That lesson from your generation is being passed on to the current 17-25 years.Everyone I know encourages their kids NOT to join the military. The only people I wound recommend to join the military is a poor kid to get a high cost high pay skill like pilot,medical school, nuclear work etc or if it was their dream to be something like a Seal. If a big war breaks out there will definitely be a draft.
Yes, there will be a draft and it will likely be unwelcome and heavily resisted, as it should be. As you say, joining is generally a bad idea, but can be a positive if one can get some training that has value down the road. That said, someone has to be prepared to fight. It's just a damn shame those doing the fighting are used as expendable tools for the war machine. The more things change, the more they remain the same. Just the human condition I guess.
The sad thing is the sad saps that sign up to fight are being made into cannon fodder to enrich the NWO globalists whose only interest is to maintain their power and enrich themselves at every turn. As a country, the US would be safer if the US did not involved itself and meddle in most countries internal affairs. For all the BS about China and Russia interfering in US elections, the US has changed how many countries leaders by overthrowing them?
War is a place where the young kill one another without knowing or hating each other, because of the decision of old people who know and hate each other, without killing each other
Since the Bush years...the U.S. military has had a recruitment problem. It continued into the Trump presidency years but has recently been ticking back upwards. The biggest problem today is that young people are less familiar with a family member who has served in comparison to young people before the Bush years. I saw some statistics about today's young people versus young people before Bush...it was a little shocking that today's young people are not only not familiar with a family member not serving...young people have more fear today within the context of the current global wars in comparison to young people in WWI, WWII, Korean War and Vietnam put together. That's an incredible number considering WWI and WWII was a global world war. With that said, the military still has the best employment opportunities after the military for young people and job protection for veterans. Military Veterans Better Employed than the rest of the civilian population: Veterans are less likely to be incarcerated to the civilian population: With the above statistics of recent years, the wars in other countries is impacting young people more today in comparison to young people many years ago...young people in the U.S. have enough fear that it's overriding their employment opportunities. Yet, as I've said before, the recruitment has only ticked up but they still missed their recruiting goal...coming up short by 41k recruits. https://www.defense.gov/News/News-S...od-addresses-recruiting-shortfall-challenges/ The causes of the recruiting challenges "are complex and multifaceted," Vazirani said. They include: A strong economy, which has resulted in many more options for young people. A smaller eligible population. Generation Z, the generation born from 1997 to 2012, generally has a low trust in institutions. Generation Z has decreasingly followed traditional life and career paths. Young people have fewer family members who served in the military, which decreases the propensity to serve. In 1995, 40% of young people had a parent who served in the military, Vazirani said. By 2022, just 12% had a parent who had served. "This has led to a disconnect between the military and a large share of society," he said. Further, not discussed enough...the Pandemic was very problematic for the military. The military recruiters found a prevalence of youth obesity and the closing of high schools to recruiters during the pandemic. Simply, young people are less likely to be physically fit to serve and were not able to meet the new education requirements for the military. Yet, this should fix itself in a few more years away from the Pandemic. ---------- As a comparison, I live in a country outside of the United States as an expat although I maintain a 2nd home within the United States. On my street here in Québec, Canada...I know three other Americans (all of us ex-rangers) and I'm the only one of the three who was married to a West Point alumni. We all have at least one child at military school but only because our children grew up in a household of a former military family...that's the familiarity I'm talking about that most young people today do not have. Further, my last two visits back to the States for college tours at several elite universities...I remember two particular Universities where the speaker of the tour asked the audience how many parents had served in the U.S. military...it was an odd question... I was the only one that raised my arm. I found out later the speaker of the tour also worked with the ROTC program and he later mentioned to me in private that more Veterans are now expats living abroad due to the political environment in the U.S... It is rare for their children to want to return to the States for college, especially the ones born abroad. With that said and back to the horrific reason for the AF soldier's suicide...war in other countries impacts our young people much differently than it did when I served... Today, I see more young people going to extremes to protest their displeasure/dislike with U.S. government policies abroad in comparison to my generation that moved away from the U.S. as a form of protest and protection of family. P.S. It's an uglier world out there as we came out of this Pandemic as predicted...it's only going to get uglier before it gets better. Someone recently posted a collage of protests/riots/fire in cities from around the world during the the past year... It's a problem with young people all around the world. They're pssst. wrbtrader
Most recruits that sign up outside of need do so because of ideology. Naturally these are mostly from conservative households. The downward trajectory (if there was one) started w/the vax mandates. This has only accelerated due to the mistaken belief of "a stolen election" and "destruction of the country by dems & wokeism of the armed forces". We are better served shedding these recruits. This won't reduced our national defense budget, though it should.
Most of the declines in recruits for the military began soon after the Bush administration. The Pandemic accelerated the declines and the vax mandate put recruitment on standby...literally. Thus, there were a bunch of recruits (I believe about 15k) waiting for several months to go to basic training while the military adjusted to new Pandemic rules. I know two recruits who were on standby for about 6 months after entry/acceptance into the Army. Just as bad...they were not on "delay entry"...others had to wait up to 3 months between basic training and their MOS school. In the Army, they use something different since Obama's administration...something called One Station Unit Training...a combo of basic training and MOS (job training) as one single training years prior to the Pandemic. That had more delays during the Pandemic...discouraging many recruits not to sign up after they were told about the delays. That's an unheard-of waiting period. Regardless, our recruits from the civilian population have a lot of problems. A majority of young adults who were being recruited would later be disqualified for service because of “obesity, drugs, physical and mental health problems, misconduct, and aptitude.”... Before even getting a chance to go to basic training. A good friend of mine who is a military recruiter said it best...these kids are too fat and many have mental problems. I responded...We're coming out of a Pandemic. It's going to take the country a while...many years...to come to grips with the growing mental illness. wrbtrader