How would you solve the military recruiting challenges currently facing DOD?

Be honest with ads, no wokeness, and remind the potential recruits it is a profession, not just a job. I have read that the military needs to respond to the new generation. Duty, Honor, Service. There are enough kids, male, and female that understand that - red white, and blue - no rainbow. Stop being cute inn the ads and let the recruiters go back to basics.

“STOP THE SOCIAL EXPERIMENTS!” All of them, “NOW!” Concentrate on your primary mission, defend the United States of American and the US Constitution from all Enemies, foreign and domestic! The US Military doesn’t need to spend time on defining LGTBQ+ issues or training; let them serve with in US Military regulations….period! The military has never cared how anyone feels yesterday, today or tomorrow…..stop it! Stop Critical Race Theory training, Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action, race is a very small issue compared (its more a problem of individual beliefs than a systemic issue) to 40 years ago.
Again….Concentrate the DOD core missions….inspire America’s youth to serve with Pride in the USA! Orders are to be obeyed, unless their unlawful, many of the current administrations orders ( from 2020 to 2023) are immoral and therefore unconstitutional!

Lower the standards. More emphasis on teaching pronouns and more Gender Transition funds

Recruiting schools need to go back to the "sales" focused training of the 80s/90s. Determine the Dominant Buying Motive (DBM) and determine needs & interest based on TEAMS. (Training, Education, Adventure, Money & Service to Country).
In the later part of my 79R career, recruiters were not trained on how to overcome objections, developing word pictures and lacked the basic sales skills.
I imagine Cold Calling is painful now that Cell phones have for the most part replaced the land line phones, but recruiters have to get after it.
I have a 17 year old going into his Senior year, we have not received any information via mail/phone etc. in regard to military service.

That question is a lot like asking "How should we re-arrange the deck chairs on the Titanic?" after it started sinking. The challenges the military establishment faces are both of their own making (due to a culture which has been fundamentally transformed) and in the American culture writ large. Whatever we get will be a new culture made up of whatever America is now. It won't be the same stuff of the Cold War years, because that country and that military establishment is dead and gone. If you're a white heterosexual Christian male, you already have a target on your back. Bottom line on bottom- you can't fix the recruiting woes if you have an institution which is not welcoming to those who have faithfully served in it for generations, and a nation which is a twisted, deformed version of what it once was.

Over thought Just go back to the DRAFT! Work for me good old #10!

I would start by sending the right people into the areas we want to recruit from; someone they can relate to in their own lives.

SFC Casey O'Mally has some excellent ideas. And I heard they are bringing back "Be All You Can Be" which was great. I also recall a commercial that went something like "Join the Army, travel to Germany...you will work hard and train hard, but when you're off duty you're in Germany!" Over the years when the new troops came in to chat with the "Old Man" I'd hear reasons for joining like school, training, and usually a desire to serve. I advised them that whatever their reason for joining, our job was to train to win wars. One quit on the spot. Sadly it seems the desire to contribute to something larger than oneself has diminished - but not disappeared. Judging from my own limited experience it seems the younger generations have, to some extent, been raised with the expectation that things should be given to them as opposed to earned. Appealing to that IMHO will not result in attracting quality recruits. I am trying to stay away from politics, but since the CINC is a politician, it does have a bearing and again, IMO some of the current policies are impacting recruiting. Unless the services return to a focus on their primary mission - winning wars - which is only possible with support from above - things will not change anytime soon unless the economy crashes. On the bright side, with technology improving by leaps and bounds we have a good shot at maintaining a very lethal military, even if it is smaller.

I did a paper on this exact issue a few months back. Simple fix, a four-day work-week. The military is competing in an extremely tough market for candidates. The benefits that once were very enticing aren’t very comparable to entry-level civilian jobs. A strong statement needs to be made that will let the population know they’re cared about. The internal changes that would be forced by this decision would be enticing just as well.

I don’t know but I feel like if you fought for your country you should be tax exempt. Just me.