Is military recruitment the next crisis?

 MILITARY IS EXPERIENCING THE WORST RECRUITMENT PROBLEMS IN DECADES

PERFECT STORM TO DISCOURAGE MILITARY SERVICE

While the military has been cutting the number of career positions, it is still experiencing difficulty maintaining the numbers needed for an effective force. The Army is having the most difficult time with a 40% shortage of new recruits. The Navy and Air force have not released numbers, but are also below their required enlistment to maintain effective readiness.

One of the obstacles is that the pool of eligible candidates is now diminishing with over 76 % of applicants ineligible because of health or criminal records.

The military has relaxed standards by allowing tattoos, gay and transgender applicants and past drug use. It has also dropped the requirement for high school graduation. Nonetheless recruitment is becoming increasingly difficult.

At the same time as relaxing standards, the military has insisted on MRNA vaccine acceptance which has resulted in some departures of career personal. 

There is also resistance to the new woke agenda being implemented by the services. It must be noted that large numbers of career military have been traditionally recruited from the southeast part of the country. There has been a generational tradition of military service from this population for the entire history of the United States. Such traditions provide support, encouragement and perseverance to continue in the difficulties of military service. Once this tradition is broken it will have a hard time finding a replacement resource. 

It is also reported that morale is at a low point and the number of active military suicides reached a record 176 in 2021. This may be a result of lowering the standards for service by accepting people who may already be at risk of emotional difficulties. It could also be that many find the living conditions of no privacy and cramped quarters too hard to endure.

It has been reported that all reservists are going to be required to accept the latest vaccine and it is expected to lose more personal. 

It should also be noted that the reserves have often been overused in recent years with over 20 years of conflict that took them away from their employment and families and cost many their homes and families due to severe economic hardship and divorce.

Reserves were meant to be just that, a reserve force for when the country was in imminent threat, not a pool that is used as full time military.

What will be the cure to maintain a military in a world were the U.S. military is embedded in 150 countries and talk of increasing troop levels in many parts of the world? It appears our political desires may not be matched by our ability to sustain such expansion. I doubt that a draft would ever be accepted by the country at this time, but it may be possible to employ more foreign fighters to fill the void.