SILVER SPRINGS, MARYLAND / HELSINKI Door hinges do not wear out at the recruiting office. No one walks in, no one comes out at the U.S. Army recruiting station in Silver Springs, Maryland.
The situation is largely the same all over the country. In recent years, the US armed forces have had great difficulty in recruiting enough young people to serve.
In 2022, all defense branches of the armed forces – with the exception of the Marines – were several tens of percent behind their annual recruitment targets.
According to the experts interviewed by , the situation does not look any better this year.
An 18-year-old finally marches out of Maryland’s recruiting office Jaidyn’s Mewha. The names are now on the papers and the next step for the future infantryman is to go to the rookie camp in Georgia.
– I want to see the world, experience things and earn money at the same time, the young man explains his decision to join the army.
Pictures of state-of-the-art fighter jets, special forces soldiers, medals shine in the window of the recruiting office.
The images encapsulate the traditional trump card of the armed forces in recruiting young people. The army promises adventure.
However, there are fewer adventurers like Mewha every year.
Young people’s condition has deteriorated
Lieutenant General by Thomas Spoehr According to (evp), recruitment problems are caused by both economic and social reasons.
Spoehr, who moved from the armed forces to the conservative think tank Heritage, cites the deterioration of the health of young Americans as the primary reason.
– Currently, only 23 percent of our country’s young people are able to serve in the armed forces with a completely clean health record. Others have a certificate of some kind of trouble that can hinder military service, Spoehr says in an interview with .
The most important obstacles to a military career are significant overweight, mood medications and drug history, the lieutenant general lists.
The comparison with Finland is enlightening. Here, too, there has been concern from time to time about the condition of conscripts, but in Finland, about two-thirds of the men’s age group still do military service.
Can America’s youth really be this sick?
– I’m not going to compare countries, but the US figure is alarmingly low. In part, it can certainly also be explained by a different health system, Spoehr says.
In the United States, especially among young people, the use of antipsychotics and ADHD medications has clearly increased in the 21st century.
Now these prescriptions appear in a new computer program introduced by the armed forces last year and often require additional work from young people aspiring to a military career – such as obtaining new medical reports, reports online magazine Task and Purpose.
Sometimes it can take months to find out the health status, and the young person already has time to change his mind about joining the armed forces, the magazine continues.
Money talks
Another important factor in young people’s reluctance to serve in the armed forces is the economy.
The US labor market is doing well at the moment and companies are paying reasonable wages to young people. Serving in the armed forces doesn’t have as much left over as before.
The problem is greatest at the crew level, but in some areas there is also a shortage of officers.
– For example, in the cyber dimension, earnings in the private sector are clearly higher, which hinders recruitment, Lieutenant General Spoehr says.
Marketing is also important.
In the United States, the best soldiers have been found by the Marine Corps, which has filled its recruitment quota year after year.
– They market themselves as a crowd that not everyone can join. At the other extreme is the military, which emphasizes that everyone is welcome for them. Between that is the navy and the air force, Spoehr analysed.
Among the defense branches, the army has had the most problems, which fell 15,000 soldiers short of the recruitment quota last year.
This year, both the Air Force and the Navy have announced that they are several thousand short of their goal.
Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, the Air Force has had difficulty finding new pilots.
– There are certain physical requirements for pilots. After a valuable training program has been accepted, you have to commit to the service for several years, which can scare young people, says Spoehr.
The image of the armed forces has declined
More than twenty years ago, after the terrorist attacks of September 11, there was no shortage of people who wanted to be a soldier in the United States.
The post-Cold War period of inactivity had ended and the armed forces had to be turned to a new position – hunting terrorists.
Now, with the rise of China, the US armed forces should be turned back in the direction of a traditional great power war. Especially the naval and air forces need strengthening, because the next big war will most likely be fought in the Indo-Pacific sea area.
The demographic backbone of the US armed forces is still made up of white men from the South or Midwest.
– If you put a hundred in one room, more than half will fall into that category, Spoehr smiles.
It is precisely in this group that interest in serving in the armed forces has decreased in recent years.
– The withdrawal from Afghanistan has reduced the attractiveness of the armed forces in some way, the lieutenant general analyzed.
In the United States, the military profession has traditionally run strongly in the family.
However, according to Spoehr, this “social recruitment” has begun to break down in recent years. It means that a large proportion of American youth no longer have any personal contact with the armed forces.
At the same time, many garrisons are located in the southern parts of the country, further from the large population centers on the coasts, which further prevents the mixing of soldiers and civilians.
According to Spoehr, the easiest solution would be to change the way military service is talked about in public.
– Enlisting does not mean that you are at high risk of injury. Or that you fall behind in career development and salary. These are big misunderstandings that should be addressed, says the lieutenant general.
Finding a solution is essential for the security of the United States.
– If the recruitment numbers cannot be increased, it will mean that our ability to fight wars will decrease. This is absolutely clear, Spoehr continues.