Author Topic: The Army Is Losing Nearly One-Quarter of Soldiers in the First 2 Years of Enlistment  (Read 299 times)

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Offline rangerrebew

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The Army Is Losing Nearly One-Quarter of Soldiers in the First 2 Years of Enlistment
 
Military.com | By Steve Beynon
Published March 07, 2025 at 5:15 pm

The Army is grappling with a staggering attrition rate among newly enlisted troops, even as recent recruiting figures suggest the service is clawing its way out of a yearslong enlistment crisis.

Nearly one-quarter of soldiers recruited since 2022 have failed to complete their initial contracts, according to internal Army data reviewed by Military.com. While the Army's recruiting totals look solid on paper, a high dropout rate raises serious doubts about whether those numbers are an accurate portrayal of how well the service is manned.

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It remains unclear why the Army is losing so many soldiers, but one explanation could be the declining quality of its recruiting pool. One-quarter of all enlistees last year had to go through at least one of the Future Soldier Preparatory Courses, which were set up as a sort of silver bullet for recruiting woes -- getting applicants up to snuff with academic or body fat enlistment standards before they ship out to basic training.
 

The military's recruiting challenges have largely centered around finding young Americans eligible to serve, a pool that the Pentagon has estimated at only about 23% of 17- to 24-year-olds. One senior Army official with direct knowledge of the service's recruiting efforts said only about 8% are eligible for a so-called "clean enlistment," meaning the recruit didn't need any waivers or have to attend a prep course.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/03/07/army-losing-nearly-one-quarter-of-soldiers-first-2-years-of-enlistment.html
The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth.  George Washington - Farewell Address

Offline rangerrebew

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Back in Viet Nam, we had some truly "unique" people in the military.  But I don't remember them being candyasses, deadbeats, or absolute losers as today's groups seem to be. **nononono* If they washed out, it was more likely in bootcamp, not once they got to the fleet.  I'm thinking our woke military is more concerned about what recruiting numbers look like than the quality of the recruits.
« Last Edit: March 10, 2025, 09:58:22 am by rangerrebew »
The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth.  George Washington - Farewell Address

Offline mountaineer

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Take a look at any public high school in the U.S. There's not a lot to choose from.
"Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son," as Dean Vernon Wormer said in Animal House.
The abnormal is not the normal just because it is prevalent.
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Offline DefiantMassRINO

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Younger generations are less-inclined towards self-sacrifice; they've grown up with self-indulgence.
"Political correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it’s entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end." - Alan Simpson, Frontline Video Interview

Offline Wingnut

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Those are Biden era numbers.  Could it be the woke and DEI and other BS the DOD pushed resulted in the attrition?  Or maybe it was, as stated, the quality of the boots accepted to the ranks.
You don’t become cooler with age but you do care progressively less about being cool, which is the only true way to actually be cool.