Austin ‘confident’ about meeting recruiting challenges
By Meghann Myers
Thursday, Oct 27
Although headlines abounded this summer that the military faces a recruiting crisis, spurred by the Army’s announcement that it expected to miss its accessions goal by thousands, the Defense Department’s most senior leader says he is confident the services will be able to man themselves appropriately to achieve DoD’s stated goals of competing with and deterring China and Russia.
Senior military leaders have lamented the tough recruiting market in recent years, but more recently have begun to dig deep for creative ways to attract America’s youth.
“I’m confident that we’ll have the force to execute our strategy,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told Military Times Thursday during a press conference to announce the National Defense Strategy.
His stance is perhaps a bit more optimistic than recent comments from other senior military leadership, including Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville, who told reporters in October, “we’re certainly concerned,” after the Army announced its final 15,000-soldier recruiting shortfall, 25% of its goal for the year.
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2022/10/27/austin-confident-about-meeting-recruiting-challenges/
