Can the Military Solve its Recruiting Crisis?

It’s been fifty years since Defense Secretary Melvin Laird announced the end of the nation’s military draft system, writing in a memo to senior Defense Department officials: “With the signing of the peace agreement in Paris today, and, after receiving a report from the Secretary of the Army that he foresees no need for further inductions, I wish to inform you that the armed forces henceforth will depend exclusively on volunteer soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines.” After a quarter century of continuous, mandatory military service, Laird’s announcement marked the close of a major chapter in American conscription practice, and fundamentally altered the public’s perception of what the armed services are, and to whom they belong. 

Now, more than a half-century later, the country’s all-volunteer force has reached a crisis point; 2022 was the Army’s worst recruiting year since the end of the draft in 1973, missing its goal of 60,000 new soldiers by approximately 25 percent. Other military branches have experienced similar shortfalls — a trend that’s fueled the growing question of whether the Pentagon’s recruitment difficulties are a reversible problem or a permanent feature of the 21st century.

“For most Americans,” the country’s all-volunteer force (“AVF”) is “something to be celebrated, but foreign to their daily lives,” said The Atlantic. Eliminating the draft has given the bulk of the population “the freedom to be indifferent to their military, shifting the burden of service to a smaller, self-selected cohort of citizens.” That cohort, frequently comprised of legacy military families, has shifted recently as well, as “disillusioned families steer young people away” from service, The Wall Street Journal reported. “Influencers are not telling them to go into the military,” former Joint Chief of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen told the Journal.

“Moms and dads, uncles, coaches and pastors don’t see it as a good choice”…..