The Future of The Armed Services Manpower

Retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Charles Farmer, Jr. cares deeply about passing on the future of the military to the next generation of soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and guardians. That’s why he now serves as the detachment commander of the Niceville High School JROTC program after a career in the Air Force.

The program has had its ups and downs in enrollment – including a significant dip in numbers at the height of the pandemic. But the program is back up to its pre-pandemic levels and has seen much higher student participation numbers.

According to the accounting and consulting firm Deloitte, higher participation numbers are expected. The Company recently released a study they performed that has good news for the military regarding recruiting and retaining the children of military personnel. More than four in five parents with military experience would recommend to their children that they, too, join up. More than half of the children of military personnel who were surveyed say that their first plan is to join up.

The sentiment isn’t news to Farmer – who’s monitored local trends with his cadets over the years.

“The military is no longer a fallback situation,” Farmer said, “People coming out of high school that didn’t know what they’re going to do, and a lot of times they would go, ‘I guess I’ll go join the military.’ That has changed, and it is much more deliberate these days; the ones coming up want to go, and they know what they want to do, and they go out, and they seek that out.”

These positive indicators come at a time when the military has seen a positive increase in recruitment. The Department of Defense released a report that shows a 12.5% increase in recruitment overall.

Still, the Pentagon says that problems still persist at the core of the country. “We need to remain cautiously optimistic about the future recruiting operations as we continue to recruit in a market that has low youth propensity to serve, limited familiarity with military opportunities, a competitive labor market and a declining eligibility among young adults,” the Director of Military Accession Policy Katie Helland said in a Department of Defense blog post.

The post noted that fewer and fewer Americans have the chops to enlist or receive a commission in the military. “Approximately 77% of people between the ages of 17 and 24 require some type of waiver to serve due to any number of disqualifications,” it noted.

However, the increase in the recruitment of eligible people and the steady commitment from ‘military families’ continue to be a bright spot for recruitment into the armed services.