The Army's Recruiting Problem

GEN Beagle told us to write, so I wrote.

The Recruiting Crisis

    By Ash Hess, SFC(R)  

It is no secret that the US Army is facing a massive recruiting shortfall. This crisis is and will continue to severely affect National Security and our standing as a superpower. We, as I am a retired Senior Non-Commissioned Officer, created this problem over two decades ago and never took the time to triage or repair it. I am using this essay to try to shine light on those problems and develop a course of action to eliminate them. The Bottom Line is if the people already here don’t want to be here, new people are even harder to recruit.  

Social Media

 As we do with operations, let’s look at the most dangerous problem first. If changes aren’t made or mitigations made, no recruiting effort will be successful. Some will tell you that social media is the problem. That is incorrect. Social media is simply a communication channel and the Army isn't paying attention to the message being sent. What social media does is allow Soldiers at all levels to transmit what’s really going on. It is not like life in the 90’s and earlier when problems with Units and leadership were not known until you arrived at a duty station. It is well known fact that the continuing leadership degeneration hasn’t been addressed. Things such as hazing, racism, and incompetence run rampant throughout the Army. It is right there on social media, posted in part by the Army itself. Every day, I see posts from official Army Accounts showing incompetence, poorly led Soldiers, embarrassing photo ops and propaganda. Combine this with pages like ArmyWTF moments that reach millions of people per year that highlight extreme cases of leadership failures and one thing is clear. Potential recruits KNOW they will encounter “leaders” who exemplify anything but the Soldier Creed, let alone the NCO creed.  

 The Army needs to accept that all the dirty laundry is out in the open. All the things that we have glazed over for years such as leadership, barracks, family housing, and pay are common knowledge. Potential recruits now can see in a day of research all the problems we did not see for our first few years in the Army. A Recruiter has no way of getting past this with any sort of integrity.  

 Ask yourself this question, if you knew all the problems in the Army before you joined would you have committed to it?  

Leadership  

 The other issues that need to be tackled by the leadership that are directly affecting recruiting are at the strategic level. You cannot watch one news cycle without seeing a story on our failed Afghanistan campaign, our failure to care for Veterans, or our handling of contemporary issues like diversity and racism.    I will start with Afghanistan. We cannot continue to maintain the premise that we did not fail there in the end. The world, and thus our potential recruits view our withdrawal as a failure. We know, as experienced Soldiers, that there was no better way to get out of Afghanistan. To us, the fact that we got out as clean as we did was a miracle. From the outside though, we looked no better than Baghdad Bob after the fact. I don’t know how to address that, but propaganda isn’t the way.    The current and continued issues with the Veterans Affairs are also big news that needs to be addressed. It is also common knowledge that after your Service, which may include combat, you will be ignored, wait months for appointments and then over medicated if you get treatment at all. Many popular accounts on social media post daily about failures of the VA. It is even in TV shows and in Movies. The 22-A-day and the VA content keep it fresh in the news cycle and rightly so.  

Anyone reading this knows either from direct experience or someone close to them that they will have problems with the VA. While there are examples of it working, we cannot say things are good with any sort of integrity.  

Many of these issues the Army itself cannot fix, but the important one we can, and we can do it quickly. That's leadership.

The bottom line is this. The US Army has leadership problems at every level. It probably always has.  Our Soldiers don’t want to work here, so why would anyone else. Social media has simply put those problems out for public consumption. We cannot hide from them anymore. We must address them and take swift, bold action to rectify it. We must assume that everyone is watching and that we can get away with nothing. We must transform into the organization we say we are and that is what will be transmitted to our nation and the world.  

The way ahead

My mentor, an old Crusty Tabbed Sergeant Major, once told me “Don’t show up in here with a problem and no solution” and he meant it. If he had to come up with the solution, it would usually be harder on you than the problem itself. Thus far I have only outlined problems with no solutions. Repairing the Leadership would be an excellent start.  

 If our Soldiers WANT to be here and are proud of it will put it on those same social media channels to great effect. I will address things that I have possible solutions for. For this, I am going to assume I had the power of the Chief of Staff and the Sergeant Major of the Army.

 The very first thing I would do is bring back a MOS Skills Qualification test. We have the resources to not only maintain the integrity of the test but administer them rapidly and remotely. This test would first be administered at the -40 level and include both MOS and general scenario-based testing. The repercussions for failure would be severe. The reason for starting at the top is to figure out how many promotions need to happen.

Failing twice within a 6-month period would result in immediate relief for cause followed by a chapter. The Platoon Sergeant is responsible for all the training development of the Team Leader. The -30 levels would be next and have the same repercussions with the only added chance of returning to the last attended NCOES school for retraining. I would bet my next retirement check that 40-50% of the current -30 and -40 level NCOs would fail their first attempt. 20% would be sent home.

Those -30 levels that passed would then be administered the -40-level test. Those that passed would be considered to fill the vacated -40 positions. There would be no repercussions on that attempt but the SQT for the next level must be passed for promotion eligibility.  

This brings us to the Team leaders. To be eligible for promotion, passing the -20 level SQT would be mandatory.   The most valuable resource the Army has in this fight is the Team Leader. It is the Team Leader that has direct control of the young Soldiers. Those young Soldiers are who potential recruits are paying attention to. The Team Leader is also probably well versed in social media and a direct link in many, many ArmyWTF posts.   The Team Leader is also the tip of the spear in actual Warfighting. Some would say the highest level of Fighting leader. Thus, this is the level that should receive the most attention.  

The next item on the agenda would be to demolish is the current local promotion board system. The promotion board has never been a great way to determine leadership potential. I say this as I was recommended for promotion at one Sergeant board and two Staff Sergeant Boards. We all know that the real promotion potential is seen in the squad and platoon levels, and it is now more effort to keep someone from getting promoted than it is to get someone promoted. Platoon Sergeants and First Sergeants should have more power and accountability on those decisions. I guarantee if that recommendation along with some sort of accountability was permanently attached to your file, decisions would not be taken lightly, or someone “promoted” to get rid of them.   I would require a battalion level MOS based quarterly event that would be the finale promotion potential test. This would be a hands-on style lane much like a train up for EIB or ESB and could be

considered as such. Combined with the SQT and leader recommendations the RIGHT people would be in leadership positions for the bulk of the force.  

 You are asking how this solves the current recruiting problem and I will lay that out now, since my plan depleted the force even more. With the right leaders, much of the negative social media fuel goes away. Soldiers would receive outstanding leadership from people who know their jobs and how to lead Soldiers. Soldiers would in turn be professionals and proud to be where they are. This would be valuable in both warfighting, our primary function, and recruiting as we would be an elite, professional force.   The stories that reach the potential recruit would paint the US Army in a good light and make it a place where people want to Be All that they Can Be.