What happens when there are no volunteers?
Since President Richard Nixon ended the draft in 1973, no American has been forced to defend our nation. Instead, the country relies on volunteers to willingly pledge their lives to military service.
For 49 years, the all-volunteer force met its recruiting goals — until last year.
In 2022, something changed and, for the first time, the U.S. Army missed its recruiting goals. Not by a little. The Army came up short by 25%, or 15,000 recruits. That’s an entire division.
In 2023, despite massive retention bonuses and the relaxation of fitness standards, the situation looks even worse. The Army is estimated to again be short another 15,000 recruits.
The Navy can’t find 10,000 new sailors, the equivalent of the crews of two aircraft carriers.
The Air Force may lack 6,000 new airmen to fly and maintain its 5,217 planes.
The recruiting crisis presents nothing less than a national security emergency and it’s clear who to blame for the crisis.
Cue the Biden administration excuse machine.
“Only 23 percent of young Americans are eligible to serve,” Undersecretary of the Army Gabe Camarillo complained to the Senate in March, as if obesity, drug use, criminal records, falling academic standards, and a strong economy are new developments in modern America.
This recruiting crisis exploded on President Biden’s watch because his administration engineered it from the get-go.
Four days after taking office, the president signed an executive order allowing transgender service. You can be disqualified for Mr. Biden’s Army if you have flat feet, but not if you’re on hormone blockers and need six to eight weeks off for gender reassignment surgery.
Eleven days later, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin ordered every member of the force, active and reserve, through four hours of “stand down” training. The materials sought to root out “extremism,” insulting many service members, the vast majority of whom are dedicated patriots.
The new president and defense secretary didn’t seem to consider such a move might signal to potential recruits that the military is full of White supremacists.
A month later, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff bewailed climate change as a military threat up there with China and Russia.
That was in the first 90 days.
Then came Mr. Biden’s Afghanistan surrender, leaving the Taliban stronger than we found them, with $85 billion of American equipment and the bragging rights of humiliating the U.S.
Ukraine was his second opportunity to deter aggression. Taiwan may well be next.
So one would think, then, that Mr. Biden’s Defense Department is too busy putting out foreign policy fires from the arsonist in chief to engage in the culture wars. One would be wrong.
Leading up to last fall’s midterm elections, the department mobilized against the unborn.
Mr. Austin trashed 40 years of bipartisan agreement on taxpayer-funded abortion by bestowing three weeks of paid leave and travel to pregnant service members seeking an abortion. To many in our armed forces, this last policy struck at the heart of defending life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
In a civilized society, those with the broadest shoulders protect those with the narrowest. That notion no doubt sounds sexist, patriarchal, and old-fashioned to America’s coastal elites, but then, they don’t send their children to serve our military.
Despite billions of dollars spent on nationwide marketing campaigns, the pool of military recruits stubbornly come from the “Southern smile.” That family-oriented swath of America is more traditional: more likely to stand for the national anthem, marry young, go to church on Sundays, own a gun, vote Republican, and encourage military service.
Today, upholding God, duty and country seems downright quaint in a national culture bungee-jumping into a filthy creek of nihilism.
But the U.S. military is rooted in family values because it is a family business, bound by blood. The No. 1 factor predicting military service isn’t race or household income. The biggest predictor is whether you have a relative who served.
It’s a small family, too. Just 1% of Americans have worn the cloth of their nation. This narrow warrior class bears the entire burden of our self-defense.
Many of America’s military families watched the Biden administration’s moves in disgust: We pledged our lives for this? Little wonder they’ve waived their children off signing up.
Veterans Day parades, corporate discounts, and “thank you for your service” are not why young Americans put their lives on the line for the country. Recruits will continue to drop until the military gets back to basics: preparing to fight and win America’s wars.