Leadership: US Army Shrinks And Suffers
Ezoic
October 25, 2024: The American army is having a problem with standards, requirements and history. Currently recruiting standards are still heavily influenced by World War II standards. That was a major conflict that, by 1945, had eight million men (2.5 million were army air force as an independent air force did not then exist) and a few women in the army. During World War Two 39 percent of the troops were volunteers and the rest conscripts. Nearly three quarters of soldiers ended up overseas. That was where the fighting was and getting killed or wounded depended on what your job was. Ten percent of troops were in an infantry unit, which suffered nearly 90 percent of the casualties.
Today far fewer soldiers are serving with infantry units. The current army problems with obtaining enough soldiers to maintain legally mandated strength is difficult. Fewer men want to join the military and among those that do want to join, a larger percentage are unqualified because of physical or psychological issues.
The solution, which the military has not yet accepted, is to have different recruiting standards for different jobs. Currently everyone joining is expected to operate as an infantryman. The infantry are less than five percent of the military. Another ten percent operate in a combat zone as armor, engineers or support troops. These soldiers are not exposed to much fire power and account for most of the non-infantry casualties. That leaves 85 percent of army personnel who are unlikely to ever get shot at. The army can solve recruiting problems by using different physical and psychological standards for combat and non-combat soldiers. Currently everyone gets the same combat instruction during their initial eight to twelve weeks of basic training. After that combat troops get a lot more combat training and experience while most support troops only fire rifles once or twice a year. In peacetime or during war there are always a large minority of men seeking to join the infantry. Most of them should be allowed to do so if they meet the physical standards. For the other 90 percent of troops, lower physical standards are sufficient because these troops will be doing many jobs that are identical to civilian occupations.
https://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htlead/articles/202410250927.aspx#gsc.tab=0
