The United States Army is reducing its size by about 5%, cutting roughly 24,000 jobs, as part of a restructuring plan that is ostensibly meant to better prepare for a possible war in the future.
As ABC News reports, the cuts will mostly affect posts that are already empty, such as counterinsurgency jobs that were previously needed in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan but no longer needed today, as well as about 3,000 jobs in the Army special operations forces.
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Each U.S. military service saw a notable decline in white recruits over the past five years, according to data obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation, likely factoring into the military’s crippling recruiting crisis.
The Army, Navy and Air Force missed their recruiting objectives by historically large margins in fiscal year 2023, which ended on Sept. 30, as the broader American public has grown wary of military service, according to Department of Defense (DOD) statistics, officials and experts who spoke to the DCNF. Since 2018, however, the number of recruits from minority groups has remained steady — or, in some cases, increased — while the number of white recruits has declined, according to data on the demographics of new recruits obtained by the DCNF.
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According to the website Statista, the United States has the third largest standing “Army” in the world. The website says that we have 1.3 million soldiers under arms. By “soldiers,” they’re referring to all of our armed forces—Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, and Space Force. Third largest in the world. Not bad, if you’re into measuring things. China and India are the only countries with larger militaries. Russia has one about the same size as us, as does North Korea.
In addition to our active force, Statista says we have over 760,000 reservists attached to our armed forces. For those unfamiliar, a reservist is also a soldier (generic term) who can theoretically be called into duty to do things the active forces do. They’re called reservists because they are the first line of replenishment for the active force. Reservists serve in various capacities in all of the branches of the US military. They train once a month with their unit and have a two-week annual training event where they go to an installation and ensure their skills are ready for wartime. Some call them weekend warriors. I call them heroes—many or most have other jobs and serve our great country because they want to serve. Of key importance is that all of these service members are federally authorized and work at the direction of the president.
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A precipitous drop in the number of white recruits into the U.S. Army over the past five years sheds a new light on the service’s ongoing recruiting crisis, Military.com reported, citing internal Army data viewed by the outlet.
The Army missed its 2023 recruiting target by 10,000 soldiers, falling short of its 65,000 goal, after hitting only three-quarters of its 2023 goal as the Pentagon doubled down on prioritizing racial and ethnic diversity in the ranks. Much of that decline is attributed to a dramatic decline in the total number of white recruits as the Army brought in roughly 20,000 fewer white soldiers in 2023 compared to 2018 , according to the data seen by Military.com.
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Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, has apparently been in the hospital, following complications from a surgery for an unknown ailment. He had the surgery and passed the baton to the Deputy Secretary of Defense, Kathleen Hicks, but did not inform the President, the National Security Advisor, and a bunch of other people who should have been kept in the loop.
Worse, Austin’s deputy was apparently on vacation when she was put in charge. This all matters because the military functions through a chain of command, and the Secretary of Defense is a crucial link in that chain, the interface between the uniformed military and the President.
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More and more Army soldiers are reenlisting after being discharged for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine, according to information shared exclusively with The Daily Signal.
The increase comes after Congress repealed the Pentagon’s vaccine mandate and conservative lawmakers applied pressure to Defense Department leaders to be more welcoming of 8,400 service members who were “fired” for their refusal to get the COVID-19 shot.
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The Pentagon came up short on its recruitment goals.
The Defense Department’s senior officials testified Wednesday about shortfalls in Army, Navy and Air Force recruiting in the fiscal year that ended in September at a hearing of the House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee. The Marine Corps and Space Force made their recruiting goals.
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The U.S. Air Force sent out a letter telling an airman booted from the service over the now-rescinded COVID-19 vaccine mandate of an opportunity to rejoin the service, mirroring similar letters sent to former Army service members, according to a copy of one Air Force letter obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
A former Air Force service member who was separated for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine received the letter Sunday addressed with the recipient’s name, according to a source familiar with the matter. The letter tells former airmen they can request to have their service records amended to show that they received honorable discharges and seek reentry into the service amidst the service’s failure to meet recruiting goals.
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The student group that defeated affirmative action in the Supreme Court is turning their attention to American military academies exempted from the ban.
The group is currently collecting experiences of students who applied to the Air Force, Army and Navy military academies.
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The Army released the second wave of promotional videos in its rebranding campaign Monday intended to boost its “relatability” to a diverse array of Americans amid persistent recruiting problems, according to Defense One.
The Army revived its 1980s slogan “Be All You Can Be” in March in hopes of attracting a new generation of future soldiers as recruiting fell 25 percent short of its goals in 2022 and is expected to mirror the shortfall in 2023. The “First Steps” series is meant to appeal to Gen Z’s desire for genuine engagement and emphasize knowledge, culture and trust, Ignatios Mavridis, the acting chief of Army Enterprise Marketing, told Defense One.
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One year after implementation, the Army’s fitness and academic prep course has produced nearly 9,000 graduates, a 95% success rate that chips away at the Army’s recruiting struggles, the Army said Tuesday.
The Army brought an initial 1,900 potential recruits who couldn’t meet academic or physical fitness standards through a pilot program that began in August 2022 to boost test scores, and expanded the program to a second training base in January. Service leaders have also increased recruitment bonuses for soldiers to hopefully provide more incentive for prospective servicemembers to enter high-skilled military occupations, and over the past 12 months the Army gave out more than $15.5 million in bonuses to prep course graduates, according to an Army news article.
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The U.S. Department of Defense is taking new measures to help U.S. service members deal with rising costs as inflation continues to put the pressure on Americans.
Air Force Brigadier General Pat Ryder laid out a series of changes from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to help families deal with the recent rise in costs, particularly in food, housing and childcare.
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Army leaders have seen a 13% drop in qualification test scores from the most recent high school graduating class compared to pre-pandemic performances, Defense News reported.
Disqualification rates for potential recruits also shot up from between 30% and 40% to about 70% because of obesity, drug use and failing to meet academic standards, Lt. Gen. Maria Gervais, second in command for Army training, said at a conference Thursday, according to Defense News. The Army is projected to fall short of its recruiting goal for the year ending Sept. 30 by 25%.
Gervais, deputy commanding general of Army Training and Doctrine Command, said the Army has been in a “nosedive” since July 2021, but that the service may be seeing a steady revival, according to Defense News.
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The Navy cannot force service members with religious objections to COVID-19 vaccines to take them so long as the exemption process remains “by all accounts … theater,” a federal judge ruled Monday.
“Our nation asks the men and women in our military to serve, suffer, and sacrifice. But we do not ask them to lay aside their citizenry and give up the very rights they have sworn to protect,” U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor wrote in approving a preliminary injunction against the mandate as applied to the 35 service members who sued.
“Every president since the signing of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act has praised the men and women of the military for their bravery and service in protecting the freedoms this country guarantees,” O’Connor said.
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Republican lawmakers in both houses of Congress are demanding that the United States Marine Corps release a Lieutenant Colonel who was jailed earlier this week for criticizing military leadership after the failed Afghanistan withdrawal, Breitbart reports.
A Marine spokesperson confirmed that Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller is currently in pre-trial confinement in the Regional Brig of Marine Corps Installations East, in Camp Lejeune, as he awaits an Article 32 hearing. Although he has not yet been formally charged, Scheller faces the possibility of being charged under a handful of articles, including “contempt toward officials” (Article 88), “willfully disobeying superior commissioned officer” (Article 90), “failure to obey lawful general orders” (Article 92), and “conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman” (Article 133).
Scheller first made his criticisms in a viral video he posted to Facebook on August 26th, the same day that a suicide attack at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in the capital city of Kabul claimed the lives of 13 American servicemembers, as well as hundreds of Afghan civilians. Scheller demanded accountability from military leadership for a withdrawal that has been universally viewed, both domestically and internationally, as a disaster.
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Taiwan claims dozens of Chinese warplanes penetrated its airspace Tuesday, the largest and most recent Chinese incursion as tensions between the two countries escalate.
Twenty-eight People’s Liberation Army aircraft, including fighter jets, bombers, and anti-submarine airplanes, entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) Tuesday, according to a report issued by the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense. It marked the largest recorded daily incursion, exceeding a 25-aircraft incursion on April 12, Reuters reports.
Taiwan dispatched air patrol troops to intercept the Chinese planes and mobilized anti-aircraft missile systems in response, the ministry’s report said.
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On Memorial Day, we commemorate and honor our fellow Americans who gave their lives in service to our country.
Throughout America’s history, our military men and women have bravely defended our God-given freedoms against the evils of religious persecution, slavery, foreign enemies, and radical terrorism.
The first defenders of American freedom were the courageous Continental Army and its leader, General George Washington. As we noted in our documentary “The First American,” it was a monumental challenge for Washington to mobilize a poorly trained and under-equipped army to victory against the British.
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