Let's just say I have some experience in fishing the truth out of a sea of optimism, pessimism, and bull$%^#. It's rarely a job that will win you friends, but what it accomplishes should be clear.
My son signed up before 9/11, and almost all his friends did AFTER 9/11. This generation is filled with patriotic kids who want to defend their country against evil, because they love America and want to keep us safe.
I'm sure that the first sentence is true, and you're clearly quite proud of your son and his friends, with good reason. They are doing more than their share.
The second sentence, on the other hand, may be a bit of an overstatement. We wouldn't be discussing this topic at all, if this generation was pulling it's weight, since we're calling on the generation before us for help.
What is your point in belittling them, and continuing to dismiss what's really going on in the military? I really want to know. What's made you so cynical and negative?
You don't really love someone if you don't tell 'em like it is. The Army and I may have parted ways, but I'd never want to see them fail, or to pursue losing strategies. So, my words of harsh truth are for a service and a mission that personally cost me in, as they say, blood, toil, tears, and sweat. I want them to win more than you can imagine, and I'd rather they hear harsh words from me than taste real failure.
An organization full of smart, motivated people like your son, that insists on running itself into the ground, will have a hard time recruiting and retaining. Eventually, it will see those smart, motivated people leave to become contractors, and have to lower hiring standards to replace them. That's what I fear, and that's why I'm complaining.
If I come across as cynical and negative, it's because unrealistic people tend to be more positive than negative. When I deal with unrealistically negative people, I get accused of sugarcoating things. You push people out of their comfort zones, and they'll accuse you of anything.
Let me give you a situation that occurred in my son's unit that might belie your claim that the military is going downhill.
The unit he deployed with was a support unit with multiple people in it who were too old and too out of shape to be going into a war zone (some women). He was frustrated out of his teenaged mind at these people's apathy and weakness (and I was scared as a mother that these people might not be able to save him if he needed to be carried because he was wounded). They were still in the Reserves mostly likely to keep the income not ever thinking they would go to war.
As time has gone on since 9/11 and since Afghanistan and Iraq, those kinds of people are dropping out, and being replaced by younger, fitter recruits, including a few older ones who are in better condition.
I think that the reality is that today's military is far sharper and fitter than it was during the Clinton years.
There is a reason for the increased enlistments and reinlistments, and the anxiousness of those who have been in Iraq to go back (my son will go back as a very young staff sergeant.....he's only 22).
It's called patriotism. And it's not being falsely cheery to recognize that, nor is it being helpfully realististic to deny it.
No one's forcing those 'older' folks to join. It's a volunteer service, so how is the military "calling on the generation before us"? Sounds to me like they're simply accepting some volunteers who happen to be older than the average new recruit. I'm sure the military is happy to have some mature folks who can assume positions of leadership, if not on the field, then off of it.