Editors at National Review Online assess good news for the American military.
As recently as 2022, the United States Army shipped off to basic training only two-thirds of the new recruits it had hoped to enlist. The Army fell short again in 2023, and the Navy and Coast Guard struggled to make mission. That year, only the Marine Corps and Space Force met their top-line recruiting goals — but even those achievements included some fuzzy math and creative accounting.
The recruiting shortfall — which by 2023 had become a critical national security crisis — had many fathers. How did things get to that point?
It begins with the fact that the Defense Department’s own research revealed that only a quarter of young Americans were even eligible to serve in the military without a waiver because of fitness, medical, educational, or criminal shortcomings. Perhaps even more alarming, fewer than one in ten young Americans said they were even willing to consider putting on their nation’s uniform.
The Covid pandemic chaos played its part — recruiters in many states were unable to make in-person contacts at schools because of burdensome restrictions, and many young Americans who would have found a career after graduation disappeared from the school system entirely.
But the cultural changes around the Great Awokening undoubtedly played a large role too. Many young Americans, who might well have considered a military enlistment, couldn’t help but notice that the Biden-era Defense Department was eager to highlight its campaigns to combat sexual harassment and assault in the ranks, alongside very visible suicide-prevention and anti-racism efforts. Recruiting advertisements played up diversity, education incentives, and personal fulfillment — instead of patriotism and opportunities for excitement and adventure. For too many, it seems that the military has become a dystopian laboratory for social engineering or, worse, an arena for hectoring and abuse.
