The generations raised during the war on terror have started to hit prime recruiting age. And have seen Veteran Family get chewed up and left with permanent issues. They’ve also seen the VA screw aforementioned family over repeatedly.
Patriotism and Free College isn’t the draw it was even 10 years ago. The prospective Cannon fodder need to believe the country is worth dying for. And the illusion of being able to land a decent job just for having a college degree was also thoroughly ruined by now
Wages for the enlisted aren’t keeping up either. For what their paying a new private. You can work a retail wage slave job and make more. Plus in the wage slave job you don’t run the risk of getting shot at by Islamists, Russians or the Chinese.
That and the pool of people even eligible to be recruited has plummeted drastically. Rising rates of Obesity, Mental Illness, or physical/mental conditions are rendering increasing numbers of Americans in the prime recruiting age unfit for service.
(And like most things. Various Commanders, and Officers were sounding the alarm for years and proposing plans to tackle the issues and were ignored by the Pentagon Brass and senior command staff. The same people Who are now pretending they were caught by surprise and unaware of the endemic issues.)
The generations raised during the war on terror have started to hit prime recruiting age. And have seen Veteran Family get chewed up and left with permanent issues. They’ve also seen the VA screw aforementioned family over repeatedly.
Patriotism and Free College isn’t the draw it was even 10 years ago. The prospective Cannon fodder need to believe the country is worth dying for. And the illusion of being able to land a decent job just for having a college degree was also thoroughly ruined by now
Wages for the enlisted aren’t keeping up either. For what their paying a new private. You can work a retail wage slave job and make more. Plus in the wage slave job you don’t run the risk of getting shot at by Islamists, Russians or the Chinese.
That and the pool of people even eligible to be recruited has plummeted drastically. Rising rates of Obesity, Mental Illness, or physical/mental conditions are rendering increasing numbers of Americans in the prime recruiting age unfit for service.
(And like most things. Various Commanders, and Officers were sounding the alarm for years and proposing plans to tackle the issues and were ignored by the Pentagon Brass and senior command staff. The same people Who are now pretending they were caught by surprise and unaware of the endemic issues.)
Very well stated. Thank you u/Plebbitimmigrant 👈🏻