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

Reinstitute the draft for anyone (boy or girl) over the age of 18 years old. If they are too fat or whatever to go directly into Boot Camp, put them in a special training facility to get them in shape for the draft.
Most of today's 18 to 24 year olds do not have any ambition to do anything except party, social media and playing games on their phones while living off of Mom and Dad. They have little respect for anyone because they believe nobody, including their parents, can touch them or be arrested. So then
the kids can do whatever they want without consequences.
I was a bad kid until the Navy made me a better man and I believe it can do the same for these young people today, along with filling our recruitment requirements.

Get rid of ALL the liberals.

I would consider those Veteran who did not get to retire, not medically retired, but were Honorably discharged. I would be interested in serving.

1. Improve healthcare. Just patching people up to go back to the line when there are new tests, new technologies, better meds because the Department of Defense and Services want to save money is poor and a betrayal to those serving and those who have served! It is not fair or just to push off health issues that could have been solved or improved so that Veterans pay the final cost! Allergies shouldn't become asthma because military doctors won't do allergy testing, prescribe better medicines. No active duty person should have to undergo endoscopies for heart burn every one to two years because the Department of Defense won't pay for nexium which works but costs $1.10 versus aciphex which has a 70% failure rate but costs .70!! That was from 2001 to 2010.
2. Jobs in Government or US Companies. Getting a job at age 50 years after 28 years of military service in four different career fields to include nursing, AFOSI, Forensics and Intelligence was impossible! No matter what job I applied for over 6 years and approximately 60 jobs, I was told I was overqualified meaning too old! I even went back to school and got another degree, but alas no job! Yes ageism is alive and well in the United States! The Department of Defense telling Veterans there are jobs in Government and US Companies just waiting for them is false!! It is amazing how a US Company can understand the military when competing for a billion dollar contract but not understand a Veteran or what they did when they are competing for a job! Frankly every US Company and Defense Contractor should be required to provide one job for every dollar they get from the Department of Defense! No job, no contract!! Yes it really is that simple!! Our US Companies and Government prosper on the backs of Veterans and do llittle to nothing for us during service or as we retire! And knowing someone or starting a business is not the answer and certainly not what we were promised when recruited! The most important lesson I tell folks these days is NEVER LET A JOB DEFINE YOU!
3. Recommending Military Service. By the age of 9 years I had been a hostage for six months each in military coupes in Peru and Libya where my Dad worked for Exxon. My Dad being a US Navy Vet in the Korean War raised us to be patriotic and to love our country which helped us survive hardship. We arrived in Libya in 1969, 72 hrs before Ghaddaffi took over Libya! Our first six months under marshal law and locked in our houses susceptible to being shot if found outside with tanks on the streets, soldiers shooting in the air and fighters flying overhead 24/7 would be the toughest of my life! The Commander of Wheelus AFB, Tripoli, Libya in 1969 was Colonel Daniel Chappie James, later to be the USAF's first Black Four Star General. He was a huge guy, warm, caring and bigger than life and he loved kids! He came to my Oil Company School every other month for a year before the USAF base was shut down and American Military thrown out. He spent that time talking about patriotism, citizenship, values, those things many of us grew up on and can still remember from the 1960s and 1970s! I would remember his lessons going onto Reserve Officer Training at Texas Christian University while majoring in Nursing and Spanish and them commissioned into the USAF for 28 years. While I still remain proud of my military service, and US values, I also feel betrayed by the Department of Defense and the US Air Force! How can I have been successful in four different career fields and achieved so much in the military to go into civilian life and never find a job! I feel lied to by the Department of Defense and the US Air Force to the extent that I don't recommend military service to anyone!

Step 1...
Get rid of present Administration
and the far left.
Observe...
The rest will fall into place...

There are a lot of issues and not one specific item that can be pointed out as the main cause (it’s a large combination of different variables). However, what I wouldn’t do is blame the recruiters on the ground. Sadly, that is something that I have seen consistently from my time in USAREC. If anything, that adds to the issues. Recruiters are out there doing their best but they can only achieve what can be achieved. Old data may suggest a station put 100 people in a year but the current market propensity could very well only be 40. You cannot fault the recruiters for that.

Get rid of all the woke BS. The military is for war fighting, not your social proving grounds. Trans members have different height/weight standards and they're exempt from PT tests and deployment? Get rid of CRT or whatever the DOD calls it. Keep the names the bases had. Bragg. Hood. On and on. The world looks at our idiot SecDef with his mask and shield and just laughs.

#1…Get rid of Traitor Mille
#2…Get rid of Woke
#3 Reinstate don’t ask, don’t tell….no one needs to know your sexual preferences….

The current problem is cow towing to the reaction to toxic masculinity. We need to continue to be a force that grows young men and women into capable adults. Show them in recruiting how they can "level up" in ways their non service friends will struggle to. Don't make it all about school benefits..but speak about the benefits of schooling with military service. We need a strong military, not a military full of wimps and frightened children who can't cope. Recruit harder the ones that can break the current mold they are in vs the ones that think they can go in and try to change what serving means.

After yet another deployment, The Balkans-I was "selected" for Recruiting Command of a "large metropolitan area" comprising more than 2 million...blah, blah-
1. ALL 5 COs in my Battalion got "cancel career, or drive your but here" type orders, fresh outta combat- we were literally beat down, no type of acclamation- at Ft Jackson Pre Command. Only officers who wanted to 'get out" somehow volunteered for this? Idk
2. There are no QUOTAS- back to the COs-
Since I was in that large metro area, I was ACCESSED hella more than say, CO responsible for Uvalde, or Austin. Battalion needs ~ 8000 contracts signed annually. COs sign Accessions/ negotiations- intense, fight like hell for your NCOs to reduce STRESS, contracts or exploit weaknesses of peer commanders to gain leverage. My Command thrived on special missions. 2 major Joint Medical facilities, 1 in my a/o.
79R Cadre=permanent AOC" assigned, usually injured RA and Reserve Recruiters who volunteer to change AOCs, not officers -
BLUF:
1. Offer Cadre 79R the incentive to be more than Station Commander-
a. either push for Warrant Direct Commissions FROM WITHIN USARC 79R Cadre
b. Let Cadre flourish at Command responsibility by evolving NCO Cadre into Company Commanders as proud, COMPETITIVE NCOs.
Commissioned officers need only respond to waivers AT BATTALION or higher
3. Allow voluntary return to active duty INCENTIVES- if contractors make so doggone much, then why not reappropriate defense spending back into uniformed services??? - 79Rs shiuld recieve +++bonuses plus the Master Recruiting upgraded badges, Rings, etc.
4. Push Education, medical FOR LIFE Benefits even for 5 to 10 year blended retirees- they are young and nervous- I'm sorry, but I say, unravel that complex "earned benefits" NOT entitled, just earned.
Extend bonuses to darned near every MOS, AOC. Short on every job??? Pay properly!!
5. Allow advace payments of fines, records retreval [i was born overseas and waited a long 13 months for replacement of US Consular docs, not my birth country's required docs. Recruit can pay back with discretionary allotment, or accept reduced bonus.
Tutoring to improve scores ASVAB, FST, OSB-standardized while preparing for IET.
These are some solutions to challenges I can recall.