I know Dr. Crane and he's a brilliant guy. He's a history specialist on World War II bombing in general, and Curtis LeMay in particular. Old School.
I like this article he's written, but he's still dancing around the main problems with the volunteer military, recruitment, and retention in 2023:
1) The post-Cold War infection of political correctness into the armed services during the Clinton Administration, beginning with Don't Ask/Don't Tell and then Pat Schroeder's assaults on the Navy following Tailhook. It was at this point that the volunteer force started to become just another jobs program, at best, and a social engineering exercise at worst. People began joining not to serve their country or defend it, but to get the benefits and perks, cashing in after 4 or 8 years. Flashback:
https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19920729&slug=1504613 2) The bungled War on Terror and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan poisoned the well on several fronts. First, Rumsfeld's seeming callousness and ruthlessness toward the troops in the field (i.e. "we go to war with the Army we have") sowed the seeds of disgruntlement that is still manifest today. He also ransacked and starved the Navy of funding to feed the understrength Army. And his "Blue to Green" in Iraq which set in motion a whole series of bad events that led to the accidents with the McCain and Fitzgerald. Finally, he abused the National Guard and Reserve, while implementing "stop-loss," again to keep the Army fighting in Iraq. I know a lot of soldiers who got screwed over during that time, and they are now out and telling their kids to avoid military service at all costs. Flashback:
https://www.stripes.com/news/operation-blue-to-green-army-looking-to-recruit-from-air-force-and-navy-1.21896 and
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2804656/ 3) Continued incompetence at the Department of Veterans Affairs has led to all kinds of horror stories for the last three generation of veterans, as well as the reneging on bonuses and promised benefits for extended service, as well as incompetence within the military's personnel pay system. Flashback:
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/army-probes-troops-wrongly-targeted-bonus-scandal-92579457 4) Overpromising and overreliance of technology, at the expense of the troops. How many times have we heard that new technology will lead to cost savings and the need for manpower as AI and automation take over war fighting in the 21st century. We've certainly got the high tech and fewer troops now, but how has that worked out for the Armed Services in general, and the U.S. Navy in particular? Remember the LCS? And what about the totally screwed up procurement system in which the U.S. can't even build and deploy a new warplane or ship design in under ten years, at the very least? Flashback:
https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/navy-ships/a39970022/littoral-combat-ships-suffer-hull-cracks/5) The increased misuse, neglect, and incompetence of the military during the Obama regime. I'm not sure where to start with this one, but '13 Days' in Benghazi, the "Arab Spring," the collapse of Libya, and invasion of Syria come to mind, as well as the continuing decline and diminishment of the U.S. Navy, as underscored by the Balisle Report of 2010. Flashback:
https://blog.usni.org/posts/2022/07/15/naval-historical-foundation-2nd-saturday-3rd-saturday-this-month-webinar-on-july-16-at-11am-est-the-balisle-report-surface-ship-readiness-why-it-was-chartered-what-it-said-what-was-done and
https://www.sailorbob.com/files/foia/FRP%20of%20Surface%20Force%20Readiness%20(Balisle%20Report).pdf.
6) The disaster of the withdrawal from Afghanistan looked a lot like the final abandonment of Vietnam.
7) There's currently a lot of stupidity and incompetence within the services that our members are just tired of putting up with. Heck, just follow U.S. Army WTF or Terminal Lance (for the USMC) on social media for a day-by-day account of everything that is wrong within those service branches. DD-214s are golden in this day and age!
With all of that said, going back to an all-conscript force is not going to fix any of that, and would likely exacerbate the rot that has hollowed out the military over the past 30 years.
So why would any young person today want to voluntarily enlist in such a force?