USA TODAY (7/30/2015) and other national news organizations report the US Army is facing recruiting deficits. It is interesting the Army reports it is “nearly 14% short of the recruits it will need to fill its ranks,” at the same time it is in the course of reducing the total number of soldiers in its ranks by 40,000 over the next few years. Stated in another way, “Despite that reduction to 450,000 men and woman, the Army still needs about 60,000 young recruits a year to fill out its combat and support units.” In contrast, the Air Force, Marines and Navy all have made 100% of their recruiting goals through May, according to the Defense Department. [View article online.]
This churning process, reduction in force while not meeting recruiting numbers, while clearly indicating piss poor long term planning by the Department of Defense, is not explained by the normal attrition processes such as soldiers fulfilling their service contracts or reaching retirement. There is, no doubt, a substantial contribution to the long standing, agitated Army man power cistern from the ambivalent support of the Congress, where support of the military is measured more by the wet fickle finger raised into the winds of imagined political support, rather than from tactical or strategic considerations. There is no question the Pentagon feels or imagines the pressures of political constraints and, after all, there is this huge pool of young people, mostly enlisted Army, who can be manipulated and pruned in this man- power game of cards. The most vulnerable are the following: those who are broken or defective, regardless of etiology. For instance, the E5, Sergeant, who has been used up with three combat deployments and fails to meet performance or behavioral standards; i.e. not meeting Army Values. Disability or dysfunction that is manifest by behavioral or substance use problems, such as PTSD or so called “minor brain injury,” are low hanging, defective discards, without public advocacy, and are easily cut loose; nicely easing command anxiety about reduction of force. The more complicated the problem, the more rapid the administrative separation. The process of a careful Medical Evaluation Board just prolongs the process.
Also vulnerable to the reduction in force board game are those soldiers who fail to meet the inflated standards for promotion through the ranks. The black mark of just a satisfactory or even good Evaluation Report can result in being culled from the pack. At the time of recruitment into the Army, again dependent on the political winds, the quality of recruits accepted into active service changes. Recently, Major General Jeffrey Snow, the Commander of the Recruiting Command, stated to USA TODAY, “There has been a decrease in the percentage of recruits who have received waivers for failing to meet educational or other standards.” There is the open admission that in the past, when the military was involved in a two front war, starting in 2005, “ …the Pentagon relaxed standards of recruits who fared poorly on standard military exams.” The military, particularly the Army, struggled to meet recruiting goals during the height of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan but recruiting was easier when the economy turned down, as it was hard for young to find work without education. It is not an uncommon story to hear from a soldier that he entered the Army when he could not find work and the recruiter would help him get a GED. It is also not uncommon to hear, when recruiting is slow, for a recruiter to tell a young person to stop taking medication, such as stimulants for ADHD, so they can get on active duty, and then after basic training they can get their medication re-started by military doctors. These recruits are vulnerable and easily moved on by reduction in force even when they served honorably in combat. They frequently leave the military without more optimistic prospects for the future, particularly if they were in combat arms military specialties. They may have educational benefits but are quite often not capable or motivated to take advantage of VA programs.
As the economy improves it is harder for the Army to recruit in all military specialties, particularly when the funds to bribe the young and vulnerable are not readily available. USA TODAY notes that at the peak of fighting, “Standards for recruits were lowered and greater signing bonuses were handed out. In 2006, for example, it spent $1 billion on bonuses to recruit and retain soldiers….Bonuses and educational incentives, however, have decreased in recent years, Snow said. The Army paid out $117 million in 2014 compared with $235 million in 2013.” Regardless of economic or military circumstances, it is still called the all-volunteer Army. Still, the evidence indicates, to a large extent, it is a life for rent and then after broken, you will be abandoned.
The good news from the New York Times (7/30) is that Congress has stepped up to support the short fall in the in the Veterans Administration. “With just a day to spare, the Senate has passed a budget fix that will keep VA facilities running in August. Before recessing the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation on Wednesday to help the VA meets its budgetary crunch. The Senate passed similar legislation Thursday afternoon. The provision was combined with a short-term fix of highway funding and gives the VA flexibility to shift up to 3.3 billion from the Veterans Choice Fund for veterans’ health care.” Also, good news of sorts is that there are more than enough veterans in need of help.
Unfortunately that is some bad news on a different front. Even though there is a critical need for behavioral health services in the VA, there is an ongoing severe shortage of psychiatric services. Medscape News and Perspective reports headlines Psychiatry Facing Severe Manpower Crisis. [View article online.] As part of an extensive analysis of the problem, the future is bleak for civilian as well as military/veteran mental health care. “Forty-eight percent of these specialists [psychiatrists] are 60 years of age and older and are closing in on retirement. And although psychiatrists are aging out of the profession, the demand for services is spiking….a report from the Department of Health and Human Services showing that only 41% of adults with any kind of mental illness received mental health services in the past year.” According to Travis Singleton, an executive with the physician recruiting firm Merritt Hawkins, “It’s very scary…we’re desperately underserved.” At the bottom of this very meager supply system is the military and VA. It has gone beyond time for the Congress, the Pentagon and the Veterans Administration to be planning for this future. Let us not wait until the next, inevitable conflict to react. Then, it will ultimately be too late.