Need for accession waivers soars amid historic recruiting challenges

Lt Col Scott Shuttleworth Lt Col Charlie Brown now don't yell at me here. I'm just guessing ages here for you guys, but if we are close to the same could it be because back then there was more of us to choose from. Now I was never on recruiting duty, I was only a aide for a month after AIT, but I saw in 80 that they could almost pick and choose.

Well parlty correct. I was a recruiting CC from 2007 -2009. I was in a tough market. PA/WV/MD/OH. People up there don't have the want to serve tendencies that folks inthe Southeast do. People inthe South and Southeast usually have what we used to call a walk in market. But now even they are struggling. But when we sold potential recruits on service they bought it and we have good airmen. We also were still riding on the coattails of 9-11, 6 years earlier so the propensity to serve was still relativley high. NOW what I am hearing from people I still know in the field is that the current generation has no propensity to want to serve for several factors. First, the military going woke is one of them. When you want to leave your current state youwant something better. When we don't seperate ourselves from thenations politics we might as well just hand them a uniform and say go to work. Military service is not a better option as it looks just like where they are now. Second, pay and benefits. A lot of these younger folks see their parents andgrandparents fighting with the VA to get care, they see the old pension as a security blanket that went away. Now it is incumbent on them to build theit own retirement. Third, lack of appeal for military service. Military service used to be honorable to those that haven't served. Now it is just viewed as a job for those outside and in the government it is seen as a burden on the taxpayers with no visible return on investment. Bottom line, if we don't change where our military has been headed from DoD all the way down to the rank and file and change our recruiting strategies like allowing medical waivers, tattoos, et al we will continue to hurt to fill our personnel ranks.