Last year, the military at large missed its recruiting goals by a large margin. In 2022, the Army was down 25% of its goal, with the Navy and Air Force also missing their marks.
It seems Gen-Z is either unqualified or simply uninterested in enlisting. One could speculate on the variety of reasons for why the kids aren’t taking to the idea of handing their freedom, life, and soul over to Uncle Sam for 4 years.
Perhaps they aren’t as patriotic, given the absolute mess of a government we’ve had for the last decade. Perhaps they simply just value their downtime to focus on their existential dread at a collapsing post-modern world where nothing seems to matter anymore. I can respect that.
Either way, something needs to be done. The ASVAB may not be the biggest barrier to entry, but at least maybe now you can order the kids mac & cheese along with your MEPS duck-walk and butthole inspection.
Oddly, the Marine Corps and the Space Force were the only branches that met their recruiting goals in recent years.
To me, this signals the niche-ification of the military. The people that want to enlist are going for the hardest ones, without giving much thought to the larger, easier-to-get-into Army or Navy. These are people that have done the research and want whatever the military can give them that they can’t get at home. Perhaps the future of the military is smaller, leaner, smarter, and more specialized.
With the way things are going in the world [war 3], let’s hope it’s enough.