The Looming National Security Crisis: Young Americans Unable to Serve in the Military [71 percent of young Americans between 17 and 24 are ineligible to serve in the military.]

Heritage.org ^ | February 13, 2018 | Thomas Spoehr and Bridget Handy

[daniel1212]

According to 2017 Pentagon data, 71 percent of young Americans between 17 and 24 are ineligible to serve in the United States military[1 ].

The military depends on a constant flow of volunteers every year to meet its requirements, and as the number of eligible Americans declines, it will be increasingly difficult to meet the needs. This is not a distant problem to address decades from now. The U.S. military is already having a hard time attracting enough qualified volunteers. Of the four services, the Army has the greatest annual need. The Army anticipates problems with meeting its 2018 goal to enlist 80,000 qualified volunteers, even with increased bonuses and incentives...2

In 2009, a group of retired U.S. generals and admirals formed a nonprofit group...Mission: Readiness, “Ready, Willing, and Unable to Serve,” undated, http://cdn.missionreadiness.org/NATEE1109.pdf (accessed January 26, 2018 ). they report that the main causes of this situation are inadequate education, criminality, and obesity. Unchecked, the combined effect of these three conditions will continue to decrease the number of young adults eligible to serve in the United States military. ..

“experts said seniors graduating from high school [in 2014] face[d] the longest odds to qualify for military service since the draft was abolished in 1973...

Graduation rates reported by major U.S. cities tell a more accurate and depressing story, with places like Montgomery, Alabama, reporting 70.7 percent and Albany, Oregon, as low as 51.3 percent.

Another hindrance to young adults’ ability to join the military is criminal history. ..Criminal history is relevant because it shows recruiters the kind of behavior and activities that recruits have exhibited in the past—which, while not predictive, certainly hint at the potential for similar behavior in the future...According to the 2009 Mission: Readiness report, criminality prevents one of every 10 young adults from being able to join the armed forces. [23]..National Institute of Justice claims that according to The Pittsburgh Youth Study, “52 to 57 percent of juvenile delinquents continue to offend up to age 25.[25]...

Health Issues

According to the former commander of the U.S. Army Recruiting Command,Major General Allen Batschelet, the biggest culprit keeping young adults from qualifying to serve in the United States military however is health concerns, mostly obesity.[32]

In 2015, he stated: “The obesity issue is the most troubling because the trend is going in the wrong direction…. By 2020 it could be as high as 50%, which means only 2 in 10 would qualify to join the Army.”[33]..

The Mission: Readiness report previously cited reports that “27% of young Americans are too overweight for military service,” and of the total number of those who attempt to join the Armed Forces, approximately 15,000 are rejected every year because they are overweight. [35]

Another 32 percent of the young adult population cannot join the military for health concerns other than obesity. These issues include asthma, hearing and eyesight problems, and mental illness.[38]

[dakine]

Personal Story:

25+ years Active... Now 13 years DOD...

Criminal - 3 weeks before Basic Training in front of Judge, got a lesser fine then friend with me because I was going into the military - still was headed to DeHoCo cause I didn’t have the $$$...

Education - None. But scored high on ASVAB. Education does not equal intelligence.

Physical - still deployable at my advanced age. You have to be able to carry ~ 85 lbs. while dragging another 85 lbs. behind you.

Bottom line - Military is a state of mind and what you make of it - all this extraneous stuff doesn’t matter to a close knit team - we laugh...

[daniel1212]

In 1940, as a result of the introduction of the draft US Army psychologists found some 40% of recruits were illiterate. And just as many suffered from a condition they called ‘’Momism’’. That was all of these young males had been so thoroughly spoiled by their mothers officers and noncoms had difficulty in having them follow orders.

If so, the the difference was that Army psychologists did not consider masculinity to be toxic but essential, and the illiterate (like those from Sargent York's area) were the latter, but knew how to work and hunt and shoot without being always told what to do (and could be taught how to work as a team). And besides the momism, far more recruits had actual fathers and mothers in one house, and who far more fostered strong and disciplined character than today. America could not prevail in a WW2 if fought on its terms today, and not simply because we have lost the essential manufacturing capability but due to our weak character.

[daniel1212]

Poor and lower middle class people tend to be obese. Upper middle class and wealthy people are tend to be thin, fit and health conscious.

The latter if liberal tend to foster the former.

As the military becomes more tech concious and less reliance on infantry the military ranks will become more wealthy and educated among the ranks. The global elites own brown shirts.

If the next prolonged war is like a video game America might have chance to win. Otherwise it could work to slay the best of America's youth and leave liberals to further destroy the country.

[Ransomed]

Yup. Fat, passively entertained and comfortable people don’t have civil upheavals. And we are the fattest, most comfortable and entertained people ever. I often think that not enough is made of our unprecedented societal conditions.

Freegards

[fortes fortuna juvat]

They did because despite the ‘’momism’’ that generation of Americans didn’t have anything in the way of the material abundance today’s youth have. And they weren’t told that their very existence on Earth was a wondrous miracle and their every utterance and bowel movement was akin to Holy Writ.
....................................
Well and truly said and every word of it!

[daniel1212]

Yup. Fat, passively entertained and comfortable people don’t have civil upheavals. And we are the fattest, most comfortable and entertained people ever. I often think that not enough is made of our unprecedented societal conditions.

In addition to which are the deaths assigned to Covid which were effectively due to obesity, hypertension and diabetes - largely preventable conditions.

[Betty Jane]

How about the Merchant Marine Academy? People tend to forget it exists.

My nephew was awarded the top Air Force ROTC scholarship; the one with full tuition, Room and Board, and a stipend for all 4 years. An Air Force Captain came and presented a certificate at the school’s award assembly. A week after high school graduation, he got a letter informing him he was medically ineligible due to a peanut allergy reaction when he was 8.

That was in 2018. Now I’m glad he was disqualified, but at the time it was disgraceful. He had worked with the military doctors, sent all his records just to have them say just kidding.;

[jmacusa]

True in a number of regards but among the many WW2 vets I knew there seemed to be two distinct type of men I met. A few said they had either been in their first or second year of college when they were called up. Some were even already serving in the ROTC. And quite a number were either working on farms or had a factory job at 15, 16 or 17 and were the sole bread winner providing in place of an absent father who’d run off or died early.