Bad Economy Helps Military Recruiting
Perhaps I’m not as dumb as my kids think I am. Back when our esteemed (*cough *hack) Congress was contemplating spending nearly a trillion dollars of your and my money, I had a conversation with one of my family members. One of the points I made was that with the economy getting so bad, military recruiting get much easier. Turns out I was right. Like I constantly remind my wife, I’m always right anyway! Or at least, she makes me believe it.
The Miami Herald reported today exactly what I had predicted weeks ago.
“We do benefit when things look less positive in civil society,” said David S.C. Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. “That is a situation where more are willing to give us a chance. I think that’s the big difference – people willing to listen to us.”
Economy aside, the fact that more people will look at the military as a secure way to earn an income and serve their country is a good thing. The military tends to have a bad rap among people who have no attachment to it because no family members serve. While unfortunate, a bad economy will bring in people who have never had any contact with the military and see exactly what we’re about. When pondering this, I can’t help but think about what Mr. Bill Murphy, author of “In A Time of War“, wrote recently for the Atlantic Journal:
Why does the military subculture sacrifice so much, and the rest of us so little? Seven years into the war on terror, what can “We the People” be doing to truly “support the troops”?
I love the way Mr. Chu said that he’s glad that people will “give us a chance.” That’s all we’ve ever asked for. The military is NOT for everyone. The economy will improve and many Soldiers will undoubtedly leave after their first term. That doesn’t bother me. Even if someone only serves 2-5 years, it’s still 2-5 more years than 99% of this country!! But, I strongly believe that a percentage of those who use the economy as an excuse to sign up will realize that the military isn’t what they’ve been told it is their whole lives. Some will stay on for a career and go on to do great things, even deploy and see that we aren’t “baby killers”. They will go back to their hometowns and hopefully tell all their friends and family that they were wrong about us.
Don’t get me wrong, though. We don’t NEED new recruits that bad. Every service met it’s Fiscal Year 08 recruiting goals. However, with more prospects to choose from, we won’t be so willing to approve waivers. Of course this could also be a bad thing. Many of those people who came in on waivers were given chances no one would give them. We took them in, gave them some meaningful training and experience, and they will leave much better people.
With the Army growing more than 65,000 Soldiers and the Marine Corps gaining about 30,000 Marines, the extra boost in recruitment can’t hurt!!
Miss Ladybug
October 10th, 2008 at 10:26 pmYou know, this doesn’t surprise me. I recently finished reading a memoir of Mrs. George S. Patton. She married “Georgie” well before WWI, and Patton, of course, served until his death after the fighting was over in WWII. Although Patton served during the Great Depression, that didn’t figure at all into the story Ruth Ellen had to tell about her family during that time – they were an Army family – again, in a time when the military was somehow separate from, and looked down upon by, “polite society”, so they always had a roof over their heads and food on the table (although it likely didn’t hurt that their families – both the Pattons and the Ayers – had money. Actually, one of Patton’s posting near DC was precisely because he had access to money that would accommodate the entertaining that was expected for the rank and position he held…