Posted on 04/23/2018 6:06:51 PM PDT by pboyington
Two days ago, it was reported that the Army will fall short of its goal to recruit 80,000 new soldiers this year.
According to the Associated Press:
Army officials say the updated goal will be 76,500. Six months into the recruiting year the service has brought in just 28,000 new soldiers.
Army spokeswoman Cynthia Smith said the main effort is to grow the Army to 483,500, as approved by Congress.
The struggle to meet this year’s higher recruiting numbers — which were a significant hike over last year’s recruiting mission of 69,000 — was expected, mainly due to the favorable American economy and increased competition from private sector employers who are able to pay graduates more money.
Maj. Gen. Jeff Snow, head of the Army’s recruiting command, predicted late last year that the higher enlistment goal would be difficult to meet this year, considering the combination of economic factors and the military’s need for recruits to pass strict physical testing that many young people can’t complete.
“This mission is going to be a significant challenge for the command,” he told The Associated Press in December. Meeting the increased mission this year, Snow said, could force the Army to take in more recruits who require waivers for marijuana use, low test scores or other more basic health issues.
Data on waivers issued this year was not available Friday morning. But, in December Snow said his goal for 2017 was to have fewer than 2 percent of the new recruits be considered “category four,” meaning they scored 31 or less, out of 99, on the aptitude test. Army leaders have also endorsed that 2 percent limit, even though the Defense Department allows up to 4 percent.
Defense officials have also complained that despite the last 16 years of war in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, the American public is increasingly disconnected from the military, and they say many people have misperceptions about serving and often don’t personally know any service members.
No doubt, Snow has a tough job. He’s trying to create soldiers out of thin air and the only way possible to maintain the numbers is by cooking the books and counting re-enlisting soldiers as new recruits.
Eventually, those troopers who are re-upping will be leaving the service or retiring one day. The Army, like all organizations needs fresh blood.
And, they ain’t getting it.
Does Snow know a perfect storm is brewing with Army Recruiting? I doubt it. He’s in the eye of the PC hurricane which has moved up the Potomac and is centered over the Pentagon deluging it with social engineering hail.
Yes, the economy is getting better because of President Trump’s economic policies. But, the economy was booming in the 1980’s under Reagan and the military was swelling with recruits and with young people who wanted to become officers as well.
Army Recruiting also has to deal with a whole generation of Millennial recruits or wannabee recruits who are essentially made of Jello. Besides the fact that Millennial men are the weakest in American history, many are largely uninterested in joining the military.
In the Millennial world, it’s “Ask not what you can do for your country, it’s what everyone can do for you.”
And, that’s a problem…
Combine the Millennial generation’s patriotic lethargy and sense of entitlement with Baby Boomer and Generation X parents who never served and know nothing about the military.
The era of the American dad telling his son to join the Army because it will make you a man is over.
If that wasn’t a big enough problem for the Army, there’s another reason and perhaps the most worrisome one why it’s not meeting its recruiting goals.
In Middle America, there are still some Millennial men who are red-blooded patriots who, in prior times, would have been considering a military career, even a short-lived one before heading on to college. This last bastion of young men now view the Army as feminized to the point of no return.
Back in the 80’s, joining the military was still seen as a right of passage; something tough and macho to do.
How macho can an Army be that has lactating mothers expressing breast milk in the field?
Joining the Army is now longer seen as a right of passage to manhood. How can it be? Its ranks are filled with waddling women in Maternity Army Combat Uniforms.
Why would any young man want to go to Ranger School now, when Ranger School graduated Major Lisa Jaster, a 37 year old Mommy of two? If Mommies can make it now through what used to be some of the toughest military training in the world; what is the allure of going to Ranger School in 2018? Apparently, Ranger School has now graduated over a dozen women, yet no one from Congress has been given access to any records, including the Green Cards (Ranger School Report Cards) for any of the females. In fact, when Congressman Steve Russell requested the records, he was told they had been destroyed. Instead of the records and Green Cards, Russell was sent some half-assed white paper detailing how women were competing with men at Ranger School.
Yeah…
How about Special Forces? Sadly, that’s on its way to being flushed down the PC commode as well. A couple months ago, several members of the Special Forces Qualification Course cadre, in a scathing 14 page letter, revealed that there are no physical standards to become a Green Beret anymore. The Army dropped the standards to allow women to graduate. Why would any young man want to join the Army to one day serve in Special Forces, when your great-grandma could become a Green Beret?
Across the board, the Army and the rest of the services are shredding standards to accommodate women and in the process, they’re hammering a nail in the coffin of recruiting the type of men who served in the combat arms and special operations.
The Army is committing Hari-Kari. If anyone on active duty knows the real reason the Army isn’t bringing in recruits, no doubt they’re keeping silent.
To utter the truth in the Pentagon in 2018 is tantamount to committing blasphemy.
I do not recommend joining the Army, or any service for that manner.
JoMa
“Thank you for your service”
You were worth it.
Roger that.
>>>Flood in women, homos, trannies, mommies taking oaths with dinosaur heads, bull dyke ship captains, a lesbo with a wife running the Air Force academy. Send in the FBI to investigate firefights overseas. Pound them 24/7 with wussy training, pregnancy simulators, red high heels. Lower standards for Ranger School, USMC Infantry training, and Seals ..
Mattis has changed almost none of it back to pre-socialist revolution standards.
And we wonder why young boys aren’t signing up.<<<
You nailed it.
The Army in Korea in 1950 nearly broke, was pushed all the way back to Pusan (the one yard line before the ocean).
And those MEN of 1950 were 100X tougher than today’s Army of sissified softies, gays, and girls.
God help us.
My large (20+ Branches) county library system has almost 100 copies of Comey’s book, with almost 400 people on the waiting list. It has exactly one copy of Diana West’s book which I requested be sent to my branch library. I had not even heard of it before your post. I did not request Coney’s garbage.
Go to hell.
>>Go to hell.
When you have a military that states that women, gays, and trannies are equal to real men as an individual in a combat situation and manning levels reflect that ridiculous belief, then you are already in hell.
I thought I knew a lot, but I didn’t know the half of what Diana West reveals.
The USSR “lost” the cold war militarily and economically, but in the process they managed to accomplish the virtual destruction of the USA from within, by subversion.
Amen.
It is always harder to recruit in a good economy than a bad one. And fifteen years of war doesn't help as well.
Thank you for that post. I have members of my family currently serving and know many people that are currently serving. It is not fair to lump them together or throw them all under the bus.
After the hard left turn our country took- and the 8 years of Obama with his pen the military obviously has some challenges to deal with, but there are still many fine people serving in our military.
What I am seeing in this country now though is there are a few families that have many serving and most families that have no one serving. In previous generations nearly every family had someone serving or who had served so they had some feeling of pride and understanding. My oldest brother recently passed away and his service was held at his VFW. The members at his VFW could not believe that nearly all of the males in our family had served or were currently serving. They said you do not see that very much any more. Many families have no understanding of what happens during a military funeral and most people have never attended one. To me that is very sad.
I am not saying our military is perfect, but so many say they will not serve or suggest their family serve- I know people serving now who were basically disowned from their family for choosing to serve in the military. How do people think the military can be improved if decent, conservative people are not willing to serve or support family that choose to do so? Yes our military was trashed by the Democrats- we the people did not stop that, but now we are not supportive of people that can make a difference choosing to serve.
It is a volunteer military, if the people we want to serve, the very people who can make it better are not willing to serve then I don’t see how we think things can get better.
If decent people are not willing to serve we will never have that again.
The ideal situation is if enough of the right kind are volunteering, the military will have options of choosing, training, promoting those people. That would change the overall makeup of the military drastically. If only the type of people we don’t want are volunteering there is no way things will get better.
You can’t wait for someone else to fix things before getting involved if you are badly needed in order to fix things. It doesn’t work that way.
Agree completely.
bttt
This has been going on since forever.
In the early 1980’s, I knew women who were given answers to Air Force exams simply to ensure there were women present in the career field. While the men were expected to compete in a career field that graduated about 20 per year with a 75% washout rate, and only 2 in 1,000 applicants were ever accepted, the USAF wasted slots ensuring women were represented. In the field, it was a disaster. Those women did clerical duties while the men did the work. We got out and had great careers. The women, not so much.
On top of it, the USAF decided a 75% washout rate was unacceptable and demanded a 90+% pass rate, so, even the boys were eventually just given the answers to the exams and the course materials was watered down.
When the special operations units were in desperate need of trained operators, there simply weren’t any. But no one cared because the blue suits had their graduation rates and women.
That was 35 years ago. It is no doubt far worse today.
“In combat, you can shoot back.”
Not really. JAG Lawyers permeate the command structure.
“It is a volunteer military, if the people we want to serve, the very people who can make it better are not willing to serve then I don’t see how we think things can get better.”
Your country votes in the leaders of the military that can destroy a force that is even 100% conservative.
As with any organization, the top must be held by competent leaders. If it isn’t, the org will suffer. There’s nothing you can do about that.
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