The USA will start 2024 with its smallest military in 80 years as recruiting targets for the Army, Navy, and Air Force failed to meet their targets.
Recruiters say that Generation Z, those born between 1997 and 2012, are especially difficult to attract because they have a "low trust in institutions" and have "decreasingly followed traditional life and career paths."
In fact, there are reports that many Gen Zers who spend all day on TikTok are simply too entitled for the job:
Oh, poor darlings.
However, as RedState has reported, the increasingly woke propaganda emanating from the Pentagon is also driving people away:
Rum, Buggery, and the Lash Makes a Comeback as the US Navy Fights Recruiting Woes;
Navy Recruitment: From Heroes to 'Harpy' the Drag-Queen
Contrast in Recruitment Ads From Russia, U.S., China, and UK Point to Ominous Future
I'm sure this will get volunteers rushing to serve:
The Pentagon’s acting undersecretary for personnel and readiness, Ashish Vazirani, explained to the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday that “the All-Volunteer Force faces the greatest challenge since its inception”:
“In Fiscal Year (FY) 2023, the Military Services collectively missed our recruiting goals by approximately 41,000 recruits, and that number understates the challenge before us as the Services lowered end-strength goals in recent years in part because of the difficult recruiting environment,” he told lawmakers.
Military Times reports that we’ll have 64,000 fewer people protecting our country than we did three years ago:
Under end strength levels outlined in the annual defense authorization bill passed by the Senate Wednesday evening and expected to be passed by the House on Thursday, the total number of active-duty troops in the armed forces will drop to 1,284,500 in fiscal 2024. That’s down nearly 64,000 personnel in the last three years and the smallest total for America’s military since 1940, before the United States’ entry into World War II.
Note that the Chinese People's Liberation Army has over two million servicemembers.
The problem is not new: I reported back in July of 2022 that recruiting numbers were the lowest since the Vietnam War. Things have only gotten worse since then.
Vazirani also noted the demographic shift among those who serve since the end of the draft in 1973:
“While the end of conscription ended a divisive era in America and fostered the most capable military the world has known, it also set in motion a decades-long shift in who serves in the U.S. military,” Vazirani said. “For example, in 1995, 40% of U.S. youth ages 16 to 24 had a parent who served in the military. But by 2022, only 12% had a parent who served.”
The numbers are sobering:
The [department of ] defense says the Army will have 445,000 active-duty soldiers, down more than 40,000 - 8.4 percent - over the last three years.
Meanwhile, the Navy will have 10,000 fewer sailors, down 3 percent, and the Air Force will have 13,475 fewer airmen, down 4 percent.
The Marine Corps will have 8,900 fewer active-duty service members than in 2021, down nearly 5 percent in three years.
The situation is getting so dire that Vazirani called for a national call to service:
“We need a national call to service—especially for military service, but also for national and public service,” he stated. “We need national leaders, such as government leaders, community leaders, business leaders, teachers and other influencers, and especially leaders like the members of this subcommittee, to talk about military service with youth in their communities and ask them to learn about and consider serving in the military.”
As we reported, Democrat Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin has a terrible idea to fix the problem: get illegal immigrants to serve:
I do believe that the wokeness infecting the military is driving away young people who might have served in another era, but I also contend that there's another issue: many young Americans seem to have forgotten who the good guys are in this world and that there are bad actors out there who would love to take our freedoms away. They've lost the plot:
Majority of Americans 18-24 Think Israel 'Should Be Ended,' Given to Hamas
Gone are the days when a movie star like Jimmy Stewart would pause his burgeoning silver-screen career to fight for our country in World War II.
It's concerning that at a time when there's a raging Israel-Hamas war in the Middle East, a Russian invasion of Ukraine, and incessant saber-rattling by North Korea -- not to mention the ever-growing threat from China -- we would find ourselves unable to find enough patriots to protect our constitutional republic.