The Biden Administration is failing to meet military recruitment goals as only 9 percent of those eligible to join up have any intention of doing so.
According to NBC, the shortages are so problematic that the White House is having to stage high-level meetings about the crisis and is considering dropping some of the restrictions against potential recruits including for those with medical conditions like asthma and ADHD.
It is also reportedly considering encouraging illegal immigrants who came to the USA as children to serve.
The Army, which is struggling to boost its numbers and only met around 40 percent of its recruitment target so far this year, also announced that it would scrap mandatory high school diplomas if the candidate is able to make basic training by October 1.
Major General Edward Thomas who recruits for the Air Force told Fox that there are too many restrictions prohibiting Americans from joining the military:
“Today, 77% of American youth aged 17 to 24 will not qualify to serve the United States military without a waiver, 77%”, he said.
“That’s based on a variety of different reasons, from weight to medical issues to academic issues to behavioral issues, mental health issues. It’s a wide variety with 77% don’t qualify without a waiver.”
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All branches of the military saw a major decline in new troops during the Covid pandemic as the nation faced lockdowns and uncertainty. The closure of schools meant military personnel could not reach out to young people who may have had an interest in serving their country.
Thomas said the American job market also has a role to play in the declining numbers. As employment levels continue to rise across the country as America emerges from the pandemic, military recruitment levels have taken a shelling:
“It’s good for the nation in general,” he said of rising employment. “It makes the battle for talent all that much more ferocious.”
As an incentive to join, the military is now offering much larger bonuses for certain sectors including a $50,000 bonus for special warfare and $3000-$6000 for “hard to fill” jobs.
“Almost anything you can do in a major city, maybe other than being a stockbroker, you know, or a few select jobs you can pretty much do in the Air Force,” said Thomas.
But Thomas, like many other military personnel, believes that a lack of trust in the government is partly to blame for the military’s waning numbers:
“Really in the long term … it’s declining eligibility, declining propensity or interest in serving and declining trust in government,” said Thomas
Another anonymous Army recruitment commander told Breitbart that he thinks there is a general stigma in society about joining the military which has been seeded by the radical left’s hatred of America:
“National pride is at an all-time low and this generation has grown up in an era that sees their nation’s history constantly scrutinized and no longer celebrated,” said the source.
Heritage Foundation expert and retired Lt. Gen. Thomas Spoehr echoed the same concerns:
“Over time American society has placed less and less value on the idea of public service,” he told Breitbart.
“There is a sense among the American public that the military is becoming increasingly political and that topics such as race and gender equity, critical race theory, and wokeism in general are commanding more attention, at the cost of readiness.”