United States Military Recruiting Practices Essay Example for Free

United States Military Recruiting Practices Essay US military navy is the largest in the world with a tonne greater that the next 17 largest combined. US Navy is managed by Department of Navy administration which is a division of the Department of defense. The nine components to the operating forces of the US Navy include Atlantic Fleet, Pacific Fleet, Naval Forces, Central Command, Naval Forces Europe, Naval Network, Naval Special Warfare Command, Navy Reserve, Warfare Command, Operational Test and Evaluation Forces and Military Sealift Command. Fleets in U. S Navy, act as force provider by training and maintaining naval unity. This is subsequently provided to the naval forces component of each Unified Combatant Command (Caton, 1988). The Secretary of the Navy and Chief of Naval Operations are responsible for organizing, recruiting, training and equipping the Navy. Navy Operations are coordinated under the department of the Unified Combatant Commanders. In US military, the recruits are issued with recruiting Service Ribbon at the end of recruitment period. In US military Navy, all the navy Recruits who qualify receive recommendation letter from commanding officer before they are presented with the ribbon. The recruits to are presented with Recruiter badge which is a temporary decoration for Navy recruits and other star awards (Tanter, Selden and Shalom, 2000). The recruitment program in US is usually done annually. There have been cases of irregularities in the military recruitment and especially in the Navy. The US Navy has a record of recruiting thousands of US Navy personnel. The irregularities in US Navy recruitment have increased with 2004-2005 fiscal year recording the highest cases. Many recruiters became aggressive and threatened the D. O. D over the issue in 2005. This led to loss of trust of D. O. D to the public and recruiters. The cases were more than double the existing irregularity cases the time before. However, establishing the recruiters who contributed to the irregularities was hard and hence could not be proved. In the US Navy recruitment program, the recruit has to undergo medical tests which form as the first qualification before proceeding to any other stage. In this stage, the practice is carried out by an independent group, EMS, though the equipment is operated the military service since it’s the major recruiter in US. The results produced by the equipment are then analyzed by a medical doctor who can provide a waiver or suggest disqualification of the individuals based on the physical aspects. The same medical condition can receive different responses in relation to waiver and disqualification. This cannot be explained because it depends with the doctor and recruiter. There are usually permanent and temporary waivers and disqualifications. If one is disqualified permanently then that means that the individual is not medically fit for the recruitment process then or at any other time. This has raised a concern from individuals who receive permanent disqualification yet there is no appeal for that. The US navy recruiters are described as honest, committed and hardworking. However, within the circle there are some who twist the truth in order to sign up a recruit. The existence of recruiters who cheat in recruitment has been attributed greatly by the process by which a recruiter’s productivity is judged. The recruiters are judged by their seniors based on the number of recruits they sign up. Some recruiters who do not want to lose their job therefore are pressurized to adopt unethical practices t ‘make mission’. â€Å"Making mission† is signing up a minimum number of recruits as has been set by the policy. The signing up of unqualified military navy recruits has led to adverse effects in the military force. Violating the recruiting regulations attract heavy punishment if caught. The act of cheating by recruiters will hardly miss in any recruitment program unless the policy of productivity assessment is changed. It’s hard to curb the malpractice because there are usually no witnesses in the recruitment process supervising the individual recruiters hence it become â€Å"he said/I said† type of deal (Crompton, 1969). The issue of recruiters failing to tell the truth to their recruits has contributes to many downfalls evident in the recruitment program. The cost of recruiters failing to say the truth incurs a lot of cost on the government in the Department of Defense. Some of he wrong driving force mitigated by the recruiter. Some recruiters lie to the recruits of the terms and that they would be granted whatever position they apply for. This has led to disillusionment to those recruits who find the profession contrary to the expectation yet they have to serve for eight years. Most of those recruit lead miserable military years before the eight years end if they do not change their attitude (Crompton, 1969). Dishonesty form a main ethical challenge in US military recruiting practices especially the US Navy. The recruiters do not reveal about the risks involved in working as a military navy and the real opportunities available in the force. Hence some recruiters proceed with the process with the wrong expectations due to misrepresentation of some military navy recruiters. There are many cases which indicate the non-adherence to military ethics in the current US military Navy profession. One of those cases is evident in the Iraq war case that the American government had funded in fight against nuclear weapons in Iraq, the US nation despite the fact that the UN Agency had denied the move. According to the military ethics, the military personnel are supposed to adhere to integrity and transparency in their job mission. However, as its evident in the recruitment process carried out by US navy military recruits, its hard to measure integrity and to identify those recruiters who have not adhere to the ethics. The recruits who are taken up during annual recruitment process using the wrong criteria contribute greatly to the downfall of the military credibility and hence their long term goals. The long term goal of US military navy is to provide security to it citizens, to safeguard the borders including the resources. The US resources also include the water mammals and fish. The U. S navy are given training to become expert swimmers and peace restoring citizens are known worldwide of their expertise and their dedication to their state. Military navy officials are known to give up their priorities and pursue the country’s interest irrespective of their opinion about it. The U. S navy military personnel recruited during the recruitment period should become aware of their mission and objectives. The recruits are supposed to obey to whatever orders are given to them despite their opinion about the job to do.