The struggle to maintain troops strength begins to reveal some ugly patterns. The navy, for example, has found out that it's most recent recruits share the following characteristics;

@ 50 percent of new sailors come from broken homes

@ 20 percent of them came in with prior drug waiver (admitted to prior use of drugs but promised to stay clean.)

@ 20 percent enter without high school diploma

The vast majority of sailors that get kicked out of the service in their first two years come from the categories above. The navy is trying to develop a method to identify recruits who share these three characteristics and either keep them out, or develop some way to overcome the problems. In the past, all three services have found it very difficult to overcome bad social habits and background characteristics. Recruits with these traits tend to fail in large numbers no matter what remedial methods are applied. It is becoming more difficult to find recruit, so the pressure is on to find ways to salvage risky recruits.