Largest Demographic Shuns Army Service
Not Answering
Army Sees Sharp Decline in White Recruits
By Steve Beynon
The Army’s recruiting of white soldiers has dropped significantly in the last half decade, according to internal data reviewed by Military.com, a decline that accounts for much of the service’s historic recruitment slump that has become the subject of increasing concern for Army leadership and Capitol Hill.
The shift in demographics for incoming recruits would be irrelevant to war planners, except it coincides with an overall shortfall of about 10,000 recruits for the Army in 2023 as the service missed its target of 65,000 new soldiers. That deficit is straining the force as it has ramped up its presence in the Pacific and Europe: A smaller Army is taking on a larger mission and training workload than during the peak of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — leading to soldiers being away from home now more than ever.
A total of 44,042 new Army recruits were categorized by the service as white in 2018, but that number has fallen consistently each year to a low of 25,070 in 2023, with a 6% dip from 2022 to 2023 being the most significant drop. No other demographic group has seen such a precipitous decline, though there have been ups and downs from year to year.
It was just a matter of time for someone to connect the dots. Military pandering and DEI marginalization have resulted in an entirely predictable outcome. Big Army is spinning as hard as it can, but the 800-pound gorilla is there for all to see.
Category: Big Army, Diversity, Reality Check
Gee, you tell them they are bad and evil and then wonder why they don’t want to join your failing organization!!?
They probably all noticed the paid internship/on the job training available as a tradesman…and said hmmm! I could get some money for college (which I don’t need) and make 40k a year while being yelled at and basically treated like a prisoner, or I can make 60k, learn a trade to eventually make 100k+ and they will respect me and treat me somewhat like an equal!
It’s kinda human nature that folks don’t want to voluntarily join organizations that hate them.
Whyte boys and girls have discovered that their whyte privilege card is not working very well for them.
How’s that Alphabet recruiting going for you? POC/LGBTQRSTUV/LS/MFT
Loose Sweaters Make Floppy Tits.
Only if there’s no bra, and the tits are large.
I remember that!
This
It’s toasted!
I miss fresh Luckys so much.
I’d pick up a pack once an awhile, they’d be still moist and taste like raisins.
Too bad everyone decided they want to ‘live forever’…
“I’d walk a mile for a Camel”. (Not after 20 or 30 years of two or three packs a day).
I used to linger at the supermarket checkout counter just to enjoy the aroma of the cigarettes on display.
I quit almost 30 years ago, but I would still (try to) walk a mile for a Camel.
Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco.
Be happy … Go Lucky!
HQ Big Army needs to send a memo to recruiters and direct them to mark DD Form 1966 Block 7.B.(5) [WHITE] (regardless of the actual race of the recruit) until the numbers even out.
In Section V, 34.B (Item) and C. (Change Required), the recruit can attest they identify as WHITE, and reaffirm in Section VI (Remarks), and revert back to their actual race later.
HQ Big Army will also need to send similar instructions to MEPS.
Everything will sort itself out in the end.
You joke, but I have no doubt if a push for more white bread recruits comes down, someone might actually have the same idea if they get leaned on hard enough and they just want their chain of command off their back.
Actually, I think politicians are getting exactly what they asked for.
A while back, they called for greater diversity in the military and had a commission to study recruiting and promotion policies because they believed the military was too white and too male. (Remember all the complaints about there not being enough senior officers of color in the ranks, or that the military overall wasn’t “diverse” enough?)
The article states the number of white recruits fell from 56% to 44% between 2018 and last year. The reduction in whites is what politicians asked for. The article also suggests that in the same period, the percentage of black recruits increased from 20 to 24 %, and Hispanic recruits rose from 17 to 24 %.
If the trend continues, more people of color will represent the military, and white people will become more marginalized because they deserve it, right?
The article goes on to say “…some Army planners are alarmed and see it as a minefield to navigate given increasing partisan attacks against the military for its efforts to recruit and support a diverse force.”
It’s just the opposite actually: the Army is doing exactly what it was charged to do, so it ought to congratulate itself!
So what’s the problem again?
Respect. You have leveled up on the internet. It was so blindingly obvious I didn’t even see it.
You are right the Army needs to clap themselves on the back this is win-win-win.
The military needs to give themselves the clap…
I’ve got the clap and I’m giving it to you…
https://youtu.be/8bw2X1oq_js?feature=shared
Sung by an all male group. There’s a joke or two there somewhere.
“and white people will become more marginalized because they deserve it, right”
Until the shit hits the fan, and then it will be those cowardly, oppressive whites shirking their civic responsibilities and using POC as cannon fodder.
Remember when you got extra points for any race other than white in the recruiting world – with AFQT above a 50 LOL I just hear the recruiter asking – are you sure you don’t have ……
IIRC, a majority (if not all) of the screening questions we asked of applicants were disqualifying factors if they answered “yes”. When I was “on the bag” (USMC speak for recruiting duty), our office was pretty successful and I don’t recall having to go rogue on any processing paperwork. Others weren’t so lucky, with some careers coming to an abrupt end.
White male unemployment rates are currently below 3.5%. Wages are good, PT requirements are very low. Weed use is way up, making many ineligible to serve.
Giving up fat, dumb and happy to go fight in the Middle East or wherever their current forever war is going on, doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Plus… just sayin’:
“Somewhere, a True Believer is training to kill you….”
Exactly… or, at the very least, one not into prounouns and critical race theory.
Wait! What?!
All those DIE/gay/LGBT(etc)/illegals/POC AREN’T picking up the slack in the military?
Say it ain’t so! (tongue firmly planted in both cheeks)
The last four lines of “Tommy” (Rudyard Kipling) sez it all:
For it’s Tommy this, and Tommy that, and “Chuck him out, the brute!”
But it’s “Saviour of his country” when the guns begin to shoot;
And it’s Tommy this, and Tommy that, and anything you please;
And Tommy ain’t a blooming fool — you bet that Tommy sees!
https://medium.com/kipling-updated/tommy-an-updated-version-of-kiplings-barrack-room-ballad-7eb03beb9dba
There’s a slightly updated version of “Tommy” (still British oriented) about halfway down the page, still with the same sentiment towards soldiers by those who have never BTDT.
O it’s “Tommy change your values” — now diversity’s the game;
But when Christmas leave is cancelled, then whose tyrants are to blame?
There’s tyrants in the mountains, boys, and tyrants in the sands,
So farewell to wives and risk your lives for them in foreign lands.
For it’s Tommy this, and Tommy that, and “f*ckin’ cis white male,” but it’s “Where’re all you racist bastards?!” when sh*t’s done hit the fan!
“You gotta ask me nicely.” –Nathan R. Jessup
I wonder if it’s just my beloved Big Army, or if the other branches are also failing to attract those white farm boys and girls.
I have no doubt this is endemic across the services.
I don’t know of any. Every farmhand I have ever met is either illegally in the country or they are black. It’s no exaggeration to say that I’ve met literally hundreds in the last 10 years. I do know a few older ones that are white that used to be prisoners.
there are still a few high schools here in my area that are almost exclusively white, and still have 4H sponsored “bring your tractor to school” days
Show a person you don’t want them enough times, and even the dumbest will eventually catch on.
Everyday I think God I’m not apart of the alphabet Army any longer. Retired in 98 and I saw the morphing of the military then.
There’s really a lot of things I do miss even after 25 years but the social experimenting on Joes and Jolenes that just want to serve is devastating.
Again?
Used to be the Army, police and railroad were damn near the only thing open to the Irish. Those Hollywood stereotypes are accurate.
That’s b******* I can think of a bunch of jobs. Bartending, coal mining, Teamster, strike breaker… Lots of jobs.
Doing the jobs all the other white folks wouldn’t 😉
All I can say is, thank God my father enlisted in the Marine corps. Otherwise I would probably be an unemployed coal miner on fentanyl in the mountains of West Virginia right now. Headed down to the Piggly wiggly with my EBT card to pick up some beans and rice.
And the Fire Department.. and now they bitch and sue because some older departments are full of multi-generational Irishmen.. go figure
I mean, logical.
(half kidding, being mixed Irish myself)
“*DUHHHH!* yeah, come join an Army where others will be promoted ahead of you just because of ethnicity as well as being ethnic snowflakes, and *UUHHHHMM*, yeah, you’re gonna get berated for being white, yeah. *DUUUHHHHH* why nobody wants join?”
Promoted ahead of you even if you score higher, are more prepared, more qualified, etc.
I was passed over 2 times in the past for DEI, before DEI was actually a thing. One was promoted ahead of me for a position, and immediately filed for hardship because she was pregnant. This resulted in her name being on the books and an E7 having to his job and the job of the CPT that should have been there, but wasn’t.
When there’re “too many white males” in your area and they hire somebody only on the basis of their skin color instead:
Exhibit A in the low IQ proposition.
I still have a few 8″ floppy discs and a couple of drives in a box somewhere, so that vinyl LP isn’t too far off. And I know a few white people who might do the same as that guy in the picture.
That’s where things seem to be going. We need more transwomen, biological women (am I allowed to use that term?), and generally diverse individuals in the service. If post-op complications, unforeseen (or often planned, in my cynical view of enlisted females, at least) pregnancies, and such make a Soldier non-deployable, that just goes with the modern flow.
We think of the Soldier as the square-jawed, Ranger qualified NCO or officer who wakes up at 0300 daily and does more before 0600 than most of us do in a week (especially me these days). That’s archaic thinking. Now, I’m not blind to the Army’s true demographics. It takes a team, and I’ve served alongside some outstanding men and women of all shapes, colors, and sizes. A Supply Clerk doesn’t have to be a PT stud, just as a Truck Driver doesn’t need fancy tabs and badges. I had the honor of serving under a Brigade OPS SGM who was one of two Black Rangers in Mogadishu in ’93. I found an article where he had stated that they (the two Black Rangers) got more hatred from locals than anyone else, since they were considered traitors.
But… (and that’s a big but) modern sensibilities seem to push the Agenda more than mission effectiveness. If we can continue to rack up the First [insert female, transwoman, gay, POC, etc. here], we are showing our strength as a nation. Only, no. Russia, China, Iran, North Korea; none of those countries care about our diversity and inclusion. They’ll fight us with predominantly male forces and show no quarter when encountered with the First female Green Beret or First trans Ranger.
As with my last comment, though, I realize that I’m the last of a transitioning breed (not that transition, dammit). I’ll accept anyone willing to fight alongside me, but they should be assessed and promoted based off of merit and combat prowess… not their “diversity”.
Amen!! I’m afraid that it’s going to hurt, a lot, when “they” learn the error of their ways!
Nah, that doesn’t happen…
When the SFC selection board results were released in 2016, I was still in my first year on the Trail. It was fairly common knowledge that many of us would be selected after a full year, so I didn’t expect to make the list despite having nine years in grade at the time.
The list comes out, and every Hispanic Drill Sergeant in 2/54 Infantry got picked up. We shared a DFAC with 2/47, a Basic Combat Training unit, and one of the Infantry Drills from there told me that the same had happened in his unit. Between our two battalions, maybe a handful of White SSGs were selected, while every eligible Hispanic was. I’ll be honest, we didn’t have many Black and other races wearing the campaign hat in Infantry OSUT, it was mostly White and Hispanic (kind of mirroring the Infantry as a whole). I think we might have averaged one Black Drill per company, but 2/54 unfortunately lost both a Black and a Hispanic Drill to themselves while I was there. It makes you a little empty feeling knowing that a Battle Buddy is no longer with you. Someone who stood next to you on funeral detail just a few months prior is now being laid to rest himself for completely avoidable reasons…
Granted, I finally made it the following year, and I won’t say it was completely based on race, but that 2016 list did raise suspicions. I also noticed over the years the disproportional number of minorities in senior NCO ranks. During my first tour in TOG, we had maybe two or three Black junior enlisted and a Black SSG in the company, while our 1SG, and both battalion and regimental CSMs were Black.
But… I’m racist for making those observations, and my comments are evidence of why I did the Army a service by retiring as opposed to staying in and staining the service with my outspoken Whiteness.
Your observations matches with my own. It’s not happening, but it’s happening, but its not happening, perhaps.
I would add that I was surprised by noticing how battalion and brigade level leadership were not immune to these policies, and openly favored minorities to fill available slots in subordinate leadership positions.
I can only speak for my beloved Signal Corps, but my experience matches your own. Senior NCO corps was predominantly black and hispanic. Having said that, I can only think of two that were just plain failures as NCO’s. One was a female CSM that absolutely hated white males and would favor black females, the other was one of MacNamara’s Minions.
Ah, the female CSM. My primary experience was at The United States Army Drill Sergeant Academy. She was a 1SG at the time, but we got put in the bleachers during Combatives training for her to address the class. It seems that some DS Candidates were griping (which anyone who’s served knows is a good sign, when we stop the bitching, something is wrong), and she took it personal. She addressed us along the lines of this:
1SG(P): “I guess some of you have heard that I made the E-9 list. You know how that makes me feel?”
A few Candidates: “Probably pretty good, 1SG”.
1SG(P): “No, it made me upset knowing I’d have to continue supervising NCOs like you…”
Blah, blah, blah, she went on to point out that none of us had her experience in the Army (though an E-7 in the class did raise his hand when she tried to say that no one had been a 1SG themselves…he’d spent a couple of years in the position). Essentially, having made the E-9 list, she felt obligated to continue “serving” past her seeming shelf-life. She distrusted and didn’t care for most of the junior NCOs and even senior NCOs she’d be leading, but what else was she to do?
Fortunately, she was an MP and had little chance of serving as my senior enlisted advisor. I can only imagine that she went on to become a toxic Battalion and likely Brigade CSM. Her protege, a female MP SFC, though, saw her career ended by having a boating DUI near Fort Jackson just a few months later.
Twenty recycles is a huge motivator!
I want it in my contract!
Since the crusty old Pedo got into the White House…
The Military: White males not wanted!!!
White males: Message received and understood.
The military: Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
We don’t need us any longer. Being a White heterosexual male, my observations may be biased at best, but I seem to recall that my demographic represented the bulk of the Army during my service from 2001-2022. If you look at Combat Arms, the difference is even greater… few trans POCs wish to join the Infantry and risk dying [or worse] for their country. Do we think that some of our enemies will respect the gender/sexuality of potential POWs? In my mind, no to the heck!
We’ll continue declining. Our numbers will drop further but will be offset by the oh-so-great ability for DOD, DA, and other agencies to just decree that we need fewer Soldiers and so on. The varsity football captain turned Marine of yesteryear will morph into the pansexual band waterboy of today, and when our borders [already fully saturated] need to be monitored and true extremists/terrorists kept out, the traditional Service Members will be fully invested in protecting us and ours, with little interest in yours.
I’m retired, disabled, and yet still a tax-paying full-time employee, so I’ve got mine. Having been “radicalized” through life, I’ll just stick to raising my family, arming them as needed, and ensuring they are well-equipped for the BS that very well may take place come Inauguration 2025.
Our enemies will definitely “respect” the gender/sexuality of potential POWs – just not in the manner all the alphabet soup folk demand.
Just look at which hostages Hamas has released and which they’ve held on to. Our betters insist men and women are all the same and interchangeable… our betters are unequivocally wrong, again.
Putin is just mortified at the thought, you understand:
Maybe every recruiting station should just put a sign in the window that says: “No White Men need apply.”
Thank you for the article , I too was a third generation career Soldier and will not allow my whyte children to in mess …check out TACOM CG’s MLK message…starts with MLK’s “content of your character, not the color of your skin”, which is his real message and the correct approach since affirmation action has been ruled unconstitutional…but no the took it up a notch to include that “we honor his dedication to equity and inclusion” , which is total shit and contradicts the basis of the entire message …upon further investigation, one can tell this was the writings of a PAO with a Marxist propaganda agenda…my challenge is for the readers to correctly guess or research the PAOs identity/gender to validate the propaganda …
TACOM Team,
On Monday, January 15th, we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This year, more than ever, it is a great time to reflect on his indelible work and impact on our country. That reflection will undoubtedly show how far we have come as a Nation – and how far we still have to go.
Dr. King dedicated his life to a dream of equality for all and challenged the Nation to not judge people by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. In August 1963, his leadership and influence brought 250,000 people to Washington, D.C., for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, to demonstrate for the cause of unifying our Nation, to achieve fair and equal opportunity for all African Americans, and to advocate for the passing of the Civil Right Act – which was then stalled in Congress. On August 28, 1963, Dr. King famously delivered his now iconic “I Have a Dream” speech. Congress subsequently passed the historic Civil Rights Act in July 1964. In 1994, Congress designated Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a National Day of Service. The observance motto of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day traditionally is “A Day On, Not a Day Off”, encouraging individuals to dedicate the day to community service.
Nearly 56 years after his assassination, Dr. King’s example still challenges our Nation to live up to the ideals enshrined in our founding documents – that all are created equal, endowed with unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The Army is committed to the ideals endorsed by Dr. King and on his birthday, a National Day of Service, we honor his dedication to equity and inclusion. I am incredibly proud to see his influence remain strong and present within TACOM and throughout our organization. Every day, I am in awe of our strong sense of community and our diversity of talent. And together, we still have many miles to go.
Dr. King often referred to the “fierce urgency of now”. It is one of my favorite sayings – from a professional viewpoint, it reflects our level of commitment and intensity to our mission. Additionally, and closer to home, that message also translates and serves as relatable outside of work and with your Families and friends – help someone wherever and whenever you can, and do not put off tomorrow what you can do today.
Thank you for your passion, determination, and commitment to our mission.
Please stay safe over the long weekend and as we start 2024. Within the past few weeks across our country, we have seen extreme examples of rapidly changing weather conditions – from blizzards to flash flooding and everything between. Make good decisions in-and-around changing weather conditions, make sure your vehicles are appropriately maintained to handle those conditions, and ensure you have an emergency kit on hand at home and in your vehicle. At a minimum, a kit can include water, flashlights, blankets, and non-perishable food.
Be deliberate in your actions, take care of each other, and enjoy the weekend.
Keep up the fire — and use that energy to effect a positive difference for our team, the Army, and our Nation.
We are Committed To Excellence,
BG L
BG Michael B. Lalor
Back in the old days they used Gay and Queer to avoid the draft. I was an Army Recruiter back in 1984 and 90% of the African Americans that could pass the ASVAB were in the Military. A high School in South Georgia only had 7 Seniors that scored over 16 on the AFQT out of 218 students.