U.S. Military at 82-Year Recruiting Low

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Amid growing national security threats and questionable U.S. military readiness, senior Pentagon officials testified before Congress last week that the military services fell short of their 2023 recruiting goals by 41,000 recruits. The military needs about 160,000 people a year to join to sustain its authorized strength, and this 25 percent shortfall marks the worst recruiting performance since the U.S. military became an all-volunteer force in 1973.

Recruiting Shortfalls and Growing Mistrust: Perceptions of the U.S. Military

As a result, the annual National Defense Authorization Act passed by Congress authorizes the United States to enter 2024 with the smallest military since before the U.S. entered World War II in 1941. Every year, Congress authorizes the size of the active-duty U.S. military. Due to the recruiting challenges, Congress has authorized the military to lower its end strength to closer align with the numbers it can recruit into service. The $886 billion annual defense bill lowers active-duty troop numbers to 1,283,700 troops in 2024. These numbers are down five percent from 1,340,040 authorized in 2023.

At the House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee hearing on Dec. 13 titled, “Recruiting Shortfalls and Growing Mistrust: Perceptions of the U.S. Military,” the four-person panel from the Pentagon reported that the Army, Navy, and Air Force all missed their recruiting goals this fiscal year, which ended in September. They also reported the Marine Corps and Space Force achieved their goals this year.

Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Ashish Vazirani testified that the military services have had to lower their end-strength goals and change standards in recent years due to a “complex and multifaceted” recruiting environment. Vazirani listed several reasons for young Americans declining to serve in the military, such as:

• Military recruiting is difficult when the “economy is strong” because there are more options for young adults.
• Generation Z (those born between 1997 and 2012) has “low trust in institutions” and are taking non-traditional career paths.
• The military’s target audience is smaller where “77 percent would not qualify for service without some sort of a waiver.”
• Fewer young people have family members who served in the military to recommend military service.

Disconnect between the military and a large share of society

Vazirani noted these reasons have “led to a disconnect between the military and a large share of society.” When asked by House Armed Services Committee (HASC) members about what the military branches are doing to improve recruitment, the panel stated they were working together to reach young Americans “where they are” on various media platforms with a resonating and motivational message.

However, the HASC members questioned whether the Pentagon’s continued recruiting shortfalls were symptomatic of misplaced priorities.

Representative Cory Mills specifically expressed concerns about the lowering of physical fitness and educational standards to join, prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives over readiness issues, and the discharge of more than 8,000 service members for refusing the COVID shot. The COVID shot mandates led to Liberty Counsel’s class action lawsuits in Navy SEAL 1 v. Austin and Colonel Financial Management Officer, et al. v. Austin, where Liberty Counsel obtained multiple restraining orders and injunctions, including a class-wide injunction, forcing the DOD to abandon its mandate. The Pentagon was then ordered to pay Liberty Counsel $1.8 million for attorney’s fees and costs after two years of litigation. Since then, the Army has offered a pathway for those discharged service members to potentially rejoin the service.

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Pentagon’s “main effort” for recruiting which had focused on “LGBTQ demographics"

Rep. Mills noted that only one of the panelists had served in the military and the group as a whole largely did not “know how far we’ve fallen” from prioritizing things like “increased lethality, readiness, and being properly equipped.”

Rep. Mills stated, “…when you’re proven to have lowered the push-up and two-mile run standards…having drag shows and prioritizing DEI…that probably has a big recruitment deficit, as well on the way we actually view our military.”

Rep. Mike Waltz also expressed concern about the Pentagon’s “main effort” for recruiting which had focused on “LGBTQ demographics.” He mentioned an animated Army recruiting video focused on the story of a girl with two lesbian moms joining the military to prove herself and break down stereotypes. One of the panelists, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs Alex Wagner, confirmed recruiting efforts focused on this “demographic” citing a 2021-2022 Gallup poll showing 20 percent of young Americans under 25 consider themselves part of the LGBTQ community.

While Wagner stated the military is looking to recruit from the “broadest swath” of people possible, he noted the LGBTQ community “is exactly the market that we’re looking for to recruit from.”

Current military recruiting does not inspire people to be warriors

Rep. Waltz stated, “It’s not working. And now the Army has had a wholesale shift back to [advertising] jumping out of planes and kicking in doors which I would argue historically is what soldiers want to do.”

Retired Lieutenant General William Boykin, a 36-year Army veteran and co-founder of the Army’s elite Delta Force unit, recently told Liberty Counsel on its Freedom Alive program that current military recruiting does not inspire people to be warriors.

Boykin stated, “You haven’t seen anything coming out of the U.S. military that…makes it clear that we want rough, tough, rugged men and women…that are ready to set foot on a foreign soil and to win a war there…against people who want to kill us, destroy us, and essentially want to make us go away as a nation.”

The panelists recommended a “National Call of Service” by the nation’s leaders for young Americans to consider military service.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “America needs a strong military now more than ever. Global threats are outpacing America’s ability to deter aggression, yet the military is being poisoned by political ideologies. Military leaders need to keep the military apolitical, keep their standards high, and focus recruiting on warfighting. By developing mentally and physically tough service members and keeping the military apolitical, the right people will be inspired to serve.”

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