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.
Maybe if Miss Milly didn’t spend so much time rooting out white supremacy things would be going better.
Have any doubt the big guy didn't get a piece of that action?
No conservative in his right mind would join a Dementia Joe led military. That would be stupid.
``````````````````````````````````````````````
A stupid military is exactly what 0bama/Biden inc. are shooting for. I enlisted and proudly served for 4 years. 63-67.
Today, I’d strongly advise any young person against it.
This is not any of our father’s military any more. 0bama/Biden inc. have sewn the wind and all of us will most certainly reap the whirlwind for it.
The communist and the Left have pushed their agenda to extremes. They were stupid to do so. If they had been smart, they would have tried to build their system slowly and try to give it some equilibrium.
But they didn't.
And so we have loathsome practices like sissy-boys in uniform, letting the genders bathe together in the military (depending on their personal identities), we have LGBTQ grooming in K-12, we have lesbians taking over leadership positions in churches, and we have trannies twerking in front of kindergarteners in libraries.
The Left pushed their agenda to the extreme and then some.
The pendulum will now swing back against them and their perversion of natural law.
As an aside, it is funny how reality and natural law are in perfect agreement with God's law. Looks like God has had that market cornered since the beginning of recorded history.
Oops.;-)
RecrIs the AEVAB the same as it used to be or are all the questions now “woke” and about gender illusions?
"Lt. Gen. Maria Gervais"
I was there when the AVF was started back in the mid-70s. I was a Platoon Leader during 77-78, probably the most fun I had while in the Army, led two Chaparral platoons, and one towed Vulcan platoon.
Assigned to me were a few soldiers who were given a choice, i.e. go to jail or enlist in the Army. It wasn't my great leadership that turned them around, it was appealing to their "better angels", lol. Upon being assigned to my platoon, I sat them down, explained what I expected from them, and the two paths they could embark upon.
They could keep their noses clean, and continue to dine at the Hahn AB Dining Facility. Or, they could not meet my standards, and be transferred to our sister battalion in Mannheim, and spend 8 months out of the year training in the red mud in Grafenwoehr.
Kicking them out of the Army wasn't really an option, not when we were operating at 75%, so we made do with what we had.
I am now one of thousands of veterans who don't recognize our current military. I'm there to dissuade young men and women from enlisting today. It's sad, because I loved my 8 years on active duty. My nephews and sons have heard a few of my experiences, and I'm sure they were mightily bored by them. Thankfully, none of them have expressed any desire to join the military.
A draft will not cure the ills of today's military. Only a return to past standards and demanding that the chain of command work will do that. Rich boys have been evading the draft with great success since the War Between the States...does anyone expect that to change?
To bring in new recruits, tell them that once a month a hairdresser will be brought in to dye their hair any color they want. Plus a tattoo artist will be stationed there permanently to work on your tattoos.
They compromised basic training. It used to be that fat guys got thin and thin guys bulked up through a combination of diet.
Army training manuals were couched in simple basic English and illustrated so even the slower draftees could pick things up.
++++++++++++++
Biden’s woke stupidity broke the army.
send the border crossers to boot camp. They look young and fit.
—
They already have jobs lined up working for the drug cartels in every city in the US.
We need to downsize our military except for the Navy anyway.
—
Yep - maybe to the size slightly less than Canada (to be fair and to make up for all the past bullying) and action off surplus equipment. We need the Navy because what would the PLAN use for target practice?
I cannot in good conscience advise any young person to join the military. I had hopes for at least one of my children to join one day. But with the woke SJW BS, all branches of the military are shadows of their former selves.
It may not be the whole problem but I do see part of the problem.
Actually it is..for them. All they have to do is identify as a soldier of their choice and they’d be a protected by the left.
When the only recruits they want are brown skinned gang bangers what do they expect?
You are what you eat..
A diet of junk processed food and soft drinks is not healthy...add in some factory made meat substitute...solute 9 is next.
I think I see part of part of the problem with how your social engineering began to go off the rails.
Additionally, I'm willing to bet that recruitment took the nosedive right after Biden surrendered Afghanistan and showed the world that military sacrifice was completely worthless. Add in mandatory vaccination and actively recruiting and promoting trans and homosexuality and you have your recipe for disaster.
I told the Marine recruiter who my son was talking to that there was no way he was getting my son, and I'm a vet.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.