Health Care & Language Specialists Needed

Even though recruiting #'s have been strong all year there are a few specialties still needed and the Army is looking to non-citizens for help.

What the military now needs, he said, are non-citizens with valid work or student visas who are skilled in healthcare — surgeons, dentists and nurses — as well as those who speak one of several strategic languages. In exchange, the Army offers what some might consider a fair trade — eligibility for expedited citizenship. The program, entitled the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest, or MAVNI, began in February in New York City, more than a year after U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates signed a memorandum authorizing the secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force to implement the program. The recruitment of non-citizens in the U.S. military stretches as far back as the Revolutionary War. The Lodge-Philbin Act of 1950 allowed 2,500 — and later, up to 12,500 non-citizens to enlist in the armed forces and, prior to that, the Military Bases Agreement opened the gates for Filipino nationals to serve in the U.S. Navy.

OYE Comment: Wonder if repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" would help alleviate the shortage within these skill sets?