CV NEWS FEED // According to internal statistics, the Army recruited significantly fewer white soldiers in 2023 compared to previous years.
Steve Beynon of Military.com on Wednesday reported that a “total of 44,042 new Army recruits were categorized by the service as white in 2018, but that number has fallen consistently each year to a low of 25,070 in 2023.”
Beynon pointed out that the percentage of white recruits fell by 6% from 2022 to 2023 alone, “the most significant drop” in the last five years.
“No other demographic group has seen such a precipitous decline,” Beynon continued:
In 2018, 56.4% of new recruits were categorized as white. In 2023, that number had fallen to 44%. During that same five-year period, Black recruits have gone from 20% to 24% of the pool, and Hispanic recruits have risen from 17% to 24%, with both groups seeing largely flat recruiting totals but increasing as a percentage of incoming soldiers as white recruiting has fallen.
He went on to note that [t]he rate at which white recruitment has fallen far outpaces nationwide demographic shifts.”
Again from Beynon:
The updated data provided by the Army did not break down recruit demographics by both race and gender at the same time, meaning that it’s unclear whether the sharp decline is worse among white women or white men, or if the drop was the same for both groups.
Beynon wrote that this “decline” of white service members “accounts for much of the service’s historic recruitment slump that has become the subject of increasing concern for Army leadership and Capitol Hill.”
Three weeks ago, Daily Signal Executive Editor Rob Bluey noted that the military last year experienced “staffing concerns.”
“Three branches—the Army, Air Force, and Navy—missed their recruiting targets for 2023,” indicated Bluey. “The Army recruited 55,000 but its goal was 65,000, so it fell short by 10,000 active-duty soldiers.”
>> VERY FEW SOLDIERS KICKED OUT OF ARMY DUE TO COVID SHOT CHOOSE TO REJOIN <<
The Army’s recent struggles to bolster its ranks can be further illustrated by a late December Daily Signal report. The report showed that the vast majority of Army soldiers discharged over the branch’s COVID shot mandate decided not to rejoin the service after the mandate was lifted.
CatholicVote reported on December 21 that, per The Daily Signal, “only 57 – 3% – of the 1,903 Army service members who were forcibly removed for their decisions to not get a COVID shot have since reenlisted.”
>> POLL: ALMOST 3 OUT OF 4 VETS SAY MILITARY IS TOO WOKE <<
An American Principles Project (APP) poll last month found that “73% of veterans believe that the U.S. Military has become too political regarding race, gender, and sexuality.”
Rep. Jim Banks, R-IN, then cited the poll on the House floor, suggesting that “wokeness” might be a major driving force behind the military’s recruitment woes.
“Even worse, a quarter of the veterans would tell a young person not to enlist,” Banks said during the December 13 House Armed Services committee hearing. “And when those veterans were asked to explain why, in their own words, the most common reason was politics.”
“This recent survey says that clearly politics, [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)], ‘wokeness’ is a problem,” Banks said to Biden administration Assistant Secretary of the Army Agnes Schaefer, a hearing witness.
“What’s the army doing to change that perception about politics being a recruitment barrier?” he asked.
As CatholicVote reported:
“I think all of us … in the military, all of us share that responsibility to be apolitical,” she answered.
“What is the Army doing about that?” the congressman asked.
“We are demonstrating that we are being apolitical,” Schaefer claimed.
“You’re trying to express that the Army is apolitical, but how are you doing that?” Banks asked again.
“I’m not sure why there’s an underlying perception that we are political,” the assistant secretary said. “I don’t know what that is.”
