The serviceability of military personnel of low intelligence.

In assessing the military serviceability of marginally adjusted individuals two types of criteria arc commonly useds the number of individuals within the marginal group who fail to complete a stated period of military service (i.e. are discharged for neuropsychiatrie, other medical, or disciplinary reasons before service is completed), and various performance mensures (i.e. incidence ef hospitalization or disciplinary difficulty, etc») for those who do complete the stated term of service. In two previous studies (2, 3) applying the second type of criterion the authors have shown that individuals of low intelligence, defined as a mental age of aporoxircntely 12 years or less, who successfully completed a term rf military service, nevertheless had a ighor incidence of hospitalization ".nd of disciplinary difficulty than did a control group of individuals of higher intelligence. The present study applies the first type of criterion, discharge or attrition rate, to a comparable sampling of some 5?7 Naval recruits of low intelligence.