The U.S. Army is in a minor panic.
The biggest branch of the U.S. military missed its recruitment goals by 15,000 soldiers last year, and this year is shaping up to be another heavy lift.
SPACE FORCE RECRUITMENT DOING 'VERY WELL' DESPITE OTHER BRANCHES' STRUGGLES
Enter: “Be All You Can Be,” the iconic slogan from the 1980s and '90s, rebranded for a new generation. “‘Be All You Can Be’ is a phrase that has inspired many generations of soldiers, and its promise still rings true today,” Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville said at the rollout of the latest reboot of the Army’s ad campaign. “This is the message for the moment and for the future.”
If that smacks slightly of desperation, it’s not without reason: The Army is slowly shrinking. Last year, the Army requested funding for 473,000 active-duty soldiers but only ended up with 452,000. This year, the Army is struggling to maintain that force level because realistically, that’s all the current recruiting climate can support, and even then, to stem the shrinkage will still require the service sign up 65,000 new enlistees.
The Army may be the poster child for recruiting woes, but it’s not alone in facing a historic challenge.
“This is something that we see happening across the entire Department of Defense to all of the services,” Gabe Camarillo, undersecretary of the Army, said. “It did not take one year to get into this situation. It'll take several years to get us out of it.”
“Most of the trends that have created the present recruiting crisis will not change anytime soon, and if left unaddressed, they could soon threaten the ability of the all-volunteer force to protect the nation,” wrote retired Army Lt. Gen. David Barno and Nora Bensahel, visiting professors of studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Without urgent action, Barno and Bensahel argue, the military may find itself “continuing to involuntarily shrink” and “may soon be too small to address the growing security challenges facing the United States.”
Some of the reasons today’s youth are not attracted to military service are obvious, such as relatively low pay and easier jobs in today’s super-hot labor market. But the challenge is not simply that fewer high school graduates want to join the military. It’s that fewer are in good enough physical or mental shape to enlist.
“Polling shows that propensity for military service is at 9%, the lowest in 15 years, and the qualification rate for military service among 17- to 24-year-olds has decreased from 29% to 23%,” testified Sgt. Major of the Army Michael Grinston at a hearing of the House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee this month.
“I want to begin with [the] obvious question,” asked Chairman Jim Banks (R-IN). “50th anniversary of an all-volunteer force, yet we are met with a recruitment crisis that we've never seen before … What is the biggest obstacle to recruitment of the enlisted forces?”
“As we surveyed our future candidates for the United States Army, we ask them this very question,” replied Grinston. “And we found that the No. 1 barrier for those that we surveyed was they [believed it] would be putting their life on hold.”
“They don't know about our Army,” Grinston said, noting that 83% of the current service members are familiar with the military life because a parent, grandparent, or other close relative who served in uniform, and that’s only a small segment of society.
“We don't want the Army to be a family business. We want it to be an American business,” Grinston said.
The Army’s recruiting campaign is once again stressing that military service is not just a job, but a career. “If you join the Army, you have an opportunity to get funds to go to college while you serve,” Camarillo said. “You have an opportunity to learn skills in high-end, very technical skill sets, to be either a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer, software developer. You can even be a veterinarian.”
But Camarillo admitted it’s a hard sell. “We do not think that the recruiting challenge will go away overnight,” he said. “We're pulling every lever we can at our disposal to make sure that we're addressing it.”
The services are using a wide array of carrots, not only to lure new recruits, but also to keep current troops from leaving, including bonuses, choice of duty station, and waivers for recruits who, in the past, would have been excluded for things such as low levels of marijuana use. During the House subcommittee hearing, Republicans kept coming back to what they see as a major factor in recruiting downturn, the perception that the U.S. military has become too politicized, distracted from its core warfighting functions by “woke ideology.”
“When I talk to people and say, 'Well, why aren't you looking to join the military?' A lot of them say, ‘Well, the military has been over-politicized. Well, the military has gone woke,’” said Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) an Army combat veteran who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
“I can remember when I would go into the recruitment station, I wanted to see the Ranger video where they’re kicking doors, jumping out of planes, and doing really cool stuff,” Mills said. “Now, all of a sudden, it’s about how do we address our fellow soldier, airman, and what pronouns we’re utilizing.”
The panel of senior enlisted leaders from all the services pushed back, insisting if anything was hurting recruiting, it was the constant labeling of the military as too woke, fueling a perception problem, they insisted, doesn’t match reality. “Sir, I would offer the Air Force does not have pronoun training,” said Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force JoAnne Bass. “Where we could use your help is by sharing that message that your services are not focused on any of that such training more than we are on warfighting.”
“We've maintained our standards,” Grinston added. “When I looked at it, there's one hour of equal opportunity training and basic training, and 92 hours of rifle marksmanship training.”
Whether it is the overstatement of a tiny fraction of white supremacists in the ranks or the exaggeration of the amount of diversity training in the military, the constant drumbeat of negative headlines is one of the stiff headwinds recruiters face. “Negative depiction and conversation about our service members in the media, social media, pop culture have all become unbalanced, inaccurate, and, quite frankly, they are unjust,” said Sgt. Maj. of the Marine Corps Troy Black. “We must challenge the misconceptions.”
“Whether that's a national leader, it's in media, pop culture, in social media, it's irrelevant,” Chief Master Sgt. of the Space Force Roger Towberman added. “It's always something negative. Until we reverse that, until we reverse that, it doesn't matter how qualified someone is.”
When Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL), a former Army Green Beret, entered into the record a Heritage Foundation poll that found 68% of active-duty troops say they have witnessed politicization in the military, with an equal percentage saying that would negatively affect their advice to their children about joining up, Grinston said that’s just the kind of publicity that’s counterproductive.
“I think even by your comments, are we politicizing the military? It almost feels like we're politicizing the military,” he told Waltz. “We support and defend the nation and the constitution of everybody … that's what good soldiers do.”
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In their essay, Barno, a former commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, and Bensahel suggested it’s time to tone down the rhetoric. “Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle are publicly criticizing the U.S. military in ways that appeal to their partisan supporters, which ends up harming the very institution that they claim to be deeply concerned about,” they wrote. “Painting the entire U.S. military as either woke or extremist undermines public support for the institution and the people in uniform.”
Jamie McIntyre is the Washington Examiner’s senior writer on defense and national security. His morning newsletter, Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, is free and available by email subscription at dailyondefense.com.