Asa Hutchinson: “Since I became chairman of the Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee last year, the subcommittee has conducted two…”

“Since I became chairman of the Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee last year, the subcommittee has conducted two hearings on recruiting. This has been a real eye opener to me, to listen to these front-line military recruiters about the obstacles they face in doing a very important job for the U.S. military. At both hearings, uniformed recruiters complained that denial of access to high school students or student directory information was the No. 1 obstacle they face in their efforts to recruit high-quality men and women needed to man today's military. It is a bigger problem than the health care of the military, a bigger problem than educational benefits, a bigger problem than image. Bigger than anything else was the problem of actually getting access to the students to be able to tell their story about the career opportunities they might have serving in the U.S. military. I was stunned to discover that more than 4,000 high schools across the Nation, which routinely allow colleges, employers, and class ring companies access to students, are denying access to recruiters from one or more of our military services. In 1999, the last year in which accurate figures are available, the Army was denied access by 4,515 schools; the Navy was denied access by 4,364 schools; the Marine Corps was denied access by 4,884 schools; and the Air Force was denied access by 5,465 high schools in the United States. This, I suggest, is a national disgrace.”