In December the Defense Department said that the military was experiencing serious recruiting shortfalls:

Ashish Vazirani said that during fiscal year 2023, the military services collectively missed recruiting goals by about 41,000 recruits. 

"That number understates the challenge before us as the services lowered [their] end-strength goals in recent years, in part because of the difficult recruiting environment," he said. 

"The all-volunteer force faces one of its greatest challenges since inception," he said. It was created in 1973 after the draft ended. 

The causes of the recruiting challenges "are complex and multifaceted," Vazirani said. 

The causes listed ignored the elephants in the room, but Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt didn't forget about them during his questioning of the Secretary of the Navy this week. Watch: 

That guy actually sounds proud of the fact so few decided to return.

"Smug" doesn't even begin to describe these people. Also, there was a mandate, but exactly what "law" did they break?

What sane people consider failure, they consider success.

It's their definition of "moral decency" that's so frightening.

Fact check: TRUE.