Posted on 09/17/2022 8:55:42 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The US Army has a major recruiting problem and can't find enough young people who meet the basic requirements to enlist, according to Army Times.
Lt. Gen. Maria Gervais, second in command for Army Training and Doctrine Command, sounded off Thursday about the troubling developments. She highlighted disqualification rates for potential recruits jumped from 30-40% (pre-Covid) to a whopping 70% this year due to obesity, low test scores, and/or drug use.
Gervais pointed out the service has experienced a "nosedive" in recruits since July 2021. She explained Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) scores were 10% lower during the virus pandemic in 2020-21. That figure has since increased to 13% for the most recent high school graduating class.
Perhaps America's youth was dumbed down during Covid with at-home schooling via daily video conferences. The latest Education Department data confirm reading and math scores plummeted. Maybe those kids were playing too many video games or trading 'meme stocks' or posting useless videos on TikTok during the pandemic instead of opening a book and learning something valuable.
Besides failing to meet academic standards, obesity was another driver of higher disqualification rates. Also, increasing drug use among youngsters didn't help.
The challenges of today's youth put combat preparedness in question as liberal war hawks are determined to spark World War III in Ukraine and or in the Taiwan Strait.
Gen. Joseph Martin, vice chief of staff for the Army, warned in July that the recruitment goal for 2022 could be slashed by a quarter. He said the total size of the Army (including active and reserve components) will decrease by 10,000 troops this year and between 14,000 and 21,000 in 2023.
Perhaps lowering the standards to meet targets is a question the service should ponder. Even though the quality is more important than quantity, in tumultuous periods like today, where the world is shifting from a unipolar world to a multipolar world, conflicts tend to ignite -- and the US -- one who has overseen the unipolar world for decades -- will fight 'tooth and nail' to maintain the status quo.
At least the youth have one thing going for them: obsession with violent video games has desensitized an entire generation to all sorts of violence where war might not be a big shock.
Remember, the service's recruitment crisis has been an ongoing issue but has worsened in the last few years. We pointed out it's "another signal of declining support for the federal government and its institutions."
Maybe because the military has gotten too 'woke'? You know the saying: "go woke, go broke" -- this can also happen to empires...
The shrinking pool of eligible youth due to obesity, low test scores, or drug use should be a national security threat to US health and security.
Bring back the draft
Why should the Army worry?
Or is woke Emma with the two moms not nearly as powerful as we were led to believe?
Nobody wants to join your Commie military. Semper Fi, traitors.
The “Class of COVID”...
Consequences: Intentional or unintentional?
And the Delaware Demented Dolt got rid of thousands of highly experienced soldiers who were unvaxed.
The two branches that demanded higher scores (>55)???
The Air Force and the Marines.
send the border crossers to boot camp. They look young and fit.
They’re coming to us active duty folks and asking us if we have any family or friends who want to join.
I told my commander, that after 20 years of service, I regret my choice to join. I’m sure not going to recommend it to anyone I like.
Oh, they’re already in the army.
Just not ours.
many people dont want the fake vaccine,,why arent you mentioning that?
I remember in the mid-90’s, our Gunny gave us a lecture on ethics. His first words: “The United States Marine Corps is out of touch with today’s society. God willing, it will remain so.”
I guess God wasn’t willing. There’s nothing the Communists don’t corrupt when they touch it.
Many illegals will be happy to put on the uniform for the pay and benefits. This has been going on for a while. I am certain that the man my late wife’s niece married is an Mexican illegal. Very dark skinned, classic cholo build and always looking down to avoid meeting my gaze,very limited English vocabulary. Made sure his wife quickly got pregnant and then again as as soon as possible. His parents showed up to live with him.Neither could speak word one of English. And this was in the USMC about 5 years ago.
It’s not a military anymore, it’s now a liberal political entity that normal people reject and now patriotic families are dissuading their kids from joining, and military families are starting new legacies. Nice work Brandons.
The Romans depended on foreign soldiers, barbarians to man the Legions at the end. A society defended by men with no stake in it, no ties to it. It did not end well for them.
See your friends die for Afghanistan and Iraq only to have Joe Biden pull out and leave the enemy billions of dollars worth of weapons.
That’s why there are recruiting issues. Your not gonna fight for America. You’ll be a corporate Tool.
Unmentioned in the article but something I think might be a big factor is that young people today simply do not want to work. It isn’t only the military that is having a hard time finding and keeping new employees. I visit dozens of businesses a week for fire inspections and always chat up the owners, asking them how things are going and this is ALWAYS their number 1 complaint. Not the cost of doing business or government regs, but short staffing because nobody is applying for the jobs that are open and not getting filled..
Allowing entire barbarian nations to settle within the empire in return for serving as completely barbarian armies to defend the frontiers was what sunk the empire in the west. In the east where the Anatolians and even the Syrians felt a bond with the empire the classical world continued to operate for another six hundred years.
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