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

Interesting question. The military, and the overall society that it protects, has a couple of challenges that they are facing with young people.
- There isn't a unifying enemy. During the cold war we had the Soviet Union. For years we've had the Global War on Terror. It makes me feel old to say this but today's eighteen year-olds were born after 9-11 and it doesn't have the same impact on them. In media narratives, today's "enemy" are other Americans and that doesn't help with recruiting, in fact it hurts it. Speaking of which...
- There is extreme partisanship. The right has been using deep state and woke military narratives that will lead to young people on the right being distrustful of the military and the government in general. The left has been using income inequality and lack of upward mobility narratives that will lead to young people on the left thinking that the military is supporting a system of plutocracy. Neither of these are helping attract people to the military either.

So the military is less likely to attract people based on feelings of duty, service or patriotism. Historically in periods of social unrest recruiting has always been hard. What's left? Well quite frankly it is one of the few ways to climb the social ladder and have a secure future currently and the price of admission is more or less free (monetarily at least). Money for college, VA loans for houses (that young people struggle to get) and pensions / lifetime healthcare for retirees are benefits the military offers that exist in a very few other places in our society. We are in a society that has made it very difficult for young people to get ahead and the military is a place that can help with these modern challenges.

First Dre the issues for us still surviving on Active Duty, listen to our voice, concerns and recommendations. Thisway we don’t continue to lose great Soldiers thus adding to the already struggling numbers. Next a significant pay increase will speak for itself in terms of both initial enlistment and reenlistment. There’s more I could write but as with many I’d be here all day lol

Hello my fellow Vets and Friends! As a bunch of us NCO'S and Officers went to Elementary and Middle Schools, in uniform with the "Be All That You Can Be! Something has to change!?

Current active duty, prior recruiter, and going back to recruiting duty again. There are many, many issues regarding this. First, while confidence in the nation and government are at an all time low, there are many patriot hearted individuals that can and will say yes to the call. They see their service to the country as an honor still, even if they're all almost unanimously fed up with the current government. However, I can tell you from personal experience, the new medical system, which can and does find ANYTHING out on you medically, even stuff you forgot about or happened when you were an infant, (and mom and dad forgot to tell you about), is drug up. Its turned what would normally be a 2 week application process into an 8 week ordeal. In the mean time, people often have to have a plan for survival, and in that period of uncertainty, they will often go out and seek something outside the military and decide to go with what is paying them now versus what they could make. Another major issue is social media; its given a voice to the younger generations to vocalize their dissent at some of the normal hardships of military life. It spreads a negative message on what is often perceived to be a personal level. As is often the case, the 1% of non-hackers cause 99% of the problems. And third, its a much more incumbent problem, the truly toxic leadership exhibited in many, many cases. What would normally be grounds for the future leaders of the military has turned into a politically charged race-to-backstab, or to pump up the egos of those calling the shots. It turns many people off, and they don't re-enlist. End result of all these issues causes and completes a self fulfilling prophecy; less people in the military equates to a tougher life for those within it, which drives down retention, which creates more problems, which creates more social media posts, which further dissuades many from joining. To solve the problem is a simple solution, yet dauntingly challenging in its execution.

1) The new medical system is here to stay. Some will say its good, some will say its bad. Good for finding the truly qualified, bad for turning away people that have historically been able to join in fair time allowances, with issues that are amongst the usual problems that people whom are in now may have had and completely unhampered their contribution to the military as a whole. I am unable to provide a solution for this, as saying "lets go back to the proven way prior" will be met by people reminding me that the new system was implemented to streamline the application process and to find out whats truly in someone's medical record, and probably some words of 'the military only wants the best of the best', while not realizing that people can, and have, been incredibly delayed or turned away for not disclosing something as benign as having their tonsils taken out at such a young age that they don't remember it having happened.

2) Social media posting. You can't stop a person from saying whats on their mind, even if its a totally exaggerated, emotionally charged script used to gain attention. "I was in for four years, never join, life sucks, etc, etc." Before what was word of mouth to a few people close to the individual, is spouted without care to an audience a thousand times the size. And since people in masses are cynical as a whole by nature, they will err on the side of negativity and write off the military as a viable option. The best you can do here is to fix the underlying issues of the military and encourage those that hear the trumpet of the bereaved to step up and voice back the truth and positive reality of what the military is, does, and what it represents.

3) Toxic leadership. This is the largest angle of attack, in my opinion. Without a biblical tirade of examples of such leadership, I'll throw a few blanket statements out there. Making mid level rank is a very quick endeavor, and with retention as low as it is, it shortens the gap of time that would allow a normal person the time to learn true leadership skills, and side with continual band-aid patches of blunt, brute force over compassion and finesse. Rank and evaluation go hand in hand, and instead of being the best at what you do, competition turns many people into Yes Men, scrambling for padding and numbers for their performance reviews, often collecting said titles and prioritizing themselves over unit cohesion. Lastly, many view their fellow servicemember as replaceable. "Oh, he's unhappy? Tough it up, this is the military, get out if its too hard for you. Hey, we're gonna need a new guy." Tough love, while still used, is fading into obscurity as young leaders choose to not invest their time in building someone up and instead demanding a replacement that falls into line with their own thinking, without question. Easier to roll the dice and replace instead of pause, evaluate, plan, and implement.

I can state, and to much objection by most all, that its not the way of thinking of the newer generation; the most basic question has always remained the same: Do you want to do good for your country or not? Broken down to such a base form, the reasoning itself changes from generation to generation, but the end result does not. The X amount of people in the country to Y amount of people whom join scales approximately the same. But in that same breath, if you become convinced for any of the new reasons to not join, its not that you don't hold that patriotic flare in your heart. Its because you have become convinced that the military is not what its been sold as, and instead, a festering pit of toxicity, hard life styles, little to gain, for a flag that increasingly feels less and less proud to represent. Objectivity kicks in, and while they may choose to remain an America loving patriot, how they express that will not be by raising their hand and taking the oath. This change requires a combined effort of the branches senior most leadership to take a hard look at themselves, at the state of the active duty military, and make the hard decisions to move back from the current political / social fads and return to traditional military values. I will be branded a foolish optimist, and I accept that mantle with pride as I say this: Promote cohesion, comraderies, install better leadership mentoring, and -mean- it, instead of going through rough motions to mark a wicket on a check list and say "Yes, we do do that", and the problem will begin to solve itself. Retention goes up, day to day life becomes better, the military is something to be proud of joining again, and more people will decide they want to join up. Next year is my 20th year active duty, and I have a few more in me after that. I've seen the rise and fall of trends, and the current one is unprecedented. But I truly believe that fixing, (or at least, planning for and around), these few core issues creates the domino effect that leads back up to a properly manned and prepared military.

The Afghan pull fubar probably made kids think twice...

This has nothing to do with being Gen Z. They said the same thing about millennials like myself. Most of my Gen Z and millennial age soldiers are fully willing to commit to a mission without a problem.

Bigger issue (to me at least) is this: I can go to a trade school and make 30-40 bucks an hour, along with (relatively speaking) making my own hours (including working odd hours for extra pay). Why would I join an organization that will dictate what I do and where I will go? Nor do I get paid extra when asked to do extra. What about the high schooler or college graduate with coding experience? Nah, they can make way more on the civilian side. What about if the military also streamlined how it prosecutes sexual assault? Why would parents want to send their sons and daughters to organizations that allowed Vanessa Guillen to get sexually harassed and murdered by fellow soldiers, along with obscuring the evidence around it?

I agree that some of the medical DQs are BS. ADHD is one of them, and certain surgeries are another. The amount of the paperwork that the DOD chooses to do to see if a medical waiver will be accepted is ludicrous. I waited 6 months for a shoulder surgery 5 years prior was being considered for waiver, to include having to see a contracted orthopedic surgeon. That's long enough to turn a lot of recruits away. Sports teams and school systems can do these way faster; there is no reason the military could as well. For example, what if we could take reservist PAs and docs who aren't doing anything at annual training or drill to do clearances and consults? Or use AI to screen waiver packets and do risk assessments?

Unfortunately with the way information moves, there is no single answer. However, raising age limits and increasing waivers for service connected disability for GWOT veterans could be part of the solution.

The reason for my answer has to do with the understanding of the sacrifices that GWOT veterans have already made and many are still willing to serve, regardless of the rating and are still trained to some extent.

Let Retiree's fill admin roles at battalion levels and higher. That would free up officer's and senior NCO's to do more training and lead at the company levels.

Simple bring back the draft. No deferments. Have mini sessions for those overwight etc. If they do not qualify you train them to get GEDs lose weight. Mini boot camps. Look at what Israel had been doing for many many years. You can always have these kids do other things beside the military. Get them right out of high school. No college etc deferments. Mandatory two years foa all. It has worked for other countries. Some kids just not cut out for the military but a lot of options to look at. Training, training to become tax paying citizens. I have grankids and great grand kids. I would like to see them all get a little respect and discipline plus learn some skills. Whether it be at a nursing home, National forest firefighting, or helping out in schools, hospitals, VA clinics, hospitals and homes. Or just working for the local parks and recs. Just getting off the couch and learning. Two year delay before college for some. To exceptions. We need to look at what other countries have been doing for years

Present the military as an alternative to college. Present ABVAV Scores(if that’s what they are still called) as recruiters present ACT/SAT scores. Hey man/woman, with you score, I can make sure you get into this MOS/Rate. Don’t lie to them; just to meet your quota. They talk to their friends.

I was a Navy Recruiter just after the All Volunteer Force became reality. What helped me most to make my numbers was the sales training the school provided. They actually had professional trainers teach us how to sell, I was taught the basics of sales, how to initiate a conversation, how to identify the prospective recruits hot points, how to satisfy what was important to the prospective recruit, and how to close him. I know that sounds bad to some people but recruiting (sales) is a profession. Get back to that! Speaking in public; We were drilled on how to make a speech. In the field I routinely went to service organization meetings (all the military ones and civilian ones like the Lions, Rotary, Elks, Moose, etc) as the guest speaker at lunch, dinner, etc. Just the ability to ask these members to help us meet new prospects worked. Many were veterans as I would believe they are now. Advertising; Get the best advertising firm in the USA to put together a plan that hits the target age group's interest. The best slogan that worked back in my day was - It's not just a Job, it's an Adventure. I'm sure that came from a professional advertising person and not some guy in the Pentagon. The advertising needs to be saturated on all mediums. I personally had a TV commercial running on the local TV station that they produced and ran it often. The Navy provided the photographer, script writer, and film crew. I worked with the TV station crew to provide the voiceover. We delivered a 30 second spot that featured me as a family man that chose to serve his country as his career. One comment on here mentioned access to schools and colleges. YES! That access is essential. Many enlisted recruits came from my ability to go on high school campus routinely. Officer aviation candidates came from the local University. Another mention was to participate in no recruiting activities. I personally coached youth football in town and did the other service branch recruiters that had played in their youth. We participated in the younger generation activities. The Marine Corps Recruiter and I would run long distance with the high school track team. We needed to stay in shape and it gave us great exposure on campus. We didn't pitch our respective branch, We just ran with them. Our clothes stated Navy and Marine Corps but that was it. One thing I initiated in our town was the Thursday night cruise night participation. I'm a hotrodder, been so since 16. I'd take my hot rod and the Navy logo'd van to a parking lot on the strip. As I cruised with the other cruisers my partners in the office manned the van with soft drinks, snacks, etc. It was a way to "hang out" with the young recruit age guys and gals in town. These are just some of the examples of what all 4 branches did routinely at our recruiting station. I wasn't alone here. All the recruiters did these things. There is absolutely no reason why these techniques, modernized to today's youth wouldn't work. Qualification for physical, mental, and legal deficiencies are an issue today but they were back then too. The 1970s had their education deficiencies, drug use issues, crime issues, and troubled kids just like today. As in sales, its a numbers game. Prospects to qualified candidates to closed recruits percentages would probably be about the same in my opinion.

Many things can make it better. Will any of them actually be done, maybe not, but here we go.
The standards to join and become affiliated are too high. To meet the requirements without a waiver you almost have to be a kryptonian. When I say that I mean if you have a mole that doesn't quite look right you get sent home without a contract. If you have ever had a surgery most recruiters don't even try to get you in. Recruiters are looking for someone they can put in right now, not maybe 2 months later with a waiver if at all. This is a problem. When I went recruiting I couldn't find anyone that didn't have something, and I ended up getting taken off the bag and transferred to the shipyard. In the mean time while I waited I processed the waivers whether they were medical or legal in nature and accessions went up three-fold for my division. I was persistent and got many people affiliated that would have otherwise slipped through the cracks.
The other problem with leadership in recruiting is they are looking to cut as many recruiters as they can. Have you ever heard of an "NC Hug" (Navy Counselor)? It's a hug with one arm and a knife in the back with the other hand. If you have any issues whatsoever the recruiting leadership comes after your rank and your paycheck as if its a recession and they get to keep the difference. Recruiters are miserable, the leadership makes them miserable, and as a result, it is physically displayed by the people that are supposed to be convincing 17-39 year olds that thus is a good choice for them to he making. It's hard to sell someone on that when you yourself don't even believe it in the moment.
All I wanted to do was hop in my truck and drive away, obviously I didn't. One of my shipmates developed epilepsy due to the stress he received on recruiting duty from the Chain of Command. It was rough. Long story short leadership needs a face lift, big time.
People talk, it's easier to talk and share experiences than ever before. If you find out how unglamorous you are treated by your boss in recruiting would you actually pick it willingly? Never!
A lot of people are obese and don't even get a shot. I say give them a shot, lower the standard to join but keep the standard to graduate, and keep them in basic until they meet the current standards. It makes sense right? Sure it's pricey but so is offering $150k for affiliating as opposed to spending an extra month or 2 at camp cupcake for fat kids.
Advertising is an issue, stop showing what kind of people are in the military and show them what kind of things they can do, maybe some development into a sailor or soldier, the bonds and friendships they can forge along the way. None of the latest commercials have really been inspiring.
Politics suck. Leave the politics put of the military. Civilian politics only cause division and push people away. I'm not going to sugarcoat it but there have been a lot of decisions lately in the last few years that have been made that have caused recruiting, and retention to take many steps backward. It's not the not services fault. The controlling leaders decisions have simply pushed away anyone that is remotely interested, made many people want out, or forced many others out.
All of this is true and unadulterated facts that sadly have taken place. If anyone wants to truly make things better, public apologies will have to be made, lots of crow will have to be eaten. It will be a while before the government can ever begin to earn the trust of the children and parents that would be willing to offer themselves up to the services.

Its a new generation and the military as a whole has not shifted accordingly. My first thought would be find military influencers from each branch of the military, both enlisted and officers. Show the highlights of military training and how it will translate into civilian jobs at the end of their tour, adventures, show the ports and duty stations of the world, etc. When I joined in 1982, i saw the world as my playground. In actuality I saw parts or the world that otherwise I would probably have never made it to.

There was a time when the recruiter didn't have to convince you to join. You did that yourself and went to the recruiter to tell them you wanted to join. We were influenced by our father. He had been a photo technician for the atomic bomb group and we grew up with a huge photo album. When dad was discharged, he was given a card that stated he was a member of the atomic bomb group and would forever be welcome at any Air Force base. He used that card twice during a 1961 family vacation at Roswell (his last base) and Lowry (where he went to photo school). Little did my brother and I know that in 6 years we would be wearing those uniforms. When dad put on his uniform, his aunts and cousins were under German occupation.

All three of dad's grandsons also put on the uniform - two Army and one Navy. They still wear them as reservists. Nobody was recruited. All have done it on their own.

We need a climate where today's youth want to do it on their own. Last week, a 19 year old soldier that wanted to do it on his own and died in basic training was brought home to Pella, Iowa. The streets were lined with hundreds waiving flags as the procession went by. The soldier's funeral director strongly supports veterans and the military. The same funeral director was also the one that ordered my father's burial vault with an Air Force seal, unknown to us that he had done it

There is hope for the future.

Downsize the branches of the Forces IE under Article One Section of the Constitution the Congress is allowed to have an Army and Navy. The Corps of Marines is part of the Navy. The Air Force and Space Force are NOT part of the Army..

Started recruiting for the ARNG in Michigan in 1975. Have been a field recruiter worked in the recruiting command, been a MEPS counselor and an area supervisor, and a retention NCO in my 25 years in recruiting. The issue is the pool that we are trying to get our recruits from is not only getting smaller but has been getting smaller for years! I sat in a class with 5 PHDs that studied demographics and they more or less said that the pool of qualified male applicants(QMA) has shrunk and will continue to shrink in the near future. I have watched recruiters struggle to make missions that were not attainable or maintainable in the long run! I have seen young applicants come that were not able to pass the physical when they could pass the test and then balk when they couldn't get the MOS they wanted and leave for training when they want.
The answer is the services must either commit the ultimate deal breaker and bring back some sort of draft or set their goals lower and realize they will have to make do with what the demographics can provide them. I know that that's not what they want to hear but the truth and the facts are what they are. I have watched recruiting go from the fat times in the 70-80's to the lean times in the 90 and on and I can't see it getting better.

Bring back civilian recruiters. Army recruiters who have retired or separated from the military honorably. Used to be L-3, MPRI handled the Army civilian recruiting. The number sky rocketed during those years back in the 2010's. Also bring back recruit referrals that paid $2k per soldier that shipped to Basic and graduation AIT...

Ditch the present social justice agenda and focus on mission. The people who we want to join the military are those that want to challenge themselves and be part of a cause bigger than themselves. However, the current social justice agenda has incorporated Marxist ideology into the highest echelons of leadership where it is most visible and it has resulted in the hemorrhaging of personnel and reduced recruitment.

Keep it simple, I present this ad campaign for your perusal....
The Army (Navy, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard, Space Force, Draco/Grey Empire, et al.,)
will help you ° Find what you can achieve.
° Find your sense of Duty,
° Your moral compass,
° Find Fellowship,
° Find Greatness, find yourself.
Find out more at your local recruiter, TODAY.
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You're welcome.
Oh! Remember to add the effects laden backgrounds, etc.,

Today's kids cannot even score high enough to pass the asvab . First we need to see why today's kids are not getting the proper education so they can pass a basic test.