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

Get rid of every bit of wokeness and get back to work.

Emphasize duty, honor, and country, and forget about all these sociological theories.
Young men want to travel and see the world, plus learn a trade or occupation that will last.

Young people no longer see the benefits of joining the military. Why put in any extra effort to pay for college or make money or get health insurance when the federal government will just bail you out?

The federal government needs to start a new system where you can't apply for federal benefits until you have done at least two years in the military. No college loans, no SNAP benefits, no mortgage loans. Then they can get out if they want (some won't), and go to college or whatever.

fire the Commander in Chief, and some of the woke top generals would be a great start. Start mandating freedom, not feelings and teaching kids about HOW and WHY this is the best damn country not teaching them to hate it.

As the late, great Rush Limbaugh always said, "The military's main job is to break things and hurt people." I think all advertising should be in that direction. Wokeness, CRT and anything else takes away from the mission of being able to go anywhere at anytime and deliver lethal destruction to the enemy. Shooting artillery and flying a helicopter in combat assaults was a rush. As Forrest Gump said, "You never knew what you was biting into." That's what I think the military needs to sell to get young people to enlist. There are still millions of qualified kids who have a love of country and adventure.

Big Army needs to realize that the core of its recruits are offspring of former soldiers, and often from the South. Banning names of our Southern heroes was a bad move. Especially when it was done so vindictively. For example, Congress only said to change the names of some PCS, but at Liberty, for example, Longstreet Road became Long Street, a hero of my youth the Gallant John Pelham* had his street canned and John S Mosby, commander of the 43rd Bn Partisan Rangers, lost his street, too. All us kids in Culpeper, VA worshiped these great fighters. Now they are tossed away like so much trash. Then there is the glorifying of deviants and perverts. Talking about disloyal folk, a lot of them were spies. There is an it in Leavenworth that not too long ago was sending classified material to and I cannot remember his name, that holed in a South American embassy in England, I believe. Used to be when I was in they were put out for being sick in the head and would never get a security clearance.
Fix those things and it would help!

*The Peoples Drug Store had a plaque on the front remembering that the house where Major Pelham died had been where the store was. KIA at Brandy Station, just outside of Culpeper.

Ban homosexuals and transgenders and go back to the draft where everybody serves a minimum of 3 years

Ditch the woke LGBT crap and focus instead on selling the US Military as the most advanced and powerful force that also prepares its members for either a great military career or for advancing farther in civilian life with the skills learned from serving. My 31 years with a state police agency was only possible because of my earlier 3 years as a military policeman. The army/military needs to focus on fighting abilities and quit trying to indoctrinate and intimidate the majority of its hiring pool. Only about 3-5 percent of our population has ever served, and it’s usually someone in their families or circle of friends who currently enlists. But now, because of leftists, those veterans are advising their family/friends not to enter service. I’m speaking from experience and not theory. Same thing happened with law enforcement during the antifa riots and anti police rethoric, I couldn’t bring myself to recommend that career path to any young person because I saw the constant harassment from activists who were directly controlled by our own governor who was a traitor.

Unrealistic contract lengths. Lowered standards. Poor pay. Generals are of one mindset that recruits are a dime a dozen. No no, not when faced with 6 years active plus inactive reserve time. Oh, and who can live on 1600 a month? A know nothing lieutenant starts at twice that.

Reward excellence. Top Track team people, swimmers, runners... smart guys. Military has pretty good educational benefits if they stop trying to take things away. Post 9/11 was a knee jerk due to people bailing after a tour. You got to come up with better incentive, and not 50k in hiring bonuses.

Such prestige. Look, I did my 16 till i had a back injury that put me out. Loved the time in service, however these new recruits are way too soft, so services have been dropping the standards because recruits cant make it. Wait till you have a war with China, we will get clobbered.

Oh sure, coddle them, help them across the line... it comes down to mental toughness, which very few in this generation has. Not making excuses when they cant cut the mustard. Shouldnt have been let in to begin with. Prescreening test, no pass, no send to boot camp.

The Marine Corps has said they arent lowering standards.. go figure that out. Of course if I had to do it all over again, loadmaster on a C17 looks like a great job to me. Closest thing to working at Delta Airlines haha

Recruiting was difficult in the 90s when I did it not one tour but returned for a second in 97.
It's my understanding that Civilians do a lot of it now. I don't know that for a fact, but IF so, that's a huge problem. At the least, a Civilian Rep in a recruiting station for consistency might help, not huge turnovers every 3 years with recruiters relearning schools representatives. But UNIFORM Members need to be talking to Recruits with the Civilian in a separate interview giving the applicant confidence what they just heard from the recruiter was factual and their choosing the Military is a Great Option for X,Y,Z reasons coming FROM "trusted" civilian(in the applicants mind at least). I hope I'm wrong and Uniformed Recruiters are still doing all the footwork.
Want to make Recruiting improved, make it Better for Recruiters. They should simply be the Carrier of the Message, NOT the USED CAR SALESMAN Personality. Give Recruits incentives, GREEN ones, that mean something right away. Just an idea, but say $3000 goes into their bank account the day they arrive at boot camp. How MANY knowing that would consider it because they're in Debt, or Mom needs a New Stove or Car? And that' $3000 NON Taxed. Not part in 30 days and the rest spread out over a year, but a Payment DAY ONE! I know Navy schools would earn credits toward certifications. Make THAT step Faster/Easier. THey need to complete the class as normal to do their job, but are given the option at the end of taking an Examination for Certification, that if passed will Go in their records immediately but not be valid for 24months, this way they aren't Quitting and using the Certification. These UP FRONT Guarantees, Money and Certifications are More than Any College classes will do for them. ANd show them, what kind of Money first they'll be making in the Service, how much that puts them ahead of their College Counterparts going into debt, then what that Certification can Earn them after they get out, UNLESS they choose to make a Short Career and retire at 38yrs of Age, get retirement pay, THEN begin a second short career.
GO NAVY
EWC(SW) ROSS

The newer and younger generations are not being taught to take pride in America and that to serve your country is an honor and should be an option to give back. They are being taught to hate the military as a bunch of baby killers. The left has an agenda to weaken our military which it has been able to do across all branches and across the board. Regulations has loosened up, changing base names, bad press, unpopular career choices, etc...

I just finished 30 years; I won't suggest service to any of my kids, friends' kids, or anyone I know; environment is not conducive to honorable service. Too many policies based on politics and agendas over readiness. Too many tasks and duties not related to fighting and defending our nation. Many "easy" fixes could be fixed with a stroke of a pen, but our nation has become far too political and too many people only support when "their side" is in power. Bring back true meritocracy and keep politics (all sides) out of our core tenets of service. Our society also needs a decades long education of what it means to serve and the duties and responsibilities of citizenship. I would advocate for a draft lottery with an updated GI Bill to start but none of this matters without pride in Country.

Get woke culture out of milirary! Leaders that civilians hear/read about are too political. Check out Administrations new Joint Chief Staff.

After this administration killed 13 service members, would you want to join.

1. Eliminate the stupid pronoun b. s.
2. Make the physical fitness requirements MUCH tougher for all services.
3. Force those who exceed body fat regs OUT of the service if they continually fail performance tests.

I joined the Army in 1978 after seeing a TV ad showing a female air-traffic controller in uniform. I realized that could be me! I stayed in for 9 years.

1. Fighting in wars without any clear obtainable objective, so that we just stay there a long time, loose a bunch of men and women, injure many more, then pull out without having accomplished anything long term, doesn't seem like something a lot of people want to do.

2. After serving and sacrificing greatly, having the government turn their back on you, label you as a domestic terrorist, and deny you the heath care you require due to your service is not really appealing either.

3. This country is a sh!tshow right now. Turn this country back into something worth fighting for, and more people might be willing to do so.

My humble opinion is if you want to recruit Gen Z and beyond, you have to listen to them and what's important to them. Some of its easy, computer literacy and drone proficiency, but others are understanding their view of the world and that they are the most educated and fair minded of the generations. That's my take.

Im going to try and avoid any politics because a lot of the posts and replies have turned into that.

1) Pay needs to be increased; private sector jobs pay much better and provide an incentive for troops to get out along with aspiring men and women to not join.

2) The rampant SHARP and EO issues need to be clamped down on. If a huge swath of former military members are telling folks that SHARP and EO is rampant and not being worked on in the military then people are going to be turned away from joining.

3) Grooming standards need to be realigned. Allow men to have beards for example, it works for our European allies I am sure it can work here.

4) Military skills need to be able to better translate over into civilian careers and those skills need to be marketed to the public as a resource worth joining for

I’m sure there are more ways to fix the issue but that’s my two cents from what i’ve seen and heard from people in and out of the military as issues

You can do all the campaigning you want. But if you don’t have people to train these new recruits then what’s the point. The Military is pushing people out that can still do jobs. I was medically retired and that was it. They could have put me anywhere and made me non deployable. These kids getting jobs behind desks and never deploy. There is a lot we can do because we are still young enough to train these new troops. What I’m saying is we didn’t want to leave but you made us anyways. God bless you all going forward.