For the past three years, the US military has suffered through its worst recruiting crisis since the end of the draft in 1973. The Army Reserve has not met its annual quota of new recruits for nearly ten years. In fiscal year 2023, the Navy and Air Force failed to meet their recruiting goals — the first time this happened in twenty-four years for the Air Force, despite being traditionally viewed as the most desirable branch of service. And since 2013, male enlistments in the Navy have dropped more than one-third. With a shared sense of alarm, current and former military officials, members of Congress, think tanks, and others warn that these personnel shortages undermine US military readiness and its ability to fight future wars across the globe.
In response to declining enlistment, the three largest military branches have increased marketing, revised recruitment practices, and loosened key eligibility requirements. Yet even after drastically lowering its enlistment standards, the Navy’s personnel shortages remain so serious that approximately 40 percent of its attack submarines are currently out of service for lack of sailors who can maintain and repair the vessels.
There are many reasons military recruiting is so bad right now. Young men aged seventeen to twenty-four are the primary market for recruiters, yet only 23 percent of this key demographic would qualify to serve without a waiver due to obesity, drug use, health problems, or an inability to meet academic standards. And even within the shrinking pool of qualified young people, there has long been a notable lack of enthusiasm for military service. Recently this has been linked to veterans’ disillusionment with the United States’ “forever wars” — and their unwillingness to…
Auteur: Scott Harding
