During a Period of International Unrest, the US Military Is Having Difficulty Meeting Recruiting Goals

The Times Square military recruiting station displays insignia for each military branch in New York. Bebeto Matthews/AP Photos

Uncle Sam and the U.S. military could use more people like Dylan McNally and his parents, Chris and Marcy McNally, of Medfield, Massachusetts.

No military recruiter needed to call the McNally household or set up a booth at a high school event and hope that Dylan stopped by, or count on Dylan, as high school graduation neared, walking into the guidance office and grabbing some military information brochures.

“Dylan started talking about joining the military when he was in middle school—and he kept talking about it, and getting more serious about it, through high school and college,” said Marcy McNally.

“Neither my husband nor I served. My father served in the Marine Corps, in Vietnam during the war. But we aren’t a big military family.

People watch a television screen showing a news broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile test, at a railway station in Seoul, after North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles according to South Korea's military, on Oct. 28, 2022. Jung Yeon-je/AFP via Getty Images

“There is a lot of self-motivation and drive in Dylan. He found a calling and went after it.”

McNally added, “My husband and I, truthfully, were a little nervous with what he was looking at doing, but we never discouraged it. And when he decided to enlist, we fully supported him.

Dylan had preparation in teamwork, discipline, and sacrifice. He was a standout lacrosse and hockey player at Medfield High School and went on to play NCAA Division I lacrosse at Canisius College, from which he graduated this past spring.

Dylan then did what he had long planned to do. He enlisted.

U.S. Army Specialist Dylan McNally is scheduled to graduate this month from U.S. Army infantry basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Recruiting Woes

The United States military has been having trouble making its recruiting numbers.

And it is recruiting that since the United States ended the draft in 1973—that has been the keystone program and method by which the U.S. armed forces build the ranks of the branches and units responsible for protecting and defending the security of the nation.

Recruiting is down at a time when global bad actors are conducting themselves in a manner that threatens American interests and safety.

Russia, which holds the world’s largest nuclear arsenal, invaded and is waging war against Ukraine. China, only trailing the United States and Russia in the size of its stores of nuclear weapons, acts menacingly toward Taiwan, a nation that America is duty-bound to protect. North Korea, a nuclear power, launched and tested nearly 100 ballistic missiles in 2022.

Iran, long a state sponsor of terrorism, may be close to achieving nuclear capability.

Other terrorist entities are active.

Military draft registration? Misty Holloway (R) of Cheraw, S.C., and other female Marine recruits prepare for a swimming test during boot camp on Feb. 25, 2013 at MCRD Parris Island, S.C. Male and female recruits are expected to meet the same standards during their swim qualification test. Scott Olson/Getty Images

America needs a military with numbers of soldiers able to simultaneously fight and win wars in different regions of the globe.

While American defense technologies, innovation, and firepower are effective, they alone don’t settle conflicts—but do so in conjunction with establishing trust with residents of the area in which the battles are fought, and having sufficient numbers of soldiers on land and sea, and in the air.

National security threats remain and may be growing as branches of the U.S. military barely meet their recruitment goals or fall short.

Recruiting challenges are the focus of a Military.com story, with the illuminating headline, “Military News U.S. Army Misses Recruiting Goal; Other Services Squeak By,” published in early October.

As reported in the story, the Army “fell about 15 percent—or 25 percent—short of its recruitment goal this year,” and even though the Army was the only service that didn’t meet its target, all the others had to dig deep into their pools of delayed entry applicants, which will put them behind as they begin the next recruiting for this year.

Not mentioned in the Military.com story is the newest branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, Space Force, created in 2019 and organized under the Air Force; and the Coast Guard.

Space Force, with 8,400 active personnel, by far the smallest number of all the military branches (the Army is the largest with 482,416 active personnel), has met its recruitment goal of future “guardians.”

The Coast Guard missed its recruiting goals for the past four years.

Specific Challenges

Today’s labor market makes it difficult for the military to compete in offering young adults a career option.

High school and college graduates who, at other times, may have considered joining the military are lured to well-paying employment opportunities in other sectors.

Covid-19 disrupted and negatively affected the military’s ability to meet its recruiting numbers.

A U.S. Army Recruiting Command document reported that “71 percent of youth do not qualify for military service because of obesity, drugs, physical and mental health problems, misconduct, and aptitude.”

The pandemic made eligibility a bigger obstacle for recruiters in that it deprived high school students of classroom and onsite learning that helps the students meet an essential component of the qualifying standard: passing an aptitude test.

Then, again, there is the argument that some of the qualifications are too strict and that many who fail to meet some of the standards could still be good soldiers.

There are others who do not meet certain standards but could meet them with the right support, education, and training.

The Marine Corps has a long legacy of meeting recruiting numbers. Yet even it has been up against it as of late.

On Dec. 6, The Epoch Times story ran a story by Katabella Roberts that focused on how the vaccine mandate has contributed to the Marines recruiting woes and also led to, as the Defense Department reported, 3,717 forced to leave the Marines because they refused to be vaccinated.

Congressional Republicans, stewarded by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Sen. Marsha Blackburn, criticized the military vaccine mandate, blaming it for recruiting problems and lowering morale, while also slamming military policy that forced out service members who refused to take the vaccine.

McCarthy and Blackburn threatened to hold up the passage, in their respective chambers in Congress, of the $858 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) unless the military vaccine mandate, which had been rolled into the bill, was removed.

The legislation passed, without a mandate, in both the House and Senate.

President Biden signed the NDAA into law on Dec. 23.

Working against the military in its recruiting challenge is a low quotient of what it calls a “propensity to serve”—a factor loosely defined as the level of interest young people hold in serving in the military.

For example, serving in the military, as a personal option, is not seriously considered and not much thought about by the vast majority of high school students. It is not on their radar screen.

U.S. Army Spc. Dylan McNally is assigned to Company A, 2nd Battalion, 58th Infantry Regiment, 198th Infantry Brigade, Fort Benning, Ga. Courtesy of McNally family

If a recruiter does not connect with them, there is little chance they will discuss or interact with the notion of military service during school, work, or other aspects of day-to-day living.

Much of this has to do with growing up in a society and culture where not many people serve or have served.

Fewer than 1 percent of the U.S. population is actively serving in the armed forces.

And there are fewer and fewer veterans.

In decades past, it was far more common than today for a teenager to have a parent or mentor, any adult they admired and who gave proper and healthy guidance, who wore the uniform and served.

On June 2, 2020, the U.S. Census Bureau released a study, “Those Who Served: America’s Veterans From World War II to the War on Terror.”

Among the findings in the report was that in 2018, 7 percent of the U.S. population were military veterans. Noted in the report was that from the mid part of the 20th century, with the mass mobilization for World War II, and through the Korean Conflict and Vietnam, for nearly 30 consecutive years, the United States had a draft that had a significant impact on the size of the U.S. veteran population.

“In 1950, following World War II, more than one in three men in the United States were veterans (37 percent of the male population aged 18 and over at that time),” the report stated. “This imprint could still be seen in 2000, when one in four men were veterans.

“In coming decades, the number of veterans is projected to continue declining. Today, about one in eight men in the United States are veterans; by 2040, that number is projected to fall to about one in 14. Roughly one in 100 women are veterans today, a number that is projected to remain relatively unchanged over the next two decades.”

A Soldier In The Making

Dylan McNally is close to finishing what may be considered step one in his training and preparation as a soldier.

“He knows his purpose, and he is pursuing that purpose,” said Marcy McNally.

“Dylan intends to become an Army Ranger. And that means after basic training, he will need to graduate from Airborne School and then Ranger School. It is all a grueling test and challenge.

“My husband and I are immensely proud.”

Marcy McNally says that she is reading all that she can about Army Rangers.