The Air Force has so far managed to reverse its misfortunes, exceeding its goal of 6,249 new active duty airmen by 130 people as of the end of December 2023, according to recently released Pentagon statistics. That’s due in part to a slew of policy tweaks aimed at growing the pool of eligible prospects, a growing staff focused on battling a backlog of medical paperwork, and a fourth-quarter push to get as large of a head start on fiscal 2024 recruitment as possible... America’s two largest armed forces, however, are still struggling to woo prospective troops. The Army brought in almost 6,100 new soldiers between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, 2023, falling short at 74% of its first-quarter goal, according to DOD. The Navy fared worse at about 5,400 new sailors, or 65% of its own target. Still, Army recruiters are outpacing their performance from the same time last year, when they had reached just 68% of their active duty goal. The Navy’s intake rate mirrors where it stood at the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2023... The Space Force and Marine Corps, the Pentagon’s smallest branches and the only two services that reached their active duty accession goals last year, have continued that success in 2024. https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/...ting-rebounds-while-army-navy-still-struggle/ I met a Navy recruiter in the suburbs of Chicago at a Armed Forces ROTC recruiting meeting that my 2nd teenager wanted to attend. The recruiter said more recruits are "rejected" from entry into the Navy because of overweight issues and not able to pass the military aptitude exams than the Army. wrbtrader
A new study from the Pentagon shows that 77% of young Americans would not qualify for military service without a waiver due to being overweight, using drugs or having mental and physical health problems. https://www.military.com/daily-news...mericans-are-ineligible-military-service.html The mental illness issue became a big issue as the United States came out of the Pandemic. It's a touchy subject because I remember recruiters avoiding answering a parent's concerns at the ROTC recruitment meeting. Also, there was a parent (ex-military soldier) with a confederate flag tattoo on his forearm along with his special forces tattoo. It was a very cool day (you can blow your breadth in the cold air) and his sleeves were rolled up for all to see. At the end of the day...recruiting numbers dropped after the Vietnam, Desert Storm conflicts. The “war on terror/Iran/Afghanistan was never really popular so the after-conflict drop is even more pronounced. I know some people are blaming politics/woke/LGBT but that really isn’t to blame. Our military has always been a reflection of US society, both good and bad. I think it is more that this past couple of decades of US conflicts, have many people tired, and there may be other options. wrbtrader
In 2020, more than 40% of new military recruits came from five states. A bar chart showing the top five states for military recruits that made up 41.1% of all military recruits in 2020. The states are California, Texas, Florida, Georgia, and New York. The interesting aspect of the above recruit numbers for 2020 is that by 2023...most of the recruit declines were in the southern states that the military relied heavily for recruits in past years. Just as importantly, recruits who did not qualify for military service after being rejected...higher numbers in the southern states due to low educational attainment and criminal records. I think the U.S Armed Forces can get their recruiting numbers back UP by accepting individuals with criminal records, gang members, thugs, undocumented immigrants, drug addicts, homeless, home grown terrorists, wannabe confederates, and the elderly. wrbtrader
The Army Recruiting Command seeks to attract talent and reintroduce the Army to the American public. "We will not lower standards, we will not sacrifice quality for the sake of quantity," Davis said. "Our main initiatives over the past year have shown real promise, such as the Future Soldier Prep Course." The course has had 14,000 graduates, with 95 percent going on to finish basic training and become soldiers. "We're still in the first quarter of the fiscal year, and [it's] too early to estimate where we will finish it, finish in 10 months, but I will say we're seeing momentum, and we'll continue to build upon it," he said. https://www.defense.gov/News/News-S...y-recruiting-challenges-at-committee-hearing/ Well...the Navy sacrificed quality to try to reach quantity goals...23% failed the ASVAB test and a whopping 42% failed the weight test. Simply, being a recruit is one thing. Getting into the military is something entirely different and most of America's youth would be rejected (weight problems, drug problems, mental problems, and aptitude problems). Later, for those able to get into the military...it takes about 3 years for +70% to start having weight problems if stationed at an open military base. wrbtrader
Yeah, I don't get these guys. I had to log out to see who was doing this to you, and its the same dope that does it to me - wrtrader. Has me on ignore, but then responds to me. Then I also saw that "poopy" did it too. He must have put me on ignore, but then he makes posts to me. What kind of wizards think like that?
Real dumb asses.I don't understand blocking someone yet still reading their posts and responding either About 2 weeks ago idiot was to crying to the mods that they better make me stop responding to his posts or he was going to unleash his bad mood and come after me until we were both banned.
Tony is a liar and a troll. 1 - Tony was banned...not me 2 - I asked Tony to stop trolling me and he refused. Tony continued trolling me for what purpose??? 3 - His trolling included a day when he decided to track down my most recent 8 messages to reply to every one of them in a 30-minute timespan without him replying to anyone else. Messages I posted to other members or as a continuation of my own messages...not to Tony. 4 - His trolling continue with more attacks on U.S. Veterans. Again I asked Tony to stop...he refused by posting "laughing memes" to my comments about benefits for U.S. Veterans and comments directed at Trump for not supporting U.S. Veterans in comparison to prior administrations and the Biden/Harris administration. 5 - I then blocked/ignored Tony. He then had a pussy fit and replied to multiple messages including tracking down my old messages that were one-week old. That's a psychotic troll behavior to go "searching" through a member's message history for what purpose??? 6 - I then contacted Baron. Baron took a look at my documentation and gave Tony a temporary ban. I will assume he was also given a warning to stop but I could be wrong about the latter. Once again, I was not banned and continued posting including several private thread message conversation with other members about Tony's BAN during the duration of Tony's one-week ban. Simply, as stated...Tony is a liar and a troll. Yeah, I guess Baron could chime into this conversation and verify the above statements. If Tony was not trolling me...he would have never been given one-week ban to take a deep breath and accept the fact that other members do not and will not share his opinions. He needs to learn to be respectful and accept the above fact instead of trolling other members when they disagree with him, not talking to him or when they've decided to block/ignore him after he refused to stop trolling them. P.S. This message post is directed to Tony because he continues quoting my messages while he's blocked/ignored...a tactic that Baron dislikes considering Tony was given a one-week ban. Yet, Tony could reply without quoting my messages...I wouldn't have a problem. Buy1Sell2 replies without navigating around the block/ignore to quote someone including entering my threads without directing any messages to me while he replies to someone else in my threads. Others do it too. Thus, I do not accuse them of trolling me. Also, B1S2 doesn't reply to consecutive messages when the messages are directed to someone else and he doesn't search your message post history to track down old messages to reply too. That's how it should be done. Further, any threads that Tony has created after I placed him on block/ignore...I do not post in his threads because I do not troll Tony but I will reply if someone notifies me that Tony is lying again about trolling other members although this time he lied about Baron ban me too. Someone getting banned in the Political threads...it implies someone is violating the forum rules similar to a racist being banned by Baron for posting a series of racist message posts in the Political threads. The political threads is the most uncensored section of this forum. wrbtrader