The Amazing Shrinking U.S. Military

[Art]

I saw some shocking numbers today.

The Army is 15,000 short of its recruiting goals this year. That's a division folks. Even the Marines are in trouble in recruiting having met just 30% of its goals.

Some of the problems are due to a lack of quality recruits. Finding people who are fit enough or who don't have a drug history is becoming increasingly difficult. Even fashion fads are a problem. Ear gages are disqualifying and not fixable short of cutting your ear lobes off. Biden's weed pardon might actually be a blessing in disguise for the military but that's the least of its problems. IMHO the biggest problem is the emasculation of the military. The mission of the military is to destroy the enemy on the field of battle. That translates into killing people and breaking things. When the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says before congress that one of his biggest priorities is eliminating a culture of "whiteness" you've got a big, big problem.

I also believe the demonization of the police has bled over into the military which also hasn't helped recruiting.

[barretcreek]

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/10/the_army_of_the_woke.html

Details some of the reasons.

[Allen]

Not much incentive these days to want to enlist.

Hopefully if SHTF in OUR country everyone will join in for the effort (like WWII) but till then.......

[dogtag]

The only cure is to clean out all the Woke arse shiners in the Pentagon.
These are the ones promoting pregnant uniforms and CRT training.
If these people are allowed to stay, then the next thing will be safer bullets.

[Roadkingtrax]

Not much incentive these days to want to enlist.

Hopefully if SHTF in OUR country everyone will join in for the effort (like WWII) but till then.......

Did you serve in the US military?

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The only cure is to clean out all the Woke arse shiners in the Pentagon.
These are the ones promoting pregnant uniforms and CRT training.
If these people are allowed to stay, then the next thing will be safer bullets.

Did you serve in the US military?

[jcg&jmbfan]

Lazy young people.
Military wokeness.
The jab.

[Art]

Did you serve in the US military?

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Did you serve in the US military?

So what.

[Roadkingtrax]

So what.

You've made my point. Ha!

What advice and reasoning would you give to a person to get them to consider joining the military, when they might otherwise not?

To your point of bleed over "demonization" statement. The military isn't shooting kids eating hamburgers in a car or walking down the street, and covering it up. The cops are NOT the US Military, though many would like to associate themselves as the 6th branch.

[lyman]

You've made my point. Ha!

What advice and reasoning would you give to a person to get them to consider joining the military, when they might otherwise not?

To your point of bleed over "demonization" statement. The military isn't shooting kids eating hamburgers in a car or walking down the street, and covering it up. The cops are NOT the US Military, though many would like to associate themselves as the 6th branch.

and many (Cops) think they are not Civilians,


we had a similar discussion here not too long ago that the GWOT means a lot of Service members coming home and becoming Police, and that some Departments have or rather think, , they are more like operators than cops,


right or wrong, it is a thing

[Art]

You've made my point. Ha!

What advice and reasoning would you give to a person to get them to consider joining the military, when they might otherwise not?

To your point of bleed over "demonization" statement. The military isn't shooting kids eating hamburgers in a car or walking down the street, and covering it up. The cops are NOT the US Military, though many would like to associate themselves as the 6th branch.

I wouldn't advise anybody to join the military today, and I have a son who spent 8 years active and has been in the guard ever since.

I definitely wouldn't advise anybody to be a cop today.

On the military not shooting kids eating hamburgers in cars. I don't care for cherry picked statements like that but if you don't think U.S. soldiers never do any unnecessary killing you are sadly, sadly mistaken so I'll cherry pick a couple. You've obviously never heard of incidents like the Maywand incident in Afghanistan or the Mahmadiyu rapes and killings in Iraq. Curtis LeMay, Air Force Commander in the Pacific once said, essentially, that if he'd been on the other side he'd have been a war criminal for ordering the first fire bombing of Tokyo that deliberately targeted civilians and killed more people than either atomic bomb, and I could go on....yup. The difference between LeMay and those special forces guys at Mawand is since My Lai we do occasionally prosecute unnecessary killing. The business of the military is to kill the enemy on the field of battle...sometimes things get out of hand. Soldiers are not all boy scouts.

Murder by policemen and soldiers is not common, in fact the conduct of US forces is usually exemplary. A good example is Marcus Luttrell's seal team that, after discussion, didn't kill herdsmen who discovered them on a mission. Well those shepherds later ratted them out to the bad guys resulting in the death of everybody in the unit but Luttrell.

A little research might help.

[Roadkingtrax]

You're conflating cops and military again.

Following the rules of engagement and military policies/procedures isn't the reason recruitment is down for the military.

A strong economy gives people options that the military is incapable of meeting.

[Art]

You're conflating cops and military again.

Following the rules of engagement and military policies/procedures isn't the reason recruitment is down for the military.

A strong economy gives people options that the military is incapable of meeting.

You are making a false inference. You said soldiers don't shoot kids eating hamburgers and I simply gave examples of soldiers committing sometimes horrific acts and qualified it by saying it is usually an aberration. Cop murders are also an aberration so I said that too. Having had both jobs I do know the difference.

Most people don't know how much soldiers actually earn. While a guy who plans on not staying and getting out after a few years isn't going to get rich if he stays in and has any competence he can do quite well. A Sergeant E5, a Junior NCO (a rank our son got after about 4 years) can expect to make about $3500.00 a month and at least If he's on base room and board are gratis if he's off base, (and NCOs are often required to do so) he gets a $500.00 (give or take) housing allowance in addition to sweetheart medical care. Our son could expect to bring about $10,000.00 extra tax free dollars home from a mid east deployment no matter how safe the location, he loved the Emirates. $50,000.00 a year (he usually exceeded that) for a lower mid level guy isn't high class but it sure isn't low class either. Add to that the Army is giving up front enlistment bonuses of $20,000.00 to $50,000.00 to soldiers with high test scores or who come from civilian fields that are in demand. Then there are re-enlistment bonuses that can be pretty darn sweet too.

[Roadkingtrax]

Military kills people like cops, but has good benefits?

You should right recruitment ads.

My original point, if you care to understand, is to not fictionalize some anti-military narrative because we have some serious police issues here in the United States. The military has recruitment problems because they pay below what a strong economy can provide, and somehow 20 years of failure in Afghanistan isn't a good selling feature for joining the "team".

Now, can we be serious why the military isn't what you describe?

[Art]

So now you've slipped into being patronizing.

Actually both have good sometimes great benefits and I can certainly testify to that. Want great benefits with more money?, be in the Chicago P.D. and they can't recruit either.

Its already been stated above. The mismanagement in Afghanistan and and the misstatements (lies) that led to the second Iraq war, both of which have been mentioned above, have a lot more to do with lack of recruitment than the money. That part is correct.

To paraphrase a movie line, the bottom line today is that being killed, maimed or abused for nothing means sh#t to me and that's a big reason why neither the the GIs or the cops can recruit and a lot of the ones already on duty who are vested are just running out the string. That's also why today I recommend to people who ask me about joining either not to do it.

This has slipped into politics; and frankly I've said what I have to on this anyhow.

[blackhawknj]

A culture of PCness and wokeness, privileged groups, double and triple standards....those of us who have served know that in the military you don't work with people-you live
with them. They kick out people who refuse The Jab, they get home, tell their family and friends, word gets around ...who wants to enlist ? Overemphasizing the family benefits, yet the preferred recruit has always been the young single male who lives on base and who, when the need arises, can be quickly moved to where he is needed, doesn't have the aggravations and distractions of dependents.