Time to Fix the Pentagon's Recruitment and Retention Problems

Successfully recruiting and retaining skilled uniformed military personnel is absolutely essential to America's defense.

Superior military technology matters -- witness Israel's air and space defense systems smashing Iran's Oct. 1 ballistic missile attack. However, testing, controlling, repairing and employing the hi-tech gear and weapons in combat requires disciplined human warfighters.

Since 1973 the U.S. armed services have relied on volunteers. The Pentagon must recruit physically and mentally qualified personnel and retain them. Recruiting is expensive -- the Army's marketing and ad budget is $1.1 billion. That includes $675 million for recruiting incentives.

Retaining personnel is expensive. Military service is servitude of a special sort. Suppressing the lure of civilian life requires higher pay, benefits and other incentives.

Civilian paychecks often win. U.S. Air Force senior leaders recently told Air & Space Forces Magazine the USAF must solve its "seemingly intractable pilot shortage" that began in the 1990s. The USAF manages to recruit "1,300 new pilots per year, well short of the service's long-term goal of 1,500."

Young men and women want to start families. To keep personnel, the volunteer military must accommodate families. However, pay isn't high enough for lower-ranking personnel with families. The Military Times recently reported that around "325,000 military families (are) currently struggling with hunger and financial hardship."

News like this hampers recruitment, understandably.

Over the last decade, recruiting shortfalls have plagued all the armed services. In fiscal year 2022 the Army recruited 45,000 soldiers. It needed 60,000. In fiscal year 2023 its goal was 65,000. It recruited 50,000.

On Sept. 26 the Associated Press reported "the Army, Air Force, Marine Corps and Space Force will all meet their recruiting goals" (for fiscal year 2024) and "the Navy will come very close."

However, close reading reveals the Army lowered its goal to 55,000.

The recruitment pool is small. In 2022 a Pentagon study concluded that in fiscal year 2020, only 23% of Americans between the ages of 17 and 24 met the Army's physical, moral and educational requirements. In 2017 the figure was 29%.

The Pentagon, clued-in congressional leaders (many of them veterans) and concerned organizations mull new incentives that might make military service attractive to young people. What does a 21st-century GI Bill look like? The World War II GI Bill was the best investment the U.S. government ever made. A recent Washington Post op-ed urged "creative thinking," such as "grants to start a business or a low interest mortgage loan." That sounds family friendly.

For years I've discussed recruiting problems with other veterans. In 2012 a former Navy electrician's mate told me the construction and logistics industries value military engineering and maintenance skills. The military is a super apprenticeship program. Some companies and unions know that. So formalize the process and connect recruits to these industries after they complete their enlistment.

During the Vietnam War, my friend George Hamilton was a U.S. Army dental tech specialist. He has been involved as a volunteer in Army recruiting efforts in Texas. Three weeks ago, he phoned me and said he had an idea that might help recruiting. He called it "The Active-Duty Military Tax Relief Bill."

The bill's components:

Military personnel on active duty with the Army, Navy, USAF, Marines and Coast Guard will not pay federal income tax for as long as they are on active duty. After service members separate from service or retire, they pay federal taxes.

The spouses of active-duty military personnel will not pay federal taxes on their income.

If the active-duty military member dies on active duty, the surviving spouse will not pay federal taxes for 10 years.

When a reservist is on active duty, the reservist will not pay federal taxes. The spouse of the reservist on active duty would not pay federal taxes.

The idea's intriguing. And it's easily implemented. Military personnel are excluded from federal income taxes for each month they serve in a war zone. This bill, or something similar, would help ensure that we have enough soldiers to send to the war zone.

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To find out more about Austin Bay and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

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