March 24, 2023
Military recruitment under Joe Biden reaches 'bleakest' levels since post-Vietnam nadir
By Monica Showalter
Under Joe Biden and all the big 'stars' at the Pentagon -- Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Gen. Mark Milley -- the U.S. military is falling grossly short of its recruitment goals.
This comes just as China ramps up its military machine, the U.S. deepens its involvement in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and resources, including U.S. troops, are going to be needed.
The Senate, to its credit, has noticed something amiss.
According to the Washington Post:
Lawmakers urged the Pentagon on Wednesday to get aggressive and creative in confronting what they warned were dangerous shortfalls in military recruiting, agreeing broadly that the issue threatens national security even as Republicans and Democrats argued over what’s to blame for the deepening crisis.
The issue came before the Senate Armed Services Committee as U.S. defense officials face the bleakest recruiting environment since the aftermath of the Vietnam War, with less than a quarter of Americans ages 17 to 24 years old eligible to serve — and just 9 percent willing to do so. The situation probably will take years to correct, they told the senators, forecasting that the Army, Air Force and Navy all will fall short of their goals this year, possibly by thousands of recruits.
The Pentagon has attributed its difficulties to a variety of factors, including the nation’s low unemployment rate, school closings during the coronavirus pandemic that limited recruiters’ access to high school students and faculty, and a shifting culture in which more teens gravitate to jobs with work-life balance.
more
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/03/military_recruitment_under_joe_biden_reaches_bleakest_levels_since_postvietnam_nadir.html
