Hi guys, I got a rather niche question. While researching the Srebrenica Massacre I stumbled onto a Congressional Hearing on the "Don't Ask, Dont Tell" policy (March 18, 2010). Former General John J. Sheehan says after using the massacre as an example to keep the policy, that Category IV's and V almost destroyed the military, I quote Sheehan (sorry, I'm a bit rusty on the quotation rules, but kept the meaning intact):
"... the reason I say that, ..., is because we've gone through this once before ...; it was called "The Great Society" --when it was deemed that we could bring into the military Category IVs and Vs ... Those Category IVs and Vs almost destroyed the military." - General Sheehan
I couldn't find much myself, can anybody explain to me what the Category IVs and Vs are/were and how they "almost destroyed" the military?
Here is the hearing for who's interested in reading it (the quote is pretty much in the middle of the document): https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-111shrg57495/html/CHRG-111shrg57495.htm
This was the more formal terminology for those who in vernacular became known as "McNamara's Morons", who'd scored in the lowest two categories (IV and V) of the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT).
There's a very detailed answer about the implications of the scoring and development of the program by /u/Lich-Su here and a more detailed analysis of the qualifications and standards here by /u/the_howling_cow.