The Baltimore Sun reported this weekend on how, after years of straining to reach recruitment goals, the National Guard has raised entrance standards. In Maryland and around the country, recruiters now demand higher test scores an a minimum of a high school degree (no longer accepting GEDs). And although months ago the National Guard was accepting new recruits as old as 42, they have now set a cut-off age of 35. 

This seems a sharp turnaround for the National Guard, once a collection of sleepy neighborhood “camping clubs for men” intended to be used, if at all, in case of World War III.

The Sept. 11 attacks and the growing combat requirements of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars swiftly changed that. Guard units were spruced up with hard training and new gear, and deployed at a wartime pace, serving with distinction in some of the hardest fighting seen in a generation.

It was widely predicted, however, that these part-time soldiers – sent off to war for a year at a time while trying to hold on to full-time jobs and families back home – would quit in droves. 

Anticipating the worst, the Guard hired battalions of new recruiters and relaxed some of its standards, raising the maximum age, lowering minimum acceptable scores on entrance exams and bending rules to accept those with minor criminal and drug violations.

But the anticipated exodus never happened. Nationwide, the Guard is brimming with soldiers – it has about 10,000 more than its authorized limit of 358,200.

The sociological commentary…

Why the change? Even though the Guard is essentially a part-time job, it has “definitely benefited from the economy going down the toilet,” said David R. Segal, a military sociologist at the University of Maryland.

Especially for midcareer soldiers, even a part-time paycheck can help make ends meet, he said.

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