Is the Army Misplacing the Blame for Its Recruiting Crisis?

[rangerrebew]

POLICY
Is the Army Misplacing the Blame for Its Recruiting Crisis?
At least two of its oft-cited reasons are “red herrings,” experts say.
ELIZABETH HOWE | DECEMBER 1, 2022 03:11 PM ET
ARMY PERSONNEL
   
As experts and Army leaders work to boost the service’s sagging recruitment, they’re discovering that two oft-cited factors aren’t all that important: young people’s ineligibility rates and propensity to serve.

It’s true that only 23 percent of Americans are eligible for military service, and an even smaller portion of that percentage are interested in serving, as Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville often says when asked about his service’s recruiting woes. But these factors don’t explain the current crisis, RAND Corporation Senior Economist Beth Asche said at a Heritage Foundation event on Tuesday.

“Propensity is low, but propensity has always been low,” Asche said. “Another one is eligibility. That's a problem, and it's definitely worthy of concern and attention. But again, eligibility has also been a perennial problem for many years.”

https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2022/12/army-misplacing-blame-its-recruiting-crisis/380361/

[Timber Rattler]

But asked in October whether public perceptions of Army wokeness were hurting recruiting, the service’s top recruiter—Maj. Gen. Johnny K. Davis of Army Recruiting Command—said he was “not seeing that at all.”

Both Asche and Davis, who also spoke at the Heritage event, avoided answering a question about whether the COVID-19 vaccine mandate was hurting recruiting. 

Asche suggested the Army needs to do a better job of choosing, training, and motivating its recruiters.

Well Davis is willfully blind...just ask anybody who just got their DD214 about why they are getting out, and they will tell you a head full---toxic leadership, poor treatment and quality of life, incompetence and apathy at all levels, non-stop deployments, constant threats and lying by the CoC, and suddenly reneging on promised benefits.  And then there's the VA nightmare awaiting them ahead...

And as for blaming the recruiters, training them to lie better won't help, and will just make the problem worse.

[EdinVA]

Since '73 we have thrown tons of money at the problem with huge bonuses, raises, etc... So the moral to the story is, the kinds of people the military wants/needs cannot be bought..

So maybe the kinds of people the military want/need want to feel their service is important/valuable and that the military chain of command, top to bottom, is competent and will not waste their time and blood.
Maybe we need to look at the chain of command rather than ranting about how "bad" new recruits are....