[JustTheNews] For the first time since 2017, the Coast Guard met its recruiting goals for enlisted active duty, the Reserve, and Non-Academy officer program accessions
The military services recruited 225,000 people in fiscal year 2024 – 25,000 more recruits than last year, said Katie Helland, the Pentagon's director of military accession policy.
She pointed directly to the challenges military components will face in the coming years as they set higher recruitment goals.
"We need to remain cautiously optimistic about the future recruiting operations as we continue to recruit in a market that has low youth propensity to serve, limited familiarity with military opportunities, a competitive labor market and a declining eligibility among young adults," Helland said.
Helland noted a growing divide between civilians and the military.
"Data indicate that many of today's youth are not interested in military service and have many misperceptions about what life is like as a service member," she said.
In fact, most young people never consider signing up.
"For the first time since this metric has been tracked, the majority of youth have never even considered military service as an option," Helland said. "That is it's not even on the radar. This divide has been brought about by a confluence of many factors, including the shrinking military footprint and declining veteran presence across society."
One challenge is fewer ties to a family member who served. In 1990, 40% of young adults had a parent who served. That's down to 15%.
| No mention of DEI and other woke nonsense prioritized by the current administration… |
|
