The Military says that recruiting woes are more complicated than ‘woke’ policies
Republican lawmakers are pointing to Joe Biden’s military ‘woke’ policies as a major contributing factor to recruiting challenges. However, the military is saying that there is a combination of issues that are presenting these challenges. Included among these issues are low unemployment, getting the message to younger generations, lack of familiarity with the military, as well as concerns of getting war related injuries.
From Stars & Stripes:
The top challenge facing U.S. military recruiting efforts is a lack of awareness about the armed forces among U.S. youth and not “woke” policies, top Pentagon personnel officials told House lawmakers Wednesday.
Personnel policymakers for the Defense Department and the Army, Navy and Air Force insisted their top hurdles to reaching annual recruiting goals amounted to a messaging problem. Generation Z — people born in the mid-1990s through the early 2010s — have little familiarity with the military and lack understanding of the opportunities uniformed service could provide them, defense officials told the House Armed Services Committee’s military personnel subpanel.
“This combined with historically low unemployment, a strong private sector wage growth, concerns about the risks of military service, the [coronavirus pandemic’s] impact on school access [to recruiters] has all turned into a perfect storm — creating the most challenging recruiting environment for our high-tech service since the height of the dot-com boom, nearly a quarter of a century ago,” said Alex Wagner, the assistant secretary of the Air Force for manpower and reserve affairs.
Officials from the other services made similar assessments of recruiting now, which is generally considered the most difficult time to attract new troops since the introduction of the all-volunteer force 50 years ago. Last year the military services, excluding the Marine Corps and Space Force, missed their annual enlistment goals. The Army, which missed its goal by about 10,000 recruits, failed for a second straight year.
Stars & Stripes has additional information here.
Category: Military issues
““This combined with historically low unemployment, a strong private sector wage growth,”
Wait, what?
Is this true?
I am pretty much out of touch with the private sector, but I thought inflation is a problem, and the current pay is diluted due to the inflation…?
You would be correct. You’re also not an official government spokesperson, and are therefore truthful.
As long as the current “woke” admin is in power it is detrimental to your career to be speaking the truth.
They mean this in terms of finding talented young workers, as there are less of them than there are available jobs in many high skill industries. This creates a very competitive market for those kids with some talent, potential, and a good starting skill set.
Inflation is always a problem, but it’s always a bigger problem for those at the bottom than those above the middle…
We are offering higher wages than ever for entry level, as are all our competitors because when we have openings instead of getting 40 resumes for 2 positions we get 3 or 4 resumes for 5 positions…
Manufacturing, blue collar jobs that pay high five figures aren’t finding the kinds of workers they were able to find just five years ago…CNC machinists, tool and die, those skilled in all manner of high end production environments are hard to find…kids were told these jobs are beneath them…so much so that all of us running these blue collar production facilities are struggling to find workers.
When the local burger place is offering $20/hr to start manufacturing has to provide a better incentive.
Even the USPS has young new employees starting at $20/hr and being given 10-20 hours a week of OT…you can be 20 years old without a degree working for the USPS and making $60k a year at start thanks to OT, more if you get in the 15-20 hr OT range. At least I know this is true for our local USPS as two of my former players have decided this is the way to go…
As does the military.
“The Military says”
Translation: leftwing political appointees with shiny stars says
Stop…just stop. The Democrats, all their mouth pieces in the media, and all their paid influencers online will say America sucks. That’s right its a awful place to live and should be burned to the ground. Oh, the majority of people who serve in the military, straight white men, are the absolute worst. I know your family immigrated from Europe in 1894, but you’re now responsible for slavery. Don’t, don’t look at the history books where the Democrats were for slavery, secession, created the Klan, Jim Crow, and fought against civil rights. Now they’re going to berate for NOT joining after taking a giant shit on you. Trump will win 2024, and by 2026 recruiting woes will be gone because somebody in the White House actually loves this country. Stop. Nothing follows.
Woked
Death Shot
Hate Whitey
Hate US Constitution
Homos/trans
Affirmation action promotions
Diversity quotas
Hard to join an organization that HATES you
thanks for posting this, now I have to go crack open my safe, dig through all my important papers I keep in there and find my 214 and give it a kiss then put it back.
Make a copy of your DD-214 and carry the copy with you like Linus’ security blanket.
So the elephant in the room isn’t really an elephant? 🙄
It identifies as a housecat.
The recruiting issues are multifaceted, but there’s no denying that some of the “woke” policies and statements aren’t helping. I recruited in a station with a largely Black demographic. My areas were unincorporated and mostly White. Down here, Conservative Christians comprise the bulk of the White communities, and the schools I recruited out of were some of the better ones in the state. Most kids went to college or took a trade out of high school. They got to stay near home, make a lot more money than the military pays, and not have to risk getting sent to fight rich men’s wars.
Everyone has their own motivations for wanting to serve, but I can guarantee that a lot of parents are seeing and hearing about the support drag queens and LBGTQ types are getting from military brass and civilian leaders. They aren’t going to push Little Johnny or Jane into enlisting, knowing the risk of Little Johnny deciding that maybe “she” is Jane after getting indoctrinated, inoculated, and learning that no heterosexual White male is innocent.
I recall the “Ballad of the Queen Berets” when Clinton’s DADT policy came out. Little did we know that DADT was the last gasp for any sense of normalcy. Many of us have served alongside SMs who’ve “pitched for the other team” without incident. While the fearmongering in 1993 proved mostly just that, when the policy ended 17 years later, it opened the flood gates for all sorts of weirdness. Coupled with the opening of all jobs to women, I’d venture to say that the military has not gotten better. In ten years, that aging OnlyFans “model” might be your Company Commander, with non-binary 1SG Wienerlady (Zhim/They) as her sidekick.
Already gettin’ there… just sayin’:
I love this quote about women in the infantry being softer than men: “There can be some tough ones, I understand, the GI Janes…”
It’s telling to me that the only example he could come up with was fictional.
And Navy
Exactly!
Seriously, just don’t give me a bunch of unfit, dumbasses with poor attitudes who don’t want to be there (e.g., Bradley Manning, Beau Bergdahl, etc.) to have “women” there. (Of course, that would be stupid to do.) But, Murphy’s Law being what it is, you know what can happen.
When you judge a Christmas Tree by it’s dimmest bulbs it’s going to look bad. Of course you could go another way.
Bing Videos
Bing Videos
Bing Videos
Military Women (@militarywomens) | TikTok
Military Women (@militarywomens) | TikTok
Military Women (@militarywomens) | TikTok
True… as a Patriot air defender, I served with a bunch of physically fit, squared away female soldiers. Everything in big AD systems is power-assisted (it’s all too heavy for everyone) and bullets don’t care. Just don’t add a bunch of unfit women who can’t make tape to have 50%.
A Combat Veteran has a take on this (plus outtakes):
P.S. Even in ADA-land, the biggest misogynists were the dorks who couldn’t do as well as women (in relative or even absolute terms) on the APFT and Height/Weight. (She’s on the extended scale and did more pushups, but you got a 191 and took off everything but your sweaty jockey shorts to make table, he-man– eat better, exercise more if you’re gonna talk!)
I’ve definitely seen that before.
I only had 1 female Soldier that just couldn’t physically do the job, and that more due to her height. She was tough as hell, great PT scores, all around great troop. But at 5’3″, she just plain couldn’t reach some stuff to assemble certain antennas. So she kept busy working on other stuff. We were able to work around that issue, that isn’t always an option.
That sounds like a failure in job requirements description. I imagine a 5’3″ male soldier would have similar difficulties. Kind of like how I was never going to get submarine duty if joined the Navy being 6’3″.
I don’t recall there being a minimum height requirement in that MOS ( I think it was 31M at the time) but there definitely should’ve been. And you’re right, a male would’ve had the same problem. I just never had any that small.
I know our SigO at 5-7th ADA Bn in Germany was 4’11” and wore Size 2 boots. She was small.
I served in the 11th ADA Brigade for several years right before the 2003 War. I knew several of the men and women who were KIA, WIA, captured and unharmed from the ambush of the 507th.
A number of things stuck with me from that unsurprising event. The previous commander had been relieved a few months before the deployment because he forged APFT and height/ weight cards and then got told on by several people. Basically he was a fat POS that got off on his small power in command and couldn’t lead a church choir through a chorus of Amazing Grace. He was hardly unique, there were many such poor leaders.
Mostly their failures had to do with the poor leadership and believing that nothing bad would ever happen to them. But also I had soldiers tell me straight to my face before the deployment that if bullets were flying they would be running. I had an E7 tell me once, with all seriousness, that he didn’t want to mount a gun on his truck because he was afraid of being shot at. They expected to be protected by infantry or armor soldiers and considered themselves to be “too valuable” to have to defend themselves from ground attack.
These were practically all male soldiers. Sure they were REMF’s but even a REMF understands that their secondary MOS is infantry.
But more about to my point is that women have paid with blood in combat and that certainly wasn’t the first time. Nobody is saying that they have to be infantry or armor or whatever, there are a thousand jobs to do and all of them need someone. But the idea that someone without a penis can’t or even shouldn’t fight, died a long time ago.
The concept of “every man a rifleman” died in the army, at least in spirit, around that time.
I remember seeing a PSYOP reservist in Iraq in 2006 practicing mag changes; every member of his TPT, along with the attached CAT-A, THT, and EODT, were all laughing at him for doing something they all thought was silly. It didn’t matter that these four teams often patrolled together with no combat arms support except for the occasional IA squad – they were “special,” and that kind of stuff was beneath them.
It wasn’t like that for everybody. I did two tours after that on IA advisor teams. We definitely practiced mag changes and nobody found it funny. Of course we didn’t live on a FOB either.
I got lucky twice though. My first team leader had spent a good chunk of his career and command time in the 101st. The next one was a long tabber who took it as command time, which was tough to get on the O5 side in his branch. More than that, he never really looked down on anybody that was trying. He had the skill set and never stopped trying to get everybody to be the best version of themselves. Sadly, I didn’t see that enough in the army.
I never went back to ADA Land. I imagine things haven’t changed that much.
Better now that ADA has to share a post with another combat arm (FA) but still has its issues.
Off-topic, but the actress in those skits is Michelle Elizabeth O’Shea – IMDb. Looks a little different out of costume (the uniform). Unlike many of the others in the series, especially the two main guys, Andrew Hernandez and Juston Graber, it seems that she’s a professional actress with no service. I’m not complaining…
“It doesn’t make any seeeeeense!”
Where are the videos of these chicks carrying a large ruck full of ammo and gear along with 35 pounds of body armor and six quarts of water. I weighed myself with all my gear and weapons for a LRRP patrol in Vietnam at 115 pounds over my body weight (175), and that was without the body armor and helmet our troops now must wear in combat. So, let’s see; a 115-to-125-pound female with 150 pounds of gear on her body. Then add a radio and two spare batteries. Or, how about a mortar base plate? I don’t think so.
I have no idea how much our rucks weighed in Kuwait, but they were heavy. We didn’t have to conduct many movements with them in Iraq, as the assault pack was standard issue by then (prior to MOLLE, we had Eagle assault packs the unit had bought for Afghanistan), but I will say that anytime we put them on, we had to sit down, strap in, and have two buddies step on our feet and pull us up. I’d estimate that my M249 with accessories and ammo, body armor and helmet, LBE with accoutrements like night vision, and assault pack probably weighed around 100 lbs. This, of course, isn’t counting the ruck, which we strapped on the outside of LMTVs for “cover” as we entered Baghdad, and then staged before any patrols. According to this, some Marines claim to have carried over 200 lbs in Afghanistan: The Overloaded Soldier: Why U.S. Infantry Now Carry More Weight Than Ever (popularmechanics.com)
I used to semi-joke about the “light” being taken out of Light Infantry. As a Private we still trained without body armor and even occasionally wore patrol caps. By 2004 we wore stripped body armor for most training besides foot marches. By 2014, we were wearing every last piece of armor even during road marches in 100+ degree heat. Half of my squad became heat casualties just walking to a range 11 miles away at Fort Stewart.
Can women (or even many men) do the job that Infantry units were doing in Iraq and Afghanistan, at least later on? Very possibly, as by 2013 most patrols were mounted, in air-conditioned MRAPs that had space for spare ammo and gear. Would they have been a hindrance in Iraq in 2003 or especially in Afghanistan in 2001-2002? Maybe, I don’t know, but I suspect I have an idea…
When did Curly join the Army?
“Generation Z — people born in the mid-1990s through the early 2010s — have little familiarity with the military and lack understanding of the opportunities uniformed service could provide them”
Actually, the people who would traditionally be expected to serve (kids and grandkids of vets, rural people, patriots) are a bit too familiar with what the military used to be and what it has become and want no part of the modern “woke” military.
The ones who “have little familiarity” with the military are the ones who would have only enlisted as a last resort out of desperation anyway.
Intentionally chase away the very demographic that has traditionally been the backbone of your force and then act surprised when you can’t get recruits.
That’s the genius of our upper military “leadership” at the moment. Apparently they all attended the Bud Light School of Marketing.
100% right. The military was thought of as no nonsense and a challenging, tough, team. I reiterate was. Except for the Marines, it’s marketed as a jobs program, standards are in the shitter, I look at troops and say WTF and how did that get in. Marines make no promises of anything but being a Marine, I’m sure recruiters still say whatever they have to to snag some dumbass kid but generally Marines are still looking for the same type of recruits they always have and they are still joining. Believe me, talk to kids, the military isn’t looked at with the same reverence and respect it once was. Most of our military icons Patton, Puller, Nimitz, wouldn’t be very welcome in the modern military. Ignoring the woke elements won’t bring back the type of recruits that are disillusioned and talk to their friends that are still in. I’m sorry, I went to an Airforce basic training graduation and was appalled, 5ft tall female drill sergeants just aren’t very intimidating, the system that backs them up is but it’s got to be emasculating and embarrassing. I was pretty sure that my Drill instructors back in the day at Parris Island could if not actually beat me in a fight they could still do damage. I can’t imagine having a tranny 1st Sgt. remember the Army Colonel with the dog fetish and all his puppy boys? They were US Army officers, not funny.
“I’m sorry, I went to an Airforce basic training graduation and was appalled, 5ft tall female drill sergeants just aren’t very intimidating, the system that backs them up is but it’s got to be emasculating and embarrassing.”
I was looking for a video I saw where the female and male Drill Sergeant played off each other perfectly, which led me to my “Awaiting Moderation” Yusha Thomas video spamming on the WOT (oops).
Anyway, I agree that a small-statured DS/DI isn’t going to necessarily be intimidating by herself. The stereotype is of the hyper-fit Alpha male, ideally over 6′ tall and looking like he’s capable of choke slamming you through that wall. Me? I love the concept of PSYOPS, and even the biggest and baddest SOB, like Corn Pop, might be overwhelmed by a tiny person playing mind games.
At the US Army Drill Sergeant Academy, the DS Leaders consisted of everyone from the Commandant, an Infantry Ranger who was a very solid probably 250 pounds, to a female X-Ray Tech who might have weighed 110 pounds. The X-Ray Tech was one of the more feared. She was from one of the Carribean islands and had a thick accent, and while behind closed doors Candidates would poke fun of her lack of leadership and combat experience, no one dared to in front of another Cadre. Another DSL was a short red-headed MP married to another woman. She’d been in the Army less time than I had in as a SSG at the time.
My point is, Basic Training is designed to make you part of a team. No team is better than that of a varied (as opposed to diverse) group of people from different backgrounds and with different strengths. If a Private had decided he wanted to take me on I feel like I’d have likely whupped up on him, but I very well may have gotten a little comeuppance. Regardless, the second my peers and leadership saw what was going on, there’d have been a physical lesson for the young kid, followed by administrative and possibly legal trouble.
I forget who, but one of the female DSLs told us of how some Trainee thought he was hot stuff. She got on a chair next to him to get face to face, surrounded by her male DS companions, and within a minute had him in tears.
On a chair. Sorry that’s ridiculous. Thank god the Corps never did anything like that. Our Drill Instructors were men and imposing figures that could demand respect and get it, not because a system could punish us. I at the time felt that I was entering a warrior society, I hope it still is. Co ed boot camp is going to destroy the culture and that’s why the Marines have been resisting this PC nonsense for years now.
I agree to an extent, but at least she adapted and overcame the situation. I don’t know about DIs, but Army DS’ usually have a deeply hidden sense of humor, and we find ways to amuse ourselves. We express seriousness but try not to take ourselves too seriously.
When I went though, I thought the DS’ were godlike. Not all were super big and mean, but they all had an aura about them. We knew little to nothing about our DS’, only ever saw them in uniform, When I figured out what the scariest Drill Sergeant (who told me I’d “make it” in his platoon and later asked me if I wanted to move from C/3-187 to Bravo to serve with him) drove, it felt like I’d discovered gold.
By 2016, many of the Drills came into work in civilian clothes, had their families come to bring them dinner if they had 24-hour duty, wore PTs all day if they could, and parked right next to the company area. They also regularly walked outside without headgear of any sort, even while tearing into PVTs who forgot to put theirs on.
That felt wrong, so I came to work in PT uniform, made a point to change into OCPs and be outside before the Trainees got back from PT (unless I was marching them, of course), parked down the hill at the old Infantry Training BDE HQ, and never even mentioned my family. I also made a point to don the campaign hat in the morning and wear it until I got back into my truck at night, despite us technically no longer being authorized to do so. The pistol belt and indoor headgear disappeared somewhere between 2002-2015, with the exception of DSLs at the Academy.
In my mind, younger DS’ who lack the examples their predecessors set are going to get worse and worse, and the coed thing is only going to make things more difficult. Imagine some of those females in Jamesons’ video when they are selected for DS School in a few years. Things aren’t looking good…
If the lack of military recruiting over the past couple of years is attributed to a “messaging problem”, as senior DoD officials claim, then they should be shit-canned for not fixing a problem that has existed for so long.
If the Pentagon came to its senses and divested itself of those mouth breathers, it would also need to slap itself back into reality and look at what’s really going on.
I disagree that “Generation Z”-ers “have little familiarity with the military” because a good portion of them spend their time playing first-shooter video games (Xbox, PlayStation, whatever…) and watch YouTube videos. The older ones have probably been contacted by or visited with a recruiter at some point… but were found to be unqualified for military service because of obesity, low scores, criminal background, dropping out of school, medical issues, or for taking Adderall (or whatever). Others just hate the country, and those otherwise eligible (sons/daughters who are patriotic) have chosen to pay attention and avoid military service because the current administration and its foreign policy are a cluster fuck. (I’m still waiting for the LGBTQ and “Trans” community to form lines outside of recruiting and OSO offices.)
The withdrawal from Afghanistan, how uniformed members were treated because of the vax mandate, and a list of other policy failures are all side-show results of an inept President, Vice President, Congress, Senate, and DoD.
We’ve also talked about how 54% of Americans would recommend against someone joining up, according to pols. I suspect if you try asking actual veterans, the percentage would be far higher in that demographic, a seismic shift in attitude from earlier times. “It’ll make a man of you” seems to only be attractive to wannabe transgenders cisfemales.
When they installed a “winger” as commandant of the Corps, I stopped recommending military service. Now I tell kids to run from the recruiters. That freak in a dress being paid as an Admiral is all you need to see.
Yep. Amos cross-decked from the Navy as an aviator to the Marine Corps (inter-service transfer in 1972), having never attended USMC OCS or TBS.
He just put on a Marine Corps uniform one day, and PRESTO!
Yep. And then he left the Corps in late ‘78 and tried his hand at being an airline pilot before coming back in early ‘81. They sure must have been hard up for Naval Aviators to let him come back. I always thought that leaving like that would have serious career implications, even if you were allowed back in.
Indeed it’s never as simple as one thing, whether woke policy, poor pay, false gratitude, stop-loss, benefit denial or a process so convoluted to get benefits many lose faith they’ll get their benefits so they stop seeking them….
It’s always more complex of course.
However there is nothing in the woke policy aspect of the military that appeals to the average young man considering the benefit, or lack thereof, in serving a largely ungrateful nation.
And let’s face it, we are seeking young men as they make up over 80% of the military to this day.
Couple that with the reality that many of our volunteers in the past have been the children of those who’ve served, but many current veterans are discouraging their children from serving largely due to their experiences while serving…
When your parents experience some of the military’s odd stupidity and it negatively impacts their opinion of life in the military those parents aren’t going to want their children to see that side of military life either…a study last year indicated that previously up to 75% of veterans would recommend service to someone in their family considering it while currently that number has dropped to 60% or so…one suspects it’s going to continue to drop a bit unless the veteran experience becomes a better experience for our current military members.
It’s a new world with new opportunities in the work force that have never existed previously for my generation of baby boomers who always had to compete for employment…now we have a labor market where employers have to compete for employees…savvy employers are doing their best to create a very comfortable environment of high pay and plenty of perks to get the best talent.
The military can’t compete for those kids, they offer a restrictive environment with forced overtime and uncomfortable working conditions. It doesn’t sell in this competitive environment.
The problem will only get worse, not better.
The last boomer, born in 1964, will be 60 next year. The average retirement age in the US is 61. Which means in two years the vast majority of boomers will be out long out of the work force. In fact less than 1/2 of our population is in the work force. The oldest boomer will be 78. Some people can work into that age but the vast majority won’t, given a choice.
LFPR is at it’s lowest (non covid) rate since the 70s. It is likely near it’s post COVID peak and will go back into the existing decline trend. You will note the huge increase that took place 1965-2000 mostly was due to women entering the workforce and a little due to a drop in small family farms.
The decline has to do with the aging population, the huge increase in “disabled” people and the huge increase in drug addicted people. About 20% of our work age population is either “Disabled” or a (mostly opioid) drug addict.
If that weren’t bad enough about 29% of American’s age 18-35 use marijuana regularly and would be unable to join the military. Putting that into context is important. Those that dropped out of college or never did much other than work in fast food are much, much more likely to use THC. Low performing high school grads was traditionally the target market for the military.
https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/labor-force-participation-rate
This is why the government is allowing unrestricted immigration. Without it the economy starts shutting down. Also another reason that I think that military service should be a path to citizenship. It would require a ton of guardrails though and governments aren’t very good at that.
A four-day workweek from home or it’s a human rights violation for Gen Z today.
Since she essentially has my husband’s brain, we originally thought that our daughter would go into the USAF like he did, and even probably wind up in the same career field. Years of dealing with Daddy’s injuries from his time of service has turned her off from the military, and I can’t blame her. Plus there’s the woke thing, which goes against every value we’re trying to instill in her.
Has the army gotten softer? Emphatically and embarrassingly yes. Does it still do stupid things? Yes, and it always will. Is the military more “woke”?? Yes. Is it as bad as all the hyperbole makes it appear to be? No. I say this having put the green suit on every day since July 1986, less getting out to go to college, and having served in line units or as instructor or observer controller for the vast majority of that time. But the more we complain about this imaginary Army we think it’s become, the more we are harming our own side in my opinion. It’s like the media complaining about a ridiculous caricature of Trump that never really existed but all the lefties hate. We are focusing on the tiny percent of crap (admittedly disgusting), but in any given day, the vast majority of the army is out there doing pretty good stuff. The article is correct in large part. But I do agree the excess of woke must be stopped. They just aren’t as prevalent as commenters would have us believe. Opinion column done!
“… a lack of awareness…” So, what we need to do is “raise awareness”? Maybe we should do a Chili Cook-off…and issue everyone that shows up a leather vest. That seemed to work for that crowd out in Elko.
Perhaps “wokeness” isn’t THE one reason for low recruiting numbers but it sure as hell plays a huge role.
I would not want to get killed because of a “historical first”.