The number of high-school graduates enlisting has plunged precipitously; of those who do enlist, an increasing proportion have come from the bottom half of their classes. Army manuals have been rewritten downward to eighth-and even seventh-grade levels, but still commanders report many soldiers have difficulty comprehending them. Scores on the Army’s recently inaugurated Skill Qualification Tests also have set alarm bells ringing. Of artillery crewmen tested in the 1979 fiscal year, 86 per cent failed. The failure rate for tracked-vehicle mechanics was 89 per cent; for nuclear-weapons-maintenance specialists, 90 per cent; for tank-turret and artillery repairmen, 98 per cent.
Many analysts also are profoundly disturbed by the changing sociological makeup of the Armed Forces, especially the Army. In 1979, blacks accounted for 28.9 per cent of the Army, 19.8 per cent of the Marine Corps, 13.8 per cent of the Air Force, and 9.7 per cent of the Navy. The concentration of minorities is especially heavy in the enlisted grades. Blacks made up 11.8 per cent of enlisted personnel in the
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