Attrition: US Army Fades Away
15th July 2024
In the United States the army is having major problems maintaining its strength. Since the 1970s the army has depended on volunteers, not conscripts. The army was always able to get all the volunteers although it occasionally had to tinker with recruiting standards to make its numbers. In the last four years the usual methods have not been working. In 2021 the army had its authorized 485,900 personnel, a number that was expected to remain the same for the foreseeable future. Then problems with recruiting began and got worse and actual strength declined. By 2023 there were only 473,000 soldiers and the recruiting problems continued.
This time the usual explanations did not apply. This was discovered by asking a sample of military age men eligible to volunteer or be conscripted about their attitudes towards the military. Potential volunteers had been influenced by a reduction in motivation among military age men. This is defined as healthy men aged 18-35. There was a similar decline in their opinion of military service and this could be measured.
I certainly wouldn’t want to join today’s American military.