Speculation about the U.S. Army’s recruiting challenges revolves around a number of disconnected factors, including the economy, the availability of information about the challenges of military life, recruits’ inability to meet minimum standards, low morale, or the simple fact that the U.S. military is no longer engaged in active conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The challenge is real. Statistics show that the Army fell 15,000 soldiers short of its recruiting goal during this last fiscal year, and more struggles are anticipated this year.
Regardless of the variables contributing to the equation, there is no question that the military is struggling to add new recruits. In trying to understand why, there are several simple things to consider.
A War on the Rocks essay gives a few reasons why the recruiting equation might not be as dire as some think. The essay points out that the economy is a huge factor. With unemployment low and a large range of available jobs, there are fewer people looking for a new life path. The essay also makes the point that recruiting has decreased since the U.S. military left Afghanistan, suggesting that military service may seem less compelling when the U.S. is not immersed in an active conflict.
These are relatively clear reasons, and they indicate the recruiting shortage is not necessarily the result of a cultural crisis, lethargy, or a lack of patriotism.
Service & Mental Health
The War on the Rocks essay addresses the widely underrecognized area of mental health as it pertains to military service. Some are inclined to suggest that instances of depression, anxiety, PTSD, and other kinds of emotional and mental challenges are increasing.
Certainly the COVID era has had an impact, but the apparent increase might be much more closely related to the growing awareness of mental health issues.
This bears heavily on recruiting, as the essay points out, because there are many gifted, extremely high functioning and stable recruits who might be disqualified from active service because they take medication for anxiety or depression. Perhaps this question can be revisited with a more sophisticated and modern understanding of how mental health rigors are successfully managed.
While nobody wants to compromise security or operational success, there is a fundamental question that needs to be answered accurately when it comes to mental health, a point mentioned by War on the Rocks. The question is, would addressing a mental health issue negatively affect a given recruit’s performance?
“Many people who suffer from depression, anxiety, and other disorders can be effectively treated with commonly prescribed medications,” the essay explains. “According to the American Psychiatric Association, for example, 55–65 percent of diagnosed children and adolescents respond well to initial treatment with antidepressant medication. The U.S. military has long allowed those in uniform to continue serving while taking such medications — but it inexplicably continues to bar people on those medications from joining the force. The U.S. military should not reject otherwise qualified applicants from serving based on outdated stereotypes of mental health treatments.”
Kris Osborn is the Military Affairs Editor of 19FortyFive and President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
Charles
June 29, 2023 at 4:20 pm
This is an easy one. As a veteran myself I would never join today. I joined to serve my country and people, not a globalist agenda aimed at destroying my national sovereignty. Secondly, the majority of people who do join are conservatives. Why would they want to be captive audiences of woke ideology forced on them? If Trump were to become President again you would see those numbers swell again. But let’s face it, nobody wants to serve Biden or globalists. Nor do they want to ever be forced to fight for Ukraine, a country nobody cares about.
jim
June 29, 2023 at 4:43 pm
Shades of that old 60’s saying:
“What if they gave a war and nobody came…?”
Thanks 1945…
Chris
June 30, 2023 at 9:07 am
1. Too many wussies. 2. Too many people trying to make money on social media garbage. 3. Mental cases trying to switch genders. 4. Some leadership officials have put too many people through bs. 5. Veterans aren’t taken care of the way they should be in a lot of cases. 6. I have to reiterate softness. 7. NO PRIDE AND TOO MUCH SEPARATION/DIVISION. People fail to remember how our country was founded and the principles (Not to say there hasn’t been bs along the way, for all of you who disagree). If you can be open to a discussion seeing different perspectives, happy to do so. Otherwise, if my thoughts “offend you” and you feel your thought are right and nothing else matters, just don’t. You are part of the problem and likely one of the reasons stated fits your description. Cheers.
Tamerlain Rex
June 30, 2023 at 9:45 am
Ditto.
Roger Marris
June 30, 2023 at 10:02 am
The presidential administration is incompetent and our military leaders are woke girly boys. No one would dare disrespect America when Trump was President.
What white boy would want to go to the girly-Trans military where blacks and women are given preference. They are told they suffer “white privilege and they’re being made to feel guilty that the problems stem from the fact that white people founded America
mawendt
June 30, 2023 at 10:16 am
Charles is right. I’ll add two more, regarding enlistment and retention.
The author writes about “depression, anxiety, PTSD, and other kinds of emotional and mental challenges”, which I have observed is rooted is lousy parenting and criminally and immorally permissive environments, causing Cognitive Dissonance. And that is almost always, overwhelmingly, the cause of a young adults mental problems mentioned. These guys (and gals) are unfit to make good decisions, have discipline and self-control, and are failures when recruited – compounded by the now very weak and tolerant ‘basic training’, which compared to the past, is a joke.
Second, soldiers who have brains and motivation to serve find themselves subject to additional, non-soldier training that is simply stupid, promoted by foolish leadership that has no backbone and is never itself held accountable for their many, many sins – mostly involving Article 15 related sexual relationships, while the lower ranks get hammered. So the mediocre compromisers often remain in service, checking the boxes, and becoming seniors whilst smart guys and gals leave at their soonest.
So now we’re left with a wishy-washy army, run by messed up weasels that compromise soldierization for inclusiveness. And any warrior will have none of that.
There is much, much more that people of influence won’t discuss, because identifying the problems begs the question ‘Well, why don’t we fix it?” and to do that acknowledges that the last 15 years of social experimentation has failed, with 15 years of leadership needing to be replaced.
If there will be any improvement to the US Military, it will have to first involve a serious conflict with severe casualties that re-aligns focus to training boys to be men to be obedient killer soldiers, and casting those who don’t meet those standards to the contemptuous garbage heap of failure, to be embarrassed for their existence by a the nation. There has got to be more than a few complicated changes in getting that, many painful and bloody.
And those… are factual truths.
I think it all started when we went from a nation of hard, few rules Football to gentle T-Ball, and gone downhill from there.
Scott
June 30, 2023 at 10:16 am
You must be a Democrat Chris for repeating their talking points. As a former Vet there are a dozen reasons not to join. Biden, nor does any anti-military democrat care about military lives. The non stop woke propaganda, kicking people out because they wouldn’t take an untested experimental gene therapy drug that history has shown does nothing to stop Covid. Making white people feel guilty for things they weren’t responsible for, promoting women and minorities to positions they didn’t earn, Issuing fake Ranger tabs to women who were given a free ride through the course (I have friends at the Ranger Camp and they told me the true story of these women. No they did not meet the standards) Then there is having to take combat orders from a man in a dress who doesn’t know which toilet to use.
There, now you know the real reason why vets like me are telling their Kids (espeically southern kids) NOT to join.
Tom
June 30, 2023 at 10:34 am
As a retired Army officer, I can’t recommend enlisting under this administration and current crop of leadership who has lost its focus on the mission of the military. Of course, mental illness is on the rise when you enlist mentally ill/unstable people in the name of inclusion. After my last command ended unscathed, I told myself never again. The constant fear of offending, or being blamed for anything, even that completely out of your control in the name of politically correct scapegoating is too much.
Timothy Merritt
June 30, 2023 at 10:58 am
Thank you Charles, for saying what should be obvious. I’ve read several articles about recruiting struggles and they all seem to be consciously trying to avoid the points you just made.
Gary
June 30, 2023 at 11:46 am
Here, here Charles….Notice how the author of this article steered clear of any mention of woke policies and trans-sexual leanings the military has taken under Biden and Milley…Notice to, how they’ve been culling Conservatives…This site is not a site to come to and hear honesty.
That guy
June 30, 2023 at 12:00 pm
That’s not an AT-4
Lepke
June 30, 2023 at 12:31 pm
I’m a Vietnam vet. I tell people to avoid the military. You take years out of your life, see your friends killed and maimed, put up with BS rules, and now woke generals, all the while your school classmates are getting a head start on their career. In the end victory will be lost because of the politicians. When you come home people will spit on you, sometimes literally.
HAT451
June 30, 2023 at 12:56 pm
There are more “star protection policies” to protect and promote woke leaders than those who want to defend the constitution per their oath of service. There is a saying the fish rots from the head, and the head of our country is rotten and incompetent. One only needs to look at how Afghanistan withdrawal was handled.
We have more then enough smart, wise, strong, and fit young men and woman to fill the ranks of the military, provided the joining today’s military was a smart and wise option. Unfortunately, today, it is an option for the woke.
I agree more with the 12 commentors who commented before me then the author of the article.
Ed
June 30, 2023 at 1:15 pm
I’m a veteran. The military is no place with deep seated mental health issues. I’m incredulous that you would make that argument.
Timmy
June 30, 2023 at 2:27 pm
I’m a vet from 2005-2010. I don’t recommend it for anyone and the ‘you might die’ thing is the least of your worries.
#1 Our country’s leadership is just abysmal and this transcends the commander-in-chief. The slime under him will literally lie to him to keep troops in a place like Syria. They have no ability to plan and execute goals. Any honest person knew Afghanistan was a hopeless war. Those people could not even take care of their own wounded soldiers. Their own doctors charged with taking care of them simply stole medical supplies and let their patients starve to death (look it up). They’re barbarians and our idiot machine played it as long as they could unable to hold itself from getting 13 more of our guys killed and droning some random good Samaritan in retaliation to it.
#2 The army will chew you up and spit you out. I knew a guy who had done a deployment to Iraq before. We deploy and he goes on R&R. His mom has medical issues and he tries to get an extension but doesn’t so he ends up a deserter. He comes back and is court-martialed. At the trial a couple of his leaders testify to his abilities as a soldier yet court martials are guilty until proven innocent. He goes to jail, kicked out, legally discriminated against by all of society now. Last I heard he was homeless, no benefits. You serve honorably and then F up and they strike your name like you were always a scumbag. I’m familiar with how worthless our R&R liaisons were, I got very sick on my R&R during the height of swine flu craze and they told me to come back anyway and put me on the flights with a fever. I saw people fail a uranalysis and also go to prison and get discharged. Oh, if you’re an officer though, you can just resign whenever the hell you want basically. If an officer fails a drug test he can just resign, I saw it happen.
#3 It’s a melting pot for depression. If you are trying to find meaning in life (a lot of people are, leadership is clueless) then it will make sure you feel like a bum getting a paycheck instead of a soldier. About 30% of your service will be doing things to make your leaders look good but which have nothing to do with military readiness. Depression runs rampant under bad leadership and there’s no accountability for bad leaders. Nowhere you go will the locals like you much, any military city in the world. Nobody around a military base wants their daughter to date soldiers, darn sure not lower enlisted. In Korea they literally import foreign women and make a fake little villages outside the base to keep GIs away from their women. Not Joking. Marriages or relationships that do come into the army will frequently fall apart. There was more than one case in my basic training platoon of bank accounts getting zeroed out and “Jody” moving in to their home back home. Almost every couple I knew had their wife cheat on them while in Iraq. I’m talking like 7/9 I knew, the homefront won’t support you beyond words. Businesses will generally prey on new soldiers outside military installations with predatory financing. Yeah, so don’t.
Allen
June 30, 2023 at 2:43 pm
Love how no one wants to admit the woke agenda is why. This is exactly what happens when you alienate a generation of veterans. Oh and thank you for letting me partially feel what Vietnam vets felt knowing your friends and family died in a war no one cares about.
Tony Lewis
June 30, 2023 at 3:21 pm
This is easy! Why would you send your sons and daughters to fight for a country where most of the people do not appreciate their service or sacrifice? Why would you subject your children to medical tyranny? Why would you subject your child to mediocre and incompetent leadership? What is to be gained? Your answers are probably similar to mine and that’s why.
Astrosatirist
June 30, 2023 at 8:44 pm
Maybe nobody wants to hear what I have to say as an Army ‘weekend warrior’ (or, ‘Nasty Girl’), but it doesn’t take a War College education to figure what Charles and others have so eloquently pointed out, but I’ll throw in my two-cents worth.
There’s obviously been a war on the military since the spoiled, leftist-indoctrinated portion of the Boomers and their natural and ideological offspring have been protesting the draft put in place by other progressives. Although they tried to get me to train for a commission, I enlisted in the late ’80s, but, with the ‘collapse’ of the Iron Curtain, Democrats pushed ‘reduction in force’, which included reducing the ranks, closing bases, and cancelling or shorting equipment contracts under the Clinton Administration. At this time, women (those born with XX chromosomes) did not typically serve in combat theaters in front line positions and, before the end of the Clinton Administration, there was a policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”. The dope-smoking and cocaine-snorting son of a card-carrying communist (FMD, Jr) who’d been groomed for politics and started his presidential campaign in the living room of Bill Ayers, convicted violent terrorist (the Weather Underground), who apparently afraid of what the left now calls ‘toxic masculinity’ (unless they were a top), started a campaign of forcing out patriotic senior officers and enlisted, which made it more and more apparent that the only way to continue to serve was that you had to keep your head down and your mouth shut. That also doesn’t include cuts in military benefits, pay and allowances, even cutting meals in the field and proposing that military personnel pay out of pocket for private insurance. The p*ssification of the military is not an accident or simply a byproduct of culture, it’s an obvious campaign, coordinated effort by the woke, progressives, and compromised repugnicans/rinos (especially on enemy-payola, such as creepy Joe and the Turtle). The ultimate goal of this campaign is not 100% clear, but objectives seem to include making the U.S. military an ineffective fighting force (unable to effectively project U.S. power/will beyond our borders, including supporting and providing a united defense of allies and keeping theaters of war as far away from the U.S. as much as possible), unable to secure and defend our borders and population (inviting invasion), discourage patriots, conservatives, and legacies of military families from wanting to join the military, and instead convert the U.S. military to the world’s laughing-stock as propagandists of global woke culture. I’m sure Soros, Fink, and Herr Cueball are all having a laugh at the collapse of U.S. influence and defense.
Quan Treh
June 30, 2023 at 11:31 pm
The SCOTUS decision this week on Affirmative Action had one specific carve out: Race will still be allowed in application processing at the federal service academies.
If we’re stupid enough to let quotas trump merit at West Point we’re probably dumb enough to repeat the spastic retreat from Afpak, the limp responses to Russian and Red Chinese air and sea incursions, the Western hemisphere influence grabs by same, the coddling of Iran by the Saudis, on and on.
These things don’t occur in a vacuum, and our enemies are watching, constantly and closely.
No summary dismissals from shell shock or homophobia caused recruiting problems in prior conflicts.
What caused problems was the hubris found in some very self-serving, sophomoric leadership awaiting a bright and shiny book deal.
Greg Martinez
July 1, 2023 at 2:20 am
Go figure, young men do not want to be exposed to all that woke Commie Sodomite Gender BS that is being shoved down the throats of our military. Not to mention a military run by that corrupt senile person residing in the White House.
dave
July 1, 2023 at 2:29 am
Forced clot shots, and woke ideology! Being cannon fodder for the intended WW3 for Russia are the top 3.Don`t worry the globalist losers are talking about a draft again. Plus you have all these illegals you can coerce for citizenship.