As many of you are aware, our military is having a big time problem recruiting. Granted not all branches are having this recruiting problem, but three of the four branches are having a major issue. FYI: The Marines are not having a problem. In fact as opposed to the other three branches of the military, the Marines do not seem to be having any issue. My guess is that this is because pride, professionalism, and challenge are all a part of being a marine. Likewise the standards to get into the Marines remain tight, and there are no perks accompanying signing up.
The Army recruiting is down for the third year in a row. This year the Army has 50,000 new recruits instead of the 65,000 that it hoped for, and as a consequence of this year after year of its poor recruiting numbers the total number in theArmy has dropped down to 452K instead of 485K. Similarly the navy is short 7,500 recruits despite offering perks to some to induce them to sign up. Likewise the Air Force is short 10% of its 26,877 goal.
A recent article from the Washington Post essentially said that this recruiting shortfall across the three branches of the armed forces was a conundrum. To me there is no mystery here and rather, there is an easy common sense answer.
Let’s assume that one is a graduating high school athlete, and he/she is considering which college to attend. First, there is a meeting with the college coach. Recruiting high school graduates is an integral part of a coach’s job. The coach is very aware that he must treat not only all the prospective recruits, but also all of the other kids on the present team with respect. If he doesn’t treat all of his players with respect, then recruit A, recruit B, etc. will find out, and the word will spread. Consequently, before not too long, this commander-in-chief coach will be out of a job because he will have a recruiting shortfall … prospective recruits will not sign on. How would this be different than the present military commander-in-chief, Joe Biden, and his minions who did one thing after another during Covid to s**t on those in the military with his vaccine mandates,etc.
Similarly, when military physicians attempted to speak up about what they were seeing in terms of increased side-effects from the vaccines, the kibosh was put on them. Word of this utter disregard for these military physicians spread to those back home, and this lack of respect from the military higher-ups filtered down to future potential recruits.
Whereas no one would be surprised if a pompous, unsympathetic, surly, ‘my way or the highway’ college coach had difficulty recruiting new players for his team, why should anyone be surprised at the present day shortfall in military recruiting, considering who is the military commander-in-chief?
To me … an easy answer!
11/18/23