The U.S. Army’s “woke” recruitment struggles reportedly narrowed down to a single demographic amid a “confluence of issues.”
“There is no widely accepted cause.”
Actions and attitudes were hardly in alignment for the armed forces according to a new report from Military.com that indicated the ongoing failures to meet recruitment quotas have centered around steadily declining commitments from white people.
Having reviewed internal data, the website found that in five years time, the overall number of white recruits in the Army plummeted by nearly half from 44,042 in 2018 to 25,070 in 2023. While recruiting struggles have seen the branch missing goals that had been revised down, the figures were not comparable across the board.
Both black and Hispanic recruits had seen upticks from 20% to 24% and from 17% to 24% respectively over the same span.
“The rate at which white recruitment has fallen far outpaces nationwide demographic shifts, data experts and Army officials interviewed by Military.com noted,” the site reported. “They don’t see a single cause to the recruiting problem, but pointed to a confluence of issues for Army recruiting, including partisan scrutiny of the service, a growing obesity epidemic and an underfunded public education system.”
In 2022, the Army had adjusted expectations and still fell short by 15,000 recruits. The following year hadn’t been an improvement as they missed the mark of 65,000 by about 10,000 recruits.
“What we’re seeing is a reflection of society; what we know less of is what is driving all of these things. There is no widely accepted cause,” one official said.
Responses from the military have belied those claims as in late spring 2023, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth had lashed out at suggestions that leftist ideology was taking precedence over the mission.
“We are a ready Army, not a ‘woke’ Army. That’s something, frankly, the chief [Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville] and I said throughout posture season in hearings, in meetings with members of Congress,” she had asserted during a media roundtable.
Army official blames right-wing criticism of ‘woke military’ for recruiting crisishttps://t.co/LULYDmsmym
— American Wire News (@americanwire_) June 20, 2023
“I think one of the things that we see that’s contributing to a decline in trust in the military is a concern on both sides of the aisle about politicization of our military leaders,” Wormuth went on. “I think the more our military leaders are sort of dragged into spaces that have been politicized like that, I think the more it contributes to this perception that they’re political when they really aren’t. So, I hope that we don’t see more of the kind of talk that’s been out in the past few days.”
Additionally, an Army official contended to Military.com that, “No, the young applicants don’t care about this stuff. But the older people in their life do who have a lot of influence…parents, coaches, pastors. There’s a level of prestige in parts of conservative America with service that has degraded. Now, you can say you don’t want to join, for whatever reason, or bad-mouth the service without any cultural guilt associated for the first time in those areas.”
Despite those claims, the public readily took notice when the Army had backed off from an animated recruitment ad featuring a girl raised as an alphabet activist by lesbians and, instead, had relaunched the “Be all you can be” slogan with imagery that abandoned diversity, equity and inclusion models for an all-white, all-male promotion.
Here’s why Army’s new recruitment video has some convinced US getting ready for war https://t.co/z9SsCVP6gX via @BIZPACReview
— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) November 8, 2023
Compounding the impact of woke on the military, the website highlighted the parallels in Army recruitment with college enrollment, suggesting that incentives like the G.I. Bill were insufficient motivators.
“Between 2010 and 2021, white undergraduate and graduate college enrollment rates fell from 43% to 38%, according to the most recent federal data from the National Center for Education Statistics. That dip coincided with fewer men enrolling, with male enrollment decreasing from 38% to 33% over the same period of time,” Military.com noted before citing how academia has been under intense scrutiny for emphasizing indoctrination over education.
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
- Are ICE agents at airports a test run for coverage at polls on election day? - March 24, 2026
- DNC makes suggestive post about Mamdani’s pothole-fixing flex and people are skeeved out - March 24, 2026
- ‘Slap in the face’ banner draped over 9-11 memorial was a promo for new Islamic section of cemetery - March 24, 2026
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.