With wellness, education, social, and cultural challenges undermining the US military’s combat readiness against near-peer rivals like China, the military is currently experiencing an extraordinary recruitment crisis.
According to a Pentagon study from 2020 that found 77 % of young Americans do not meet the requirements for military service because of drug abuse, mental or physical issues, or being overweight, American Military News reported in March 2023.
The most common disqualification rates were being overweight( 11 %), drug and alcohol abuse( 8 %), and medical / physical health( 7 %), with mental health and overweight conditions experiencing the most significant increases in the number of estimates made between 2013 and 2020.
According to American Military News, the US Department of Defense( DOD) has acknowledged the difficulties in enlisting new military personnel, citing factors like youth being more disengaged and disconnected than older generations.
According to the record, there is an overreliance on defense stereotypes as a result of the declining senior population and the shrinking military footprint.
Additionally, it states that despite having access to more than 170, 000 qualified young men and women in the financial year that ends on September 30, Pentagon leaders have expressed concern about the interviewing vision and predicted that they will all miss it.
In an article published in July 2023 in the Wall Street Journal, Ben Kensling notes that the US Army, Navy, and Air Force all anticipate ending this year with 15, 000 volunteers fewer than their 65, 000 objective, respectively.
Company leaders have characterized enrollment as difficult, despite Kensling’s observation that the US Marine Corps sent 33,000 recruits to boot camp last year, which was its goal. Additionally, according to Pentagon data, only 9 % of people between the ages of 16 and 21 would consider serving in the military, down from 13 % prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In an August 2022 videos, Task and Purpose delves deeper into the issue by pointing out that the US military’s recruitment issues have been made worse by incompetent citizens, economics, a decline in military confidence, and woke culture.
Criminal histories and low educational attainment disqualify some prospective US military volunteers. Many young Americans are unable to serve in the US military because it requires a high school diploma or General Equivalency Diploma( GED ), according to Thomas Spoehr and Bridget Handy in an article published in February 2018 for The Heritage Foundation.
The US National Center for Education Statistics reported an adjusted cohort graduation rate of 83 % in the 2014 – 2015 academic year, but Spoehr and Handy point out that this number does not take into account students who transferred to other programs, incomplete data, or lowered graduation standards.
The US’s ability to maintain its modern advantage against near-peer rivals like China and Russia is also impacted by low educational attainment.
Gabrielle Athanasia and Jillian Cota note that the US’s proficiency in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics( STEM ) is declining in comparison to other major nations in an article published in April 2022 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies ( CSIS ) think tank. It cites data from 2019 showing that, compared to China, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, and Russia, the US average math score among foreign pupils was 15th.
Spoehr and Hardy also draw attention to the fact that criminal record prevents young people from enlisting in the US government. They point out that 3.4 million people who would otherwise define are unable to join the military due to prior criminal activity, with their disqualifying legal habits beginning early in their children. As a result, one of every ten young people is prevented from joining.
Task and Purpose also notes that the US employment rate is at its lowest point in years, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting that over 500,000 manufacturing jobs were created in January and 800,000 in the last two years, according to US Department of Commerce data from February 2023.
With the unemployment rate at 3.4 %, the lowest in 54 years, US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo claims that these numbers demonstrate the success of the Biden administration’s economic strategy. The information also reveals that real wages were higher than they were seven months ago and that the US Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis reported a 2.9 % GDP growth in Q2 2022.
Due to the fact that potential recruits now have more lucrative employment options, Task and Purpose notes that these numbers have reduced the available men pool for the US military to pick from.
According to reports, the US military’s appeal to potential recruits has also been impacted by declining confidence in it. Mohammed Younis notes that Americans are less likely to show confidence in the US government, with a visible reduction that has persisted over the past five decades, in an article for Gallup published in July 2023.
According to Younis, confidence generally remained above 70 % following the September 11th terrorist attacks, falling to 69 % in 2021 and falling even more since the abrupt withdrawal from Afghanistan.
He points out that while Republicans have historically expressed the greatest level of military confidence, this trend has decreased over 20 percentage points over the past three years, from 91 % to 68 %.
Additionally, he claims that Independents’ confidence has decreased by almost as much, from 68 % to 55 %, and that they are now less confident than Democrats.
Despair may have developed in US public and policymaking circles as a result of the protracted US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which were followed by the tragic US departure from the past in 2021, harming US society’s opinions of its government.
The decline in US military recruitment rates may also be attributed to” Woke culture.” Recognition and focus on important societal information and issues, particularly those pertaining to race, gender, and social justice, are referred to as” Woke.”
Jeff Schogol notes that Republican lawmakers have accused the military of becoming” woke” for the past two years, using the term to denigrate lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer( LGBTQ ) service members and assert that it is becoming too feminine in a Task and Purpose article from June 2023.
Schogol points out that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis built his campaign for the Democratic party’s presidential election around his accusations of the” woke government.”
Schogol also points out that a budget bill that would forbid the US Department of Veterans Affairs from offering abortions, transgender health care, or flying LGBTQ Pride flags recently had an” anti-woke” amendment added by House Republicans.
Schogol cites US Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, who has expressed concern that the politicization of military leaders contributes to a decline in trust in the military, as evidence for the effect of” wokeness” on US military recruitment.
She also emphasized that as the US Army struggles to solve its recruitment issue, it is a” ready Army” and not” woke Army.”