Military Among Covid: Pandemic Slows Enlistment Process

Due to COVID-19, military enlistment has become a complicated and drawn out process. 

Due to COVID-19, military enlistment has become a complicated and drawn out process as public recruitment offices are either closing or requiring a scheduled appointment. These same difficulties extend to East students with aspirations of joining the armed forces.

The military recruitment process requires an application form and a preliminary medical exam, in which applicants can then see if they meet the qualifications to successfully enlist — but COVID has mostly affected the steps coming after the exam and application.

Senior David Crabb aspires to pursue a career path in the Navy and has found certain aspects of enlisting to be more challenging than others.

“I would say that the biggest thing that’s been affected is probably the Delayed Entry Program (DEP) which is what I’m in,” Crabb said. “It’s like, I’m a senior right now, but I won’t ship out ‘til next July. It’s all the sailors who are waiting to leave that are in the area.”

Before becoming a part of the DEP program, sailors are required to take a few preliminary steps after the initial testing. First, they must take a physical examination. Once they have passed, they will sign a military contract while also picking what kind of job they would like to pursue in the Navy.

However, according to Crabb, COVID has hampered the progress of actually getting those things done, making it more of a hassle to complete.

“I feel like it’s definitely slowed some things down as far as getting things done around town,” Crabb said. “For my DEP program, we used to do PT [Physical Training] outside on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Now that it’s too cold outside, we don’t have a place to go.”

Finding a place to do physical training is not the only thing that has become harder to work around. Those enlisted have monthly meetings that’ve been affected by the new rules some public places have adopted during the pandemic.

“We do monthly meetings, but they have to be outside now,” Crabb said. “We can’t be inside any of the places because of Corona.”

While the process may be slightly altered and more complicated than in past years, it hasn’t done much to turn people away from enlisting according to Crabb.

There was a brief time in May where those who wanted to enlist had to prove they never tested positive for COVID, as officials were worried the long term respiratory issues caused by the virus would affect their health on the battlefield. However, this ban was lifted the same month.

“I think that people are still really determined and people work hard for what they do,” Crabb said. “But overall I think that it’s something the military looks at like, ‘Okay, this is just another thing we have to step over and overcome.’ The military doesn’t stop, you know, it’s 24/7.”

Just like Crabb said, the military doesn’t stop. While the virus may have delayed the overall process to an extent, people will still sign up — even if the first step towards protecting our nation has become a little more complicated.