NORFOLK, Va. — According to the Department of Defense, the military services collectively missed their 2023 recruiting goals by about 41,000 recruits.
The issue was the focus of a hearing on Capitol Hill Dec. 13.
For about an hour, representatives from the Department of Defense, Army, Navy and Air Force discussed recruiting shortfalls and answered questions from members of the Military Personnel Subcommittee.
According to the DoD representative, in 1995, 40% of young people had a parent who served in the military. By 2022, just 12% had a parent who had served.
About 20 years ago, just over 25% of youth had never thought about serving in the military. In recent years, more than half of youth have never thought about serving.
Committee member Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), brought up the issue of politics when questioning the Army's representative, Asst. Secretary of the Army for Manpower & Reserve Affairs Agnes Schaefer.
Banks cited a national poll that found 73% of veterans surveyed believe the military is too political.
"Would you disagree that wokeness is a top recruiting obstacle for the Army?" Banks asked.
"If it is one of the issues, then we need to address it," Schaefer responded. "Again, the data that we have seen indicates that it’s not one of the top concerns."
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Virginia Sen. Mark Warner believes politics are partly to blame for the military struggling to recruit.
“We need to reaffirm the military is part of our American heritage," said Warner. "When we have so many extremes on both end of the political agenda so disparaging of our country, frankly I think that turns off a lot of young people in terms of providing that service that literally protects all of us."
He would also like to see schools do more to help prepare kids for military service.
“We need to do more on physical fitness," Warner said. "The number of people that don’t meet the basic physical fitness criteria for our service, I don’t think we should cut back on those criteria, but we do need healthier kids. That means more P.E. during high school I think."
During the hearing, the representative from the Air Force, Asst. Secretary of the Air Force for manpower & Reserve affairs Alex Wagner, touched on this issue when each representative was asked what their respective branches are doing to improve recruitment: “Our body composition standards were different than OSC standards, so we aligned them to what OSD allowed.”
The DoD representative said the military needs leaders across the country, including Congress, to make a national call to service, both military and other public service.
While the Army, Navy, and Air Force missed their recruiting goals, the Marines Corps. and Space Force met theirs according to the DoD.
