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- [00:01]
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Cheryl Akison
Hi everybody.
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Cheryl Akeson here.
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I hope you enjoy this special from the Archives edition of Full Measure After Hours. Hi everybody. Cheryl Akison here. Welcome to another edition of Full Measure After Hours. Today we discuss America's military recruiting crisis, missing recruiting goals. For the first time since we converted to an all Volunteer Force 50 years ago, we have been sending billions of dollars in aid and munitions and all kinds of stuff to Ukraine and now to Israel. While some critics say we've been letting our own national security, our own military force languish in some ways.
- [01:27]
You know, that I talk about and.
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Write about information manipulation quite a bit. This is sort of an aside that if you do a Google search for aid to Ukraine, you will come up with all kinds of results and news articles that all tell you how great it is and how necessary it is for the United States to send as much aid as Ukraine supposedly needs for, quote, as long as it takes. You will not find the criticism and there's plenty of it. At least it's not showing up in my search results. One of the criticisms is that we're sending things to Ukraine that other countries have paid for and were in line to receive from us. So Ukraine has gotten bumped to the top of the list at the expense of some of our allies. Additionally, critics say some of the support that we are sending to Ukraine is leaving us depleted. For example, the US Ammunition stockpiles were said to be uncomfortably low, according to a defense official, some months ago when it came to one type of combat rounds. And analysts say that's the circumstance with other things as well. But today we're going to talk about the state of the US Military when it comes to recruiting. We're putting all this focus on helping other countries and many people would agree that we should do that. And yet is enough attention being paid to the things that are making us less strong. So 50 years ago, July 1, 1973, the army instituted the all volunteer force. That ended the draft, which had gone on for 23 years. It's also called conscription or forced service. I'm going to quote from the US army website, Army Mil. A little bit of history about conscription. It says in the Years since the U.S. army was formed on June 14, 1775, the nation has used conscription only sparingly, and that it has been pretty unpopular throughout America's history, even during the fight for America's independence in the Revolutionary War. The longest uninterrupted period of conscription in the Nation's history began June 1950 as we entered the Korean War. The draft then became so ingrained in the culture that according to this article I'm looking at, the House of Representatives voted to extend the authority as late as 1963 in a vote of 387 to 3. Then a commission called the Gates Commission led to a bill that changed everything. And President Nixon signed the bill Sept. 21, 1971, after Congress passed the legislation leading to the All Volunteer Force, which took effect on July 1, 1973, 50 years ago this year. And part of that was a move to increase the pay and other compensation to try to attract enough people. So the annual pay and housing compensation translated to current dollars of an E1, which I think is an entry level guy or Girl, jumped 80% as a result of this legislation. It increased to $4,406 in 1973. That was annual pay and housing compensation, not counting any bonuses. And that was a big increase compared to what was at the time, the overall men's mean income in the United States 50 years later. As we'll be discussing, the military is having trouble attracting qualified recruits.
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It's hard to know if they're really.
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Able to get at the heart of what the problems really are. It is said that after 20 years of conflicts around the world, that polling shows today's youth have a disproportionate perception of their likelihood of being injured, killed or suffering from post Traumatic stress disorder if they join the military. This article that I'm reading from goes on to say that a large percentage of women believe they will be sexually harassed or assaulted if they join the military. And there was a poll that showed far fewer people today believe patriotism is important than those in 1998. When asked today, or at least when the poll was done, only 23% responded that patriotism was important. But in 1998, that number was 70%. A lot of that blame can be laid, I think, at the feet of those who teach or decide what curriculums go in America's schools. Today's military Age adults value flexibility, self expression, individual identity and leisure. All things that you really can't get a whole lot of in the military. Again, do we blame the schools there? And the youth of today are much more likely to believe that climate change is a greater existential threat to than China or Russia. Looking at the numbers now in terms of recruiting goals, we first fell short last year. The army was about 15,000 recruits too few. They missed about 25% of their goal of 60,000. And then for this year, when I first checked to start reporting on the story, four of the six military branches, depending on what they call a military branch, were on track to miss their recruiting numbers. I'll tell you how that's turning out at last. Check in just a moment. What are the reasons young people are giving officially in answering an army survey? Well, they say they don't want to leave their family and friends. That's a top reason why young people say they might avoid a military career. Also high on the list, continued worries about post Traumatic stress disorder and most of all, fear of death. Recruiting tactics have shifted and changed as the military's tried to figure all of this out. You may have seen this really entertaining Naptown Funk spoof of the hit song Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars. You can find that online if you search Naptown Funk you'll see the YouTube video of this. It's midshipman at the U.S. naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland in this very clever recruiting video that tells young men and women how great a career in the Navy is. Then there were things like the movie Top Gun and the sequel Maverick in 2022. Those definitely inspire would be Navy and Air Force recruits with sort of this macho man excitement. But you may know about the controversy. The military is using a new approach. The Navy turning to an active duty drag queen, which is a male impersonator of an exaggerated version of a woman using a drag queen to serve as a digital recruiting ambassador. About 10% of people surveyed say that they don't trust military leadership based on the way recent missions have been handled. And you can't help but think of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan which was so botched in summer of 2021, 13 US troops and 170 Afghan civilians were murdered in that ill thought out withdrawal. There was also a messed up US drone strike as part of that that killed 10 innocent Afghans including seven children. And in the process there were hundreds of Americans stranded the country. After all of the money and time we spent there and the lives lost, Afghanistan was handed back over to The Islamic extremist Taliban, the same group that we have been fighting for two decades. And there's another factor that may influence kids and their parents who might encourage them not to join the military. If you see these images online or on television showing injured vets who by implication have been abandoned by our government, getting help or asking for help from citizen donors, These are vets with no limbs or with mental health problems, basically pleading for assistance, showing us that they are not being taken care of after their service. That's got to put some people off. And then we could talk about vaccine mandates. The COVID vaccine was forced on healthy men and women who didn't want it. At least 8,000 enlisted service members were booted for not getting the vaccine. Tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, had applied for waivers to try not to get the vaccine. But they were forced to get it, even though, as we now know, the vaccine doesn't prevent transmission or infection and doesn't typically make otherwise healthy young people sick. But they were forced to get this experimental vaccine. To some, that certainly was not a good look in terms of attracting people to the military. What to do is the big question. And we're going to talk about all of this with Department of Defense press Secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder.
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Give me an overview of what the recruiting status is today for the U.S. military.
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Sure.
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Brigadier General Pat Ryder
Well, first of all, we are facing some significant recruiting challenges. It's obviously a very competitive environment right now in terms of recruiting talent throughout America, and the military is not immune from that. But we are actively employing a variety of methods to try to recruit the best that America has to offer to fill our ranks.
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Cheryl Akison
I assume the military puts a lot of effort into researching the whys, who, who. What it would take, why people do join or why they don't join. What are some top lines that you've learned is why people are not joining in the numbers that you would like them to be joining?
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Brigadier General Pat Ryder
Yeah. So it's very interesting. So there's a few things at play here. First of all, there is an extremely competitive market right now for talent. Unemployment is at record lows, and so people have options, and so the military may not be their first choice. Another thing that we find is that there may be fear for personal safety or fear from being away from friends and family. And so the pandemic. Pandemic didn't help. For about two years. Our recruiters were not able to go into high schools and to connect with communities, to connect with potential recruits. And so one of the things that we're looking at is how can we reach those individuals and help help build their knowledge about what the military offers and in other words, reduce that knowledge gap, but then also reduce the, the potential stereotypes about what military service actually means.
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Cheryl Akison
When I was here before, you all had launched some ads that I think are, to me, they're effective. I don't know how effective they are at actually moving bodies into the military. But the TV ads where the children are talking to a parent about something they'd like to do and they kind of fade from one scene into talking to the parent, the parent kind of understands what are some specific things that you all are doing like that? I haven't seen as many of those ads. I think I've seen them lately, but not as many. What are the things you're doing very specifically to reach out?
- [12:38]
Brigadier General Pat Ryder
Yeah, so there's a variety of things both at the Department of Defense level and in each of the services is actively not only doing the research that you mentioned, but also employing active campaigns, whether it's advertising, whether it's getting out into schools, whether it's connecting with communities, and importantly, talking to influencers like you highlight. So for example, the army just rolled out a new updated be all you can be campaign to really talk to potential recruits, to young Americans and to their families and to influencers about the fact that, that the army can afford opportunities for you to achieve your full potential. The Air Force similarly has updated its campaign to highlight the opportunities that exist and all the services are really doing that. So, so it's a full court press across a variety of means and methods to really reintroduce America to its military.
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Cheryl Akison
If we are far short in some areas of recruiting goals, what does that mean in terms of our safety and military readiness? Should people be worried?
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Brigadier General Pat Ryder
Yeah. So first of all, what's interesting is that while we do have some recruiting challenges, our retention right now in the US Military is at an all time high, which is, which demonstrates that once people join us, they want to stay with us. So that's good news. And so in terms of our ability to protect the nation, we are very confident that we will continue to be able to do what we need to do to defend our nation, to protect our interests, and to be ready to go to war if we're called to do that, it doesn't diminish the importance of recruiting. And so again, we're taking a full court press to try to identify a variety of ways that we can reach out, communicate what a military career can offer, the benefits that come with that. The Intangibles of what military service means to those who join. For example, once you become a U.S. military member and you serve honorably, you are a veteran for life. And so again, taking a variety of means. It won't happen overnight, but we're confident that we'll see that trend reverse.
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Cheryl Akison
Do you feel as though we have enough people in the right specialties to appropriately handle our national defense right now?
- [14:44]
Brigadier General Pat Ryder
We do. I mean, I think it's important again to understand that the military is going to continue to need to meet recruiting goals every year. So this isn't an issue right now in terms of our readiness. We have the most combat credible experience military that the world has ever seen right now. And so we're confident that we can meet our national security needs. But we also can't rest on our laurels. We need to continue to lean forward and, and try to reach out to Americans, potential recruits, and explain to them all of the opportunities that exist and why they should consider a military career.
- [15:18]
Cheryl Akison
They took my phones, but if my numbers are in my head correctly, the numbers you all had, it looks like some of the branches are meeting their goals. Looks like the Marines are. It looks like the reserves and the Guard might be meeting their goals or exceeding them. The space force, which is very small. Have you been able to figure out why they can reach recruiting goals in some and why they're not in other branches?
- [15:40]
Brigadier General Pat Ryder
Well, it really depends on what people want to do in the military. And so obviously, different. The different services provide different opportunities. So each of the services, again, is working very hard to identify how best to reach out to potential recruits and highlight the benefits of military service, whether it's education and training, whether it's pay benefits, whether it's the intangibles that we've talked about in terms of being part of something that's bigger than oneself. And so again, each of the services is going to continue to look at how they can best do that. And so the army in particular, again, they have endeavored on a very aggressive campaign to reach out and show Americans why being a member of the army is going to help you achieve your full potential and be all you can be.
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Cheryl Akison
What does that campaign involve?
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Brigadier General Pat Ryder
So. So a variety of things. Again, as I mentioned, reaching out to communities, reaching out to high schools. One of the things that the army has done that's very unique that other services are looking at is providing essentially a future soldier preparation program. So one of the challenges in recruiting is the small pool of eligible recruits, potential recruits. So reaching out to those that may not have met the initial academic or physical fitness requirements and working with them to help them improve their health, improve their academics, so that they can reapply and try again to get into the army. And they're having some really good initial success with that program.
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Cheryl Akison
Three controversies that you can tell me if you think they've impacted recruiting. You talked about COVID Not so much a controversy about that, but the COVID impact. The vaccine mandates got a lot of publicity in the press. There were tens of thousands of people in the military who applied for exemptions and thousands, I think, who were released because they didn't want to get the vaccine. What is the impact of that publicity, do you think?
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Brigadier General Pat Ryder
Yeah, well, first of all, when it comes to the military, it's important to remember that, number one, we need to be ready to deploy our members anywhere in the world, anytime. And so vaccines in and of themselves are nothing new. In fact, George Washington mandated a smallpox vaccine and is a member of the military. For 30 years, all of us have had to take and continue to take multiple vaccines. So when we applied the vaccine mandate, that was a lawful order. And while that has been rescinded, we continue to encourage our members to become vaccinated because, again, I need to be able to count on you to go where I need you when I need you to get there. So the research that we have done demonstrated that again, the biggest reason why people didn't want to serve was concern about personal safety, concern about being away from friends and family, and just a general lack of understanding about what the military opportunities are and what it means to serve in the military.
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Cheryl Akison
Do you think the vaccine mandates impacted recruiting or have you even studied that?
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Brigadier General Pat Ryder
We have studied that and of course, you know, very small numbers in terms of that being a contributing factor to why someone may not want to serve. So again, part of what we've got to do is get out there into the communities and highlight what the potential benefits of military service are. The kinds of things that you can see and do that you can't do anywhere else other than in the military.
- [18:59]
Cheryl Akison
Number two, the military has gotten a wrap oftentimes publicity wise, in terms of what some people call the wokeness they hear. Again, there's publicity about incidents and cases that go on. I noticed the marines seem like they have good recruiting numbers and that's sort of the place where maybe people think wokeness won't be as entered as much. I'm just going off of my general impressions, but what do you think is the impact of the notion that the military is changing into a different kind of body that some people wouldn't want to be part of because of the what they call wokeness.
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Brigadier General Pat Ryder
Yeah, well, I've been a part of this organization for 30 years. I've seen all echelons, all aspects, and I can tell you one of the things about the United States military. Without a doubt, it is the most combat, credible, experienced, fighting force that the world has ever seen. So every day we come to work focused on our number one priority, which is defending this nation and ensuring that we are conducting operations to protect not only our nation's security, but our national interests around the world. And so that's what we will continue to do. And as we reach out to communities and as we reach out to potential recruits, we want folks to know that you can be a part of something bigger than yourself, that you can be a part of an organization that will make a difference and will help you whether you decide to stay for a few years or whether you decide to stay for a career. You will leave this organization a changed person, a better citizen, and someone who feels like, you know, you are now in a better situation to succeed at whatever it is you want to do.
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- [21:18]
Cheryl Akison
Good news.
- [21:19]
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Cheryl Akison
Without the ads, is there any way to even know? Are there the top one or two reasons that people say they join the military?
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Brigadier General Pat Ryder
I think, you know, the research shows there's a variety of reasons. So for example, for me I decided I went to an air show when I was 10 years old and I saw the airplanes and I saw the blue uniforms and I was just blown away by the professionalism even at that age and I wanted to be a part of that. I originally joined for four years. I thought I'll do this for four years, I'll get out and do something else. And just every single opportunity that was given to me, it just one better thing after the other. And I think a lot of people have that same experience. So some people will join because you can get college money, education, training, skills. Some people join because they want to travel and see the world. But the one thing we all have in common is that we become a part of this team that's bigger than ourselves. And once you're a member of the US Military, you will be a US Veteran. And you can say that with pride for all of your days.
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Cheryl Akison
I think you've touched on this because you've repeated a few times. But if, if you are giving somebody the big pitch, but in a very general sense about why they might want to join the military. And I know it may depend on the person and what their needs are, but what is a good overview of what you think is a really good top line?
- [22:50]
Brigadier General Pat Ryder
Well, I think that it's an organization where you can have a sense of purpose and it's going to set you up for success again, whether you want to stay for a couple of years or whether you want to stay for a career. The point is it's a great place to start and it's a great way of life. And you will see and do things and experience things that you never thought possible. And at the end of the day, you can look yourself in the mirror and feel like, you know what? I'm doing something that it's not only making myself feel better, but I'm doing something that I feel like is contributing to a greater good and to something important in defense of our nation.
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Cheryl Akison
And then I know this is a complicated formula. What people get paid and depend, I mean, so many factors. But what can somebody realistically make if they have a career in the military? If someone's gone, how much do they even earn beyond the benefits? What are the benefits after they leave?
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Brigadier General Pat Ryder
Sure. I mean, the good news is, you know, the military is completely transparent. You can go online and you can see what the military pay tables are there in terms of time of service grade, rank, as well as the benefits that we provide. If you join the military and then depending on how long you serve, you know those benefits will change. Right. So in the military, there's the opportunity to earn pay and benefits towards retirement. But again, as a veteran, you will also have access to veterans benefits, you know, through the VA and other mechanisms. So all of that information is available online. I would encourage people who are interested At a minimum, go talk to a recruiter, talk to somebody to find out the facts about what it means to serve in the military and how it can benefit you for the rest of your life.
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Cheryl Akison
Do any guys who are not as high up as you guys and girls, is it realistic to say, 15, 20 years in a career that they can earn $800,000 salaries?
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Brigadier General Pat Ryder
Yeah, I mean, a lot of it depends on the particular, you know, career field you're in when it comes to bonuses. But again, it's a great graduated pay scale and again, all that information is available online. But yes, I mean it is very competitive pay considering the types of skills and, and, you know, capabilities that we bring to the fight.
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Cheryl Akison
And then what is the takeaway you think people should have about America's military recruiting process right now and the status if we're looking to get the overview?
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Brigadier General Pat Ryder
Yeah. So we're very confident that we will be able to turn the trend around when it comes to the challenges that we face with recruiting right now. Again, it is a very competitive job market. The pandemic didn't help in terms of our ability to communicate and reach out and educate and inform people about what a military career or military service offers. So if there's one thing that we're good at in the US military, it's solving problems. And we're confident that we're doing the right things, that the military services are doing the right things to do that, to get the word out and encourage people to be a part of this. So importantly, job number one again is defending this nation and ensuring that we're ready to go to war if we need to go to war. We, we are at the end of the day a war fighting organization and we are not going to lower our standards when it comes to our war fighting mission. But as we look at potential recruits, it's important for us to look at with the end in mind, which is a war fighting and combat credible capable organization. What are potential barriers to service that could prevent eligible candidates from joining us? And so the services are looking at those kinds of things, whether it's what is the minimum age to join? Are there waivers available, for example, for single parents who want to join? Tattoo policies, Looking at that, does having a tattoo somehow make you less combat effective? So looking at those kind of potential barriers to entry to ensure that we can reach the largest potential recruiting population and get the best and brightest of America into our military ranks. Because at the end of the day, what we want are people who are going to show up, who are capable Effective, trained and ready to defend this nation.
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Cheryl Akison
So specifically, the policy change, do you allow some tattoos or does it depend on the service?
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Brigadier General Pat Ryder
It depends. Each of the services have their own policies. So as we look at potential recruits for the military, each of the services is looking at its accessibility policies with the understanding that we're never going to lower our standard when it comes to combat effectiveness and being a war fighter or war fighting organization. And so looking at potential barriers to entry. So for example, what are the minimum age to serve? Are, are we looking at waivers, for example, for single parents joining the military? When it comes to things like waivers for tattoos, there was a time in the military when you couldn't have a tattoo on your forearm. But the question is, how does that affect your ability to fight? How does that affect your ability to defend this nation? And so asking those kinds of questions to say, are we doing ourself a disservice by unintentionally limiting qualified, capable people who could be a part of this organization and contribute to our national defense?
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Cheryl Akison
Same with, like, with tattoos. Is the marijuana policy different past marijuana use? Are people allowed, if they've had past marijuana use, to get in the military now?
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Brigadier General Pat Ryder
So marijuana still federally is illegal. And so as people apply for the military, there are waivers, for example, in terms of, if you've used marijuana in the past, each of the services looks at that, for example, so whereas maybe, you know, in the distant past, if you had used it one time, then your chances of joining were obviously very low. But looking again at seeing the force of the trees of, okay, I understand you've done this in the past. However, once you join, you recognize you're subject to drug testing, you're subject to our standards, and we'll continue to meet those standards. But again, recognizing the fact that particularly as certain states make it legal, again, we want to reach out to get the most highly qualified, diverse set of service members we can to ensure that we can defend our nation. We're going to go ahead and take a look at those policies and making sure that, that, you know, again, we're being smart about this.
- [29:00]
Cheryl Akison
Why didn't the no high school degree work?
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Brigadier General Pat Ryder
Again, you'd have to talk to the army on that specific aspect.
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Cheryl Akison
Okay, anything else you're looking at, anything else that maybe should be allowed or looked at differently, specifically that, that you guys are examining?
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Brigadier General Pat Ryder
Well, I think that this is going to continue to be an ongoing iterative process. Things that, you know, again, looking at potential barriers to service in terms of seeing the forest through the trees here The United States military has a responsibility to defend this nation and fight our nation's wars. And so we want to be able to capitalize on the best talent that America has to offer. And we're going to look in every corner of this country and draw from the most eligible pool of candidates. And so what we don't want to do is inadvertently shoot ourselves in the foot, so to speak, by not looking at all potential options to ensure that again, we can continue to do our mission.
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Cheryl Akison
Anything else you'd like to add?
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Brigadier General Pat Ryder
I just want to say again that as someone who has served 30 years in the United States military, it is an absolutely great way of life. Like anything, it can be challenging. There are good days, there are bad days, but through it, all the kinds of experiences that you will have, the things that you will see, the opportunities of missions that you'll get to be a part of, it's like no other experience you can have. And so we strongly encourage people who may be interested in joining to reach out to a recruiter, talk to someone who's in the military, get the facts, and hopefully someday we'll see you serving alongside us.
- [30:33]
Cheryl Akison
That was Brigadier General Pat Ryder. And at last check, which right before I recorded this, I took a look. The Army, Navy and Air force were about 24,000 below their recruiting goals for the year, with the Marines and Space Force on track or slightly ahead of theirs. If you'd like to see the full story that I put together on our military recruiting crisis, you can go to fullmeasure News and look for or search for the story called Military recruiting. That's @FullMeasure News. The story will have aired on Sunday, October 29th. I hope you enjoyed today's podcast and that if you did, you'll leave a great review, subscribe to it and share it with your friends. If you like this type of discussion and subject matter, you'll want to check out my other podcast, the Cheryl Akisson Podcast. And now you can support independent journalism causes by visiting cherylakisson.com and clicking on the store tab for some thought provoking and fun products designed exclusively for independent and free thinkers, with all the proceeds benefiting independent reporting causes. There are products with slogans such as at this point, conspiracy theories might as well be called spoiler alerts and do your own research, make up your own mind, think for yourself.