Low morale in the Army

Of course, this comes as no surprise to denizens of this blog, but the USAToday reports that an Army survey that polled active duty soldiers found a majority of them were dissatisfied with the prospect of their future service in the military. I’d warn pollsters, first of all, that most soldiers are always dissatisfied with their service, especially when they’re sitting around in garrison. There’s an old sergeant’s saying that “If they’re not bitching, the troops aren’t happy”. But from USAToday;

— Forty-eight percent or about 370,000 soldiers showed a lack of commitment to their job or would have chosen another if they had it to do over again. Only 28% felt good about what they do.

— About 300,000 soldiers or nearly 40% didn’t trust their immediate supervisor or fellow soldiers in their unit or didn’t feel respected or valued. Thirty-two percent felt good about about bosses and peers.

— In one positive trend, more than 400,000 soldiers or 53% said they were satisfied or extremely satisfied with their marriage, personal relationship or family. About 240,000 expressed dissatisfaction.

— For physical fitness, nearly 40% were in good shape, 28% were borderline, and 33% did poorly.

I’d say that there are other things at work here, things like the service chiefs and senior sergeants testifying to Congress that the troops are looking forward to lower pay, that cuts to benefits would improve their combat effectiveness. These are the guys that the troops depend upon to fight for them in the halls of Congress, and clearly those people aren’t representing the troops well.

In addition, the service chiefs are trying to disarm the troops by taking away their most effective weapons systems – like the A-10 Warthog – while scraping and bowing before their political masters, completely ignoring the needs of the troops.

Those same service chiefs are forcing useless social programs down the troops’ throats which waste valuable training time for trigger pullers and don’t make the force any stronger or better at their jobs.

Another factor is that the troops don’t believe that Americans support the job that they do – withdrawing from the war on terror before the job was done was popular among civilians in the later years of the war, and everything that the troops accomplished was lost in the last year or so, requiring them to reinsert their expertise into the same war again, even though that war has a different name now.

While the politicians are more than willing to take away the troops’ resources and their compensation, the rest of the government agencies are growing in leaps and bounds, social benefit programs are outpacing the military’s training resources. The White House calls for more cuts to the military while expanding programs in other directions – like free community college for everyone.

So do they really need to poll anyone to get these results? Wouldn’t that $300 million dollars be better spent elsewhere?

Thanks to Chief Tango for the link.

Category: Big Army