The United States Army has seen a nearly 50 percent decrease in enlistments by White men in the last half-decade, internal recruitment numbers suggest. This new report coincides with a massive enlistment shortfall across all branches of the U.S. Military, bleakly highlighting the consequences of vaccine mandates and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs.
According to a report compiled by Military.com on Wednesday, the Army’s number of White male recruits has steadily dropped from 44,042 in 2018 to 25,070 in 2023. The rate of decrease varied from year to year, but the largest drop came between 2022 and 2023 when White enlistment fell by 6 percent.
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As the outlet indicates, these demographic trends would ordinarily be of no concern to the country’s war planners—and, in fact, given the military’s recent emphasis on diversity, might be a fact they’d celebrate. However, in 2023, the Army missed its recruitment goal by more than 10,000 soldiers, and only 44 percent of the recruits were categorized as White.
In that same five-year time period, Black recruits have gone from 20 percent to 25 percent of the recruitment pool. Hispanics have increased from 17 percent to 24 percent. In both cases, however, recruitment totals have remained largely static, with the proportions only growing because of the drop-off among Whites.
These declining recruitment numbers are putting additional strain on active personnel, who are being stretched ever thinner as the U.S. expands its presence in multiple conflict zones, including the Pacific Ocean, the Middle East, and Europe. Despite not being officially engaged in any foreign wars, the country’s involvement in proxy conflicts (Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan) and close monitoring of other situations (the Red Sea) is reportedly using more military resources than were deployed during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The declining rate of White participation in military service vastly outpaces national demographic shifts, which likewise show decreasing White birthrates—but at a far slower rate.
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While military leadership is justifiably concerned by this trend, they have not been able to identify a single cause. Instead, experts cite “partisan scrutiny of the service, a growing obesity epidemic, and an underfunded public education system.”
“What we’re seeing is a reflection of society; what we know less of is what is driving all of these things,” one Army official told Military.com. “There is no widely accepted cause.”
However, many outside observers have pointed to the structure of the U.S. Military itself as the leading cause—particularly the establishment’s emphasis on diversity hires and its general degradation of Whites.
In 2021, Gen. Mark Milley, Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, emphasized the military’s need for greater “racial diversity” and told the House Armed Services Committee that he wanted to “understand White rage.” This sentiment has been reinforced by other elements of the Biden administration, including by President Joe Biden himself, who has repeatedly said that radicalized White men are the nation’s biggest terrorist threat.
Many have also called attention to the military’s COVID-era vaccine mandates, which forced servicemembers to either take the controversial and experimental vaccine or be issued a dishonorable discharge. More than 8,400 enlisted men and women across all military branches were expelled for refusing, and an additional 8,945 soldiers, 10,800 airmen guardians, 4,172 sailors, and 3,717 Marines were denied religious exemptions.
Only 43 servicemen have returned to active duty once the vaccine mandate was lifted in January 2023.
Connor Walcott is a staff writer covering politics, culture, and business for Valuetainment.com. Follow Connor on X (Twitter).
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