle near the door when the shooting begins.

The glass door shatters from an apparent gunshot, and the Marine in the cubicle runs for cover with another Marine who briefly comes into frame. A comparison of the footage with photos of the damage shared by Recruiter Times reveals that the Marine may have suffered serious injuries if not for the bulletproof panel.

The source with direct knowledge of the incident told Military Times he thinks the panel potentially saved the Marine.

The third clip, which has not been published previously, allegedly shows Cooper pacing around outside of the office after the shooting. He smokes a cigarette as the recently-fired Glock 43 9mm pistol rests on the ground.

The shooting also added an unexpected wrinkle to the daily life of two people who were completing the sale of a used coffee table.

“We’re [here] buying a table,” said the woman who was hiding in her car. “I actually don’t even like the table. I’m gonna be honest.

“Like I figure it’s probably fun, but I don’t think I want to get shot over a coffee table,” she confessed.

The man she bought the coffee table from fared little better in the shooting’s aftermath, though. In his call to 911, he explained his escape from the scene.

“I can’t go get my stroller, which I probably ran over because I pulled through the sidewalk. My kids are okay, though.”

Police arrived on the scene shortly afterward. The full 911 report shows that officers had arrested Cooper by 6:34 p.m., and WGHP reports the arrest took place less than a quarter mile from the scene of the shooting.

The source with direct knowledge of the incident told Military Times that Cooper was disqualified due to issues with his criminal background check that were likely connected to the active felony warrants for his arrest.

At 36 years old, per data provided on the Greensboro Police Department’s incident report, Cooper also was too old to sign an initial enlistment contract, according to Army regulations.

The changes come from an update to MCMAP the Corps released in September, which specifies that Marines who already have received their belts but do not meet the rank requirement are grandfathered into the system.

The Corps said the change was made so that Marines will take the required time to “master” the mental and character requirements for the advanced belts, not just the memorize the new fighting moves.

“MCMAP is a combination of mental, character, and physical disciplines,” Marine Corps combat Development Command said in a statement to Marine Corps Times.

“Belt advancement in some cases had everything to do with proper execution of the physical discipline, but required no mastery or demonstrated ability in the mental and character disciplines,” the statement said.

The Corps added that the syllabi for brown and black included training on counselling, mentoring and other leadership techniques that were “tailored to be focused on the Non-commissioned Officer and above.”

To receive a brown belt Marines must complete 12 hours and 30 minutes of physical discipline, learning the new brown belt techniques, 15 hours reviewing techniques learned for prior belts and six hours of mental training that includes the study of the Apache tribes “warrior culture.”

In addition to being sergeants, Marines looking to become first degree MCMAP black belts must complete 20 hours of sustainment training, 12 hours and 45 minutes of learning the advanced black belt techniques, and eight hours of character and mental training, including studying the “warrior culture” of the Zulus.

Marines who do not meet the rank requirements would still be allowed to train for the brown and black belt, “but to achieve and show mastery of those belt levels you are required to be of the appropriate rank,” the Marine Corps said.