The US Army missed its recruiting goals for 2023 but has a novel solution. If you can't reach the number of recruits to meet force structure goals, reduce the number of personnel in the force structure, suggested US Army Secretary Christine Wormuth. However, as the years go by and recruiters fail to achieve the number of required soldiers, this solution will spiral to a point where there is one battalion, with one company, with one squad, with one soldier with a rifle. The good news is that the soldier will have excellent health care and the run of the barracks. After the last two years of the military, principally the Army and Navy, missing their goals, it's time to look at the problem differently.
Military Recruiting Not Dependent Solely on Job Market
Although recruiting and retaining a quality military force has been challenging since the establishment of the All-Voluntary Force (AVF) in 1973, traditional wisdom has held that the difficulty varied with the strength or weakness of the US job market. Several factors suggest this is no longer the case. A Wall Street Journal article titled "The Military Recruiting Crisis: Even Veterans Don't Want Their Families to Join," by Ben Kesling, explained:
"The children of military families make up the majority of new recruits in the US military. That pipeline is now under threat, which is bad news for the Pentagon's already acute recruitment problems, as well as America's military readiness. 'Influencers are not telling them to go into the military,' said Adm. Mike Mullen, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in an interview. 'Moms and dads, uncles, coaches and pastors don't see it as a good choice.'"
(Photo by Paul Weaver/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
When influencers line up against service to the country, something in the American culture is terribly wrong. Pay, benefits, health care, housing, frequent moves, and deployments to hostile environments have been steady over the years. Having family members and veterans as a group turn against what has been considered an honored duty is new. However, as Wormuth worries, relying too much on family members to encourage joining will create a "warrior caste" – as if that were a bad thing – according to the WSJ.
Basic Assumptions Drive Military Recruiting
Leadership may be basing their outreach efforts on two false assumptions. The first is that military service has the same intrinsic value to fellow citizens as taking orders at Burger King or Wendy's. "'To be honest with you, it's Wendy's, it's Carl's Jr., it's every single job that a young person can go up against because now they are offering the same incentives that we are offering, so that's our competition right now,' said Sgt. Maj. Marco Irenze, of the Nevada Army National Guard," Kesling wrote. But working for a fast-food restaurant does not require the dedication a call to service demands. The assumption that service to one's country and pushing burgers and fries are on the same competitive plane is absurd.
Second is the philosophy underlying the first false assumption. Current recruiting efforts assume the military should be a mirror of society. No, it should not. If that were the case, recruiters would be looking for criminals, Rhodes Scholars, and software salesmen in numbers equal to their representation in society. Obviously, they don't, but many Americans have been led to believe that is precisely the goal. What is worse, too many of those in the military have bought into this notion. Liberty Nation reported on a study by the University of Texas and published in the Texas National Security Review Spring 2021 edition: "One question asked was whether the respondent agreed with the statement: 'It is good for the US military to look like and reflect society.' The percentage of those who indicated that they 'strongly agree or agree' was 67.4%."
Appealing to Progressives
"The Navy utilized an active-duty drag queen — Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley, stage name Harpy Daniels — as a 'digital ambassador' from October 2022 to March 2023 in a bid to 'explore the digital environment to reach a wide range of potential candidates,'" a Navy spokesperson said according to the Daily Caller. Instead of promoting a call to noble service to the country and its citizens, the Navy appealed to woke potential recruits, raising the question: Do most Americans want to populate a military persuaded to join by drag queens?
First, to be more effective, the Department of Defense should emphasize service to the United States as a high calling, requiring strength of character, physical fitness, mental acuity, and dedication to duty. A 2022 RAND Corporation study, "The Army Should Be Looking for a Few Older Soldiers," recommended recruiters look for more seasoned people. "We found that individuals who enlist over the age of 21 perform better as soldiers on several metrics. For instance, recruits in the 25-to-35 age range were about 15 percent less likely to attrit due to poor performance than recruits ages 16-to-18, and about 6 percent more likely to reenlist," RAND explained. Second, those qualities are not found evenly distributed among potential military members "as a mirror of society." They must be sought with messages that target such characteristics. The AVF allows leaders to be selective in choosing the best candidates for serving in the military. That can be done only with accurate assumptions.
