The news that is not making news is the US Army is having a problem looking for recruits to sign up…….
The Army is running short of soldiers. The military branch is projected to end the current fiscal year with 466,000 soldiers, which CBS News reports is about 20,000 short of the goal. And the trend line is only getting worse—the total at the end of the 2023 fiscal year is expected to drop to between 445,000 and 452,000. Army Secretary Christine Wormuth and Gen. James McConville, the Army’s chief of staff, have laid all this out in a new memo, along with potential ways to boost recruitment—mainly through signing bonuses and more choices about where recruits eventually will get stationed.
As USA Today notes, military recruitment typically suffers when employment is robust in the private sector, and that’s clearly the case in 2022, with unemployment hovering near historic lows. The Army is offering $50,000 bonuses for those who sign up for six years, and $35,000 bonuses for those who can ship out within 45 days of recruitment. Through April, the Army had met just 68% of its goal, a shortfall of more than 8,000 soldiers, notes the newspaper. The Navy also was short, though only by 8%, or about 1,500 sailors, while the Air Force, Marines, and Space Force were all on track with their recruitment goals.
“We’ve got unprecedented challenges with both a post-COVID-19 environment and labor market, but also private competition with private companies that have changed their incentives over time,” Gen. Joseph Martin, vice chief of staff of the Army, told a House panel this week, per CNN. If the projections for 2023 prove to be accurate, the Army will have missed its original goal by about 28,000 soldiers. Martin noted that only 23% of Americans ages 17 to 24 meet the physical requirements to join the Army, a figure that’s also on the decline.
Is that a good answer to the problem? To try and bribe people to join.
Read more on this growing problem…
Why is this?
I thought it was a high honor to serve your country…..I guess I was mistaken……
A veteran explains why this is a problem…..
Popular gun Youtuber Iraqveteran8888 points out that people (presumably he means the rightwing where most military recruits originate) have lost faith in our institutions, largely due to the implementation of what he describes as “woke” policies:
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/a-veteran-explains-why-people-arent-joining-the-military/
Could this be the final nail in the coffin of the all-volunteer Army?
Thoughts from the American Conservative…..
A half-century after the end of the draft and the implementation of the All-Volunteer Force (AVF), has the United States Armed Forces found itself in an existential crisis?
The Pentagon recently reported all its branches of service were failing or struggling to meet recruiting requirements for the current fiscal year. The Army alone has met just 40 percent of its annual goal and there are only two months left in the fiscal year. In the beginning of 2022, the U.S. military had 1.3 million active-duty service members—over a third of which were in the Army alone—making it the third-largest military in the world, plus a National Guard and Reserve component bigger than most countries’ entire forces.
The End of the All-Volunteer Force?
Back in the 60s I was an anti-draft protester…..but that has changed. Why? There is no common experience for Americans…the nation is depending on a very small percentage to protect and serve their country.
I think the country would be better off if there were something that brought us together…..it is sad that mandatory military service could be that common ground.
So will it be conscription or just more money dangled before poor kids to con them into ‘volunteering’?
Please let me know your thoughts
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I suspect a return to the Draft under the next Republican government. They have run out of poor people who have no option but to join the military. Maybe they do not like the idea of ‘boots on the ground’ against Russia in Eastern Europe?
Best wishes, Pete.
It will be interesting to see how they get the fodder they need. chuq
I also think so, as the next war(s) could be against China, at first at the Asia-Pacific theater. I swear, i would not be interested in this. xx Michael
The war drums are beating……and they are getting loudly chuq
The modern army is a joke. No uniformity in haircuts, lax discipline, low morale, mixed genders, volatile dangerous world where wars are fought for anything and everything except American freedoms …Let’s all sign up and go get a leg blown off or worse so that the oil supply remains uninterrupted …when was the last time we ever actually won a war? Who is kidding who here?
WW2…the last time……need to label the Pentagon for what it is….the Department of War…..this is just silly…they know what to do but they waffle thinking ahead to the next election. chuq
Pentagon is the unofficial headquarters for the Military/Industrial Complex.
We need to change the name to….. MICIMATT (Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-Media-Academia-Think-Tank complex) chuq
That works for me. MICIMATT is so close to MICKEY MOUSE it isn’t funny. Had you noticed that?
I had not….good eye…..I love it chuq
I believe the ‘woke’ policies will be the ruin of us all. Not offending people was part of my upbringing, but they are now infringing on the rights of everyone!
Somebody needs to explain what the people on the political right mean when they use the word, “Woke.”
The Woke people should clearly define themselves. IMO
Is there any such thing as a woke republican?
No clue.
The older I again the more I dislike people…..it is contrary to my upbringing…..I am a hermit know…..LOL chuq
Can’t say as I blame you!
😎 Thanx for understanding chuq
As someone who served in the Army for a couple of decades +, and still supports (mostly Army) in deployed environments…….I don’t put much stock in the “woke” scapegoat. We’ve been down a similar road before with combating racism and sexual assault/harassment. There are a ton of other factors that affect recruitment beyond the red meat social and media issues that the Tucker Carlson’s of the media-scape talk about.
A big part of the problem is the (relative) end of the GWOT. There’s no longer a focused ‘enemy’ to inspire young men and women to join and put on the uniform, especially when the job market (COVID notwithstanding) has been pretty good for the last few years. Recruitment trends aren’t established overnight…..they are formed over several years.
“Woke” has become the next evolution of “politically correct”. It merely means whatever the speaker/writer wants it to mean.
I explained my thinking….which I had come to very uncomfortably…..my problem is too many now do not take that ‘oath’ seriously…I did and still do……chuq
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