The Pentagon's Recruiting Woes - Fewer young people want or are able to serve, a big problem for U.S. security.

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The U.S. Army recently told the press that it missed its fiscal year
recruiting goal by 25%, coming up short nearly 20,000 soldiers. For 50
years America has relied on volunteers to defend the country, but that
system is a luxury maintained at a cost, and its struggles deserve
attention.

The Army’s troubles are acute but not unique. The Air Force barely hit
its numbers for 2022. The Navy met its targets for enlisted sailors but
came up short about 200 officers. Both the Navy and Air Force had to
dip into “delayed entry” pools of recruits usually kept in a holding
pattern for later, which means the services will start a new recruiting
year in an even tougher position. The numbers are worse in the
reserves.

Several factors are contributing to the shortfall. Fewer than one-
quarter of Americans ages 17 to 24 are eligible to serve, and the
reasons for disqualification include obesity, addiction and criminal
history. The decision to close high schools during the pandemic kept
recruiters at bay and left many teens mentally unwell, another
disqualification.

Record job openings and Covid transfer payments hurt enlistment, but
the problems run deeper. Fewer than one in 10 youth are inclined to
serve, according to survey data. Dismal civic education hasn’t helped;
teenagers taught to think America is a racist or imperialist country
won’t wear the uniform.

The left portrays the military as a retrograde institution where sexual
assault and extremism are rampant, which is not borne out by evidence.
The right’s affinity for military service is also in free fall.

Only 53% of Republicans had “a great deal of confidence” in the
military in a 2021 Reagan Foundation survey, a 17-point drop in less
than a year. Flag officers have too often associated themselves with
vogue political causes, promoting books on “anti-racism,” for example,
as the Navy’s top officer did last year. The services may need to relax
the Covid-19 vaccine mandate as a concession to reality; thousands of
National Guard members have refused it.

The recruiting crisis is an opportunity for Congress to drive a tank
over anachronistic practices. That Congress recently saw fit to pass a
cash supplement for some service members called a “basic needs
allowance” suggests the military’s pay scales aren’t competitive with
the private economy, especially for lower-ranking enlistees. The 4.6%
raise slated for next year doesn’t match inflation.

The Army toyed with waiving high-school degree requirements and has
thrown around signing bonuses of up to $50,000. But Congress could
require the services to experiment with, say, short service contracts
or a different benefit mix that might let a service member spend an
entire commitment at one home base in between overseas deployments.

The services also rely too heavily on an antiquated “up or out” model
that leaves human potential on the table. The Marines deserve credit
for realizing, in an initiative called Talent Management 2030, that
discharging 75% of its first-term Marines every year and recruiting
36,000 replacements isn’t efficient or sustainable.

Congress has offered more flexibility to let those with experience in
cyber or other essential fields enter the service at a higher rank. But
these are still exceptions. Especially crazy is pushing service members
into taxpayer-funded retirement after 20 years of service, when most
have productive years left.

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A deeper undercurrent is that young people with other prospects won’t
join a military that looks more hollow all the time. After a decade of
mostly diminished budgets, the services have developed a culture of
doing more with less, adding stress on equipment and personnel.

Fighter pilots fly fewer than 1.5 sorties a week, according to an
estimate from last year, too low to be proficient. The backlog on
submarine work means Navy sailors can spend entire tours stuck in the
maintenance yards instead of at sea. Ships, aircraft squadrons and Army
air defense units are being run ragged by longer or more frequent
deployments.

This may explain why fewer veterans are recommending military service.
Only 62% of those polled in a 2021 Military Family Advisory Network
survey said they’d encourage someone to sign up, down from 74.5% in
2019. This is an ominous trend given the importance of family military
legacies.

The recruiting problems are hitting even as the Navy and Air Force need
to expand to meet proliferating threats from Iran to China. Tanks and
planes aren’t worth buying if there’s no human capital to man them.
Some might be tempted to treat this year’s recruiting failures as an
anomaly, but it could be an emerging threat to national security. The
American experiment can only last as long as citizens are willing to
defend it.

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Let's go Brandon!