Is our military too woke to recruit?

[Hawkmoon]

Once again, our militar has fallen short of its recruiting goals. They (the usual suspects) have a plethora of excuses for why they fell short, but nobody seems to be addressing the elephant in the room: Why would any sane American sign up to serve in a politically-correct military?

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2022/10/13/is-the-military-too-woke-to-recruit/

[dogmush]

I think it's the other way. Young people these days are too woke to be in the military.  And that's the ones that aren't already disqualified by drug use, tattoos, criminal records, inability to take a test, and/or obesity.

Even with our cartoon two mom commercials, and new PowerPoints we're much less woke than pretty much any other choice a young person has.  College? Please.  Corporate America? They have more DEI than all the DOD combined. Parent's basement and hang out on Twitter? Super Woke.

I think you'll start to see some better recruiting numbers once the Inflation Reduction Act really kick in.

[MillCreek]

Once again, our militar has fallen short of its recruiting goals. They (the usual suspects) have a plethora of excuses for why they fell short, but nobody seems to be addressing the elephant in the room: Why would any sane American sign up to serve in a politically-correct military?

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2022/10/13/is-the-military-too-woke-to-recruit/

70% of young Americans couldn't join if they wanted to: too fat, too stupid, too druggy, too criminal or too uneducated.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-07-12/joining-the-military-doesn-t-appeal-to-enough-young-americans

From the article:

Recruiting isn’t easy. At least 70% of Americans between 17 and 24 are ineligible for military service due to obesity, mental-health issues, past drug use, criminal records or lack of a high school degree. Overall, only 13% of young adults express a positive propensity to serve, with women about half as likely as men to consider enlisting. The Defense Department estimates that just 2% out of 20.6 million 17- to 21-year-olds have the desired combination of strong academic credentials, adequate physical fitness and an interest in serving.

[Blakenzy]

Would anyone with options make the choice of placing themselves under Biden and Pelosi's command?

[Ben]

70% of young Americans couldn't join if they wanted to: too fat, too stupid, too druggy, too criminal or too uneducated.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-07-12/joining-the-military-doesn-t-appeal-to-enough-young-americans

From the article:

Recruiting isn’t easy. At least 70% of Americans between 17 and 24 are ineligible for military service due to obesity, mental-health issues, past drug use, criminal records or lack of a high school degree. Overall, only 13% of young adults express a positive propensity to serve, with women about half as likely as men to consider enlisting. The Defense Department estimates that just 2% out of 20.6 million 17- to 21-year-olds have the desired combination of strong academic credentials, adequate physical fitness and an interest in serving.

I posted I think a different article but saying the same thing some days ago, with my comment being my shock at the numbers. Before the article, if you were to ask me cold, I would have said 70% could qualify, not 70% could not qualify.

It applies to more than just the military. You might as well say that those 70% of young adults can't function anywhere in society that doesn't involve safe spaces, free stuff, or protection from a job where you have a boss that you have to taker orders from. Incredibly sad commentary on the generation of Americans that are stepping into their turn as the backbone age group for a functioning country.

[Blakenzy]

I posted I think a different article but saying the same thing some days ago, with my comment being my shock at the numbers. Before the article, if you were to ask me cold, I would have said 70% could qualify, not 70% could not qualify.

It applies to more than just the military. You might as well say that those 70% of young adults can't function anywhere in society that doesn't involve safe spaces, free stuff, or protection from a job where you have a boss that you have to taker orders from. Incredibly sad commentary on the generation of Americans that are stepping into their turn as the backbone age group for a functioning country.

The militia has been declawed and neutered

[cordex]

I think it's the other way. Young people these days are too woke to be in the military.  And that's the ones that aren't already disqualified by drug use, tattoos, criminal records, inability to take a test, and/or obesity.

Even with our cartoon two mom commercials, and new PowerPoints we're much less woke than pretty much any other choice a young person has.  College? Please.  Corporate America? They have more DEI than all the DOD combined. Parent's basement and hang out on Twitter? Super Woke.

I think you'll start to see some better recruiting numbers once the Inflation Reduction Act really kick in.

There are plenty of less woke options than the military.

I think the point is, the overlap between “loves the woke stuff” and “wants to serve in the military” is pretty small. The military doesn’t have to be the absolute wokest thing in the world to push away a large group of its potential recruits.

[WLJ]

70% of young Americans couldn't join if they wanted to: too fat, too stupid, too druggy, too criminal or too uneducated.

1962: Fat drunk and stupid is no way go through life son
2022: The welfare sign up and democrat voter registration offices are that way.



Yes I know Animal House was filmed in 77/78

[HankB]

. . . .I think the point is, the overlap between “loves the woke stuff” and “wants to serve in the military” is pretty small . . .

Perhaps our Commander In Chief will ask the Vice President if she can create an accurate Venn Diagram of the overlap?

That our military is still THE force to be reckoned with is a tribute to the true warriors that are still in the services. But the politicians seem intent on weeding them out.

Wokeness and DEI are just the most recent steps in a long journey of demilitarizing the military and corrupting its leadership.

[MillCreek]

1962: Fat drunk and stupid is no way go through life son
2022: The welfare sign up and democrat voter registration offices are that way.



Yes I know Animal House was filmed in 77/78

I have always loved that quote from Animal House.  It ranks up there with my favorite quote from Caddyshack: You'll get nothing and like it!

[T.O.M.]

A lot of young people are still willing and able to serve.  Some of my former Boy Scouts are in all five branches, including one young man who just reported to his first duty station with the Coast Guard in Kodiak, AK.  I would submit that a lot of these kids are better soldiers, because of their desire to be there.

In speaking with these kids, you hear the same reasons for joining you always have...a desire to be a part of something bigger, to serve their country, to earn GI Bill for later.  One of my favorite Scouts was a college recruited swimmer who passed to enlist in the Navy.  His reason?  Didn't want to go into debt to study in college when he had no idea what he wanted to do for a career. Last we talked, he had just graduated DLA in Monterey studying Russian.  Another Scout who went Army ROTC told me that he loved listening to stories we vets told, and he wanted those experiences himself.

My point?  Don't knock all youngsters.  There are still some damned fine kids out there.

[Hawkmoon]

My point?  Don't knock all youngsters.  There are still some damned fine kids out there.

And that's the problem. There ARE some fine kids out there, and as a U.S. Army veteran of the Vietnam "conflict," having read about and heard first-hand stories about the kind of woke idiocy "training" (that's an odd way to spell i-n-d-o-c-t-r-i-n-a-t-i-o-n, isn't it?) our soldiers, sailors, and airpersons are subjected to today -- there's no way that I could, in good conscience, recommend that they enlist.

[dogmush]

 

Ok there, sure.

[Pb]

It is my understanding that the low percentage of young people capable of serving is not really a new phenomenon.

My oldest is planning on joining, probably through ROTC.  I have warned him about PC stuff in the military.  This is what he wants.  He has really enjoyed JROTC in high school.

[Hawkmoon]

Need more reasons to NOT suggest to decent young men that they enlist?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrSVjRfJ-4I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCg_rdHpS9w

[MillCreek]

Need more reasons to NOT suggest to decent young men that they enlist?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrSVjRfJ-4I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCg_rdHpS9w

So what are your thoughts about the decent young women?

[Hawkmoon]

So what are your thoughts about the decent young women?

Considering what appears to be an on-going rape culture in the military (all branches, and affecting both commissioned officers and enlisted personnel alike), I don't think any woman should enter our military. Not until the powers that be decide to get serious about eradicating the rape culture, and I expect that to happen shortly after hell freezes over.

[Pb]

Getting rid of the women and homosexuals might reduce the rape culture a bit.

[dogmush]

The incidence of sexual assault in the military is 6.4% lower than that of America as a whole and it's a third of that undergrads face in American colleges.

It's still something we, as a profession, are working to bring down, but the issue is more that your kids have a rape culture, and it takes us a while to train it out of them.

Numbers:
Service members experiencing Sexual Assault FY21:  8.4 percent of female service members ....experienced unwanted sexual contact,
Incidence of rape in America as a whole: 1 out of every 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime (14.8% completed, 2.8% attempted)
incidence of rape of undergraduates: Undergraduates: 26.4% of women and 6.8% of men experience rape or sexual assault through physical force, violence, or incapacitation.

[HankB]

Some of the leadership in the military is either corrupt, treasonous, or insane. Maybe a combination of all three.

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2022/10/pentagon-diversity-chief-pushes-book-calling-9-11-responders-menaces-fox-report/

[dogmush]

Ms. Wing is not in the military, nor is she in the Chain of Command.

[WLJ]

Ms. Wing is not in the military, nor is she in the Chain of Command.

Don't think they made that claim

The book was recommended at least twice by Kelisa Wing, the first-ever chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer at the Department of Defense Education Activity, as reported by Fox News.

Wing oversees curriculum for more than 60,000 military-connected children at 160 schools worldwide, Fox News reported.

Poisoning minds

In the book, “Between the World and Me,” author Ta-Nehisi Coates writes that he “could see no difference” between 9/11 responders and a police officer who had shot and killed his friend a year earlier.

“They [the responders] were not human to me. Black, white, or whatever, they were the menaces of nature; they were the fire, the comet, the storm, which could—with no justification—shatter my body,” Coates wrote.

I have a headache now

[cordex]

The incidence of sexual assault in the military is 6.4% lower than that of America as a whole and it's a third of that undergrads face in American colleges.

It's still something we, as a profession, are working to bring down, but the issue is more that your kids have a rape culture, and it takes us a while to train it out of them.

Numbers:
Service members experiencing Sexual Assault FY21:  8.4 percent of female service members ....experienced unwanted sexual contact,
Incidence of rape in America as a whole: 1 out of every 6 American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime (14.8% completed, 2.8% attempted)
incidence of rape of undergraduates: Undergraduates: 26.4% of women and 6.8% of men experience rape or sexual assault through physical force, violence, or incapacitation.

I 100% do not believe your provided numbers.

[Pb]

I 100% do not believe your provided numbers.

What do you think the numbers are?

[cordex]

What do you think the numbers are?

Don’t know. I do know the last time I looked into the “1 in 4” college student rape stat it was utter hogwash. I think it included such things as having consensual sex when intoxicated. In other words, not the colloquial definition of the word rape. Maybe dogmush found an actual legit study that shows the exact same result. If I have time tomorrow I’ll dig in to his links, but as of now I’m not buying it.

If 25% of college students got raped, literally no one would send their daughters to college. That isn’t even close to believable.

There are a few other issues with his numbers but it’ll have to wait until tomorrow.