Global Courant 2023-04-14 11:00:41
Recruits entering the military are reportedly more out of shape than ever before, costing the affiliate millions of dollars as it tries to overcome its worst recruiting crisis in decades.
A study in the journal Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases found that the increased prevalence of unqualified army recruits has led to an alarming rate of injuries to soldiers during their initial entry-level training, posing another problem for a department already struggling to find enough recruits to to fill the ranks. .
The study, which studied trainees entering the military in fiscal year 2017, found that nearly 35% of first-time enlistees suffered at least one musculoskeletal injury during training. The problem was most pronounced in women, with 62% of female interns suffering a musculoskeletal injury compared to 32% of male recruits.
Perhaps trickier still, the study found that recruits from the South, a typical recruiting hotbed for the military, were more prone to injuries in training, accounting for eight of the worst-performing 10 states for trainee injuries.
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Recruits entering the military are reportedly more out of shape than ever before, costing the affiliate millions of dollars as it tries to overcome its worst recruiting crisis in decades. (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images/File)
The medical costs associated with treating the trainees’ injuries have piled up, with the study estimating that the military spent $14.8 million on the issue in fiscal year 2017 alone. About $7.2 million of that cost was attributed to eight Southern states, including Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and North Carolina. New York and Rhode Island joined the Southern states in the top 10.
“Recruits coming from Southern states are less physically fit and more likely to sustain[musculoskeletal injuries]during initial military training,” the study notes.
Thomas Spoehr, director of the Center for National Defense for the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital that the implications of the issue are likely to damage military preparedness over time.
“The military, and especially the military, has the best chance of recruiting someone in the southern states. They call it the ‘Southern Crescent,'” Spoehr said. “It highlights that their inclination or willingness or desire to serve doesn’t necessarily equate to the level of physical fitness people come in with.”
Spoehr said that while the South is the military’s most fertile recruiting ground, it’s also the region of the country with some of the highest rates of obesity and the lowest rates of physical activity.
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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the South slightly overshadows the Midwest as the US region with the highest obesity rate, at 36.3%, while the Midwest checks in at 35.4%. Meanwhile, the American West comes in with the lowest obesity rates, at 28.7%.
The military is currently facing an unprecedented recruiting crisis since moving to an all-volunteer model nearly four decades ago, with the military particularly hard hit by the problem. During fiscal year 2022, the military fell 15,000 soldiers short of meeting its recruitment target.
“In the Army’s most challenging recruiting year since the inception of the all-volunteer force, we will meet just 75% of our fiscal year (2022) recruiting goal,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said in a statement last October.
Soldiers of the 330th Movement Control Battalion stand in formation in Zagan, Poland. (US Army / Sergeant Joseph Aleman / file)
But getting recruits into the army is just one step to fill the ranks. Spoehr noted that about 10% of recruits will miss initial boarding training, a number that could increase as more unqualified recruits try to fill the ranks.
“People getting lost in initial entry-level training is about 10%. That may not sound high, but when you consider how much effort the military has put into recruiting those people…it typically costs at least $30,000 per recruit to get them signed up,” Spoehr said. “It just adds to the inability to recruit the number of people we need into the military. That, in turn, translates into a weaker army.”
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In response to the crisis, the military recently announced an expansion of a program that will allow the branch to hire candidates who do not meet weight and fitness requirements and send them through a 90-day course to help them meet the standard. meet before basic training.
The program has been considered a success to date, with 2,965 of the 3,206 students who attended the course prior to the expansion completing it and moving on to basic training.
The Army missed its 2022 recruitment targets by 25%. (US Army / Truce)
According to Spoehr, such programs are a step in the right direction for the military.
“It’s a precious thing … we have to pay these people to be there, and we have to house and feed them,” Spoehr said. “But it will work out in the end.”
Spoehr says the program could even be expanded, allowing recruits to prepare for training while still at home and ultimately lower costs for the military.
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“We don’t have to accept the status quo that only 23% of people qualify and we’re happy to live with that,” he said. “We’re trying to get that number back to 26, 27 or 28%.”
However, the military is still facing significant headwinds to overcome the crisis. Some critics have argued that the military’s turn to an “awakened” policy rather than preparedness has alienated many who would otherwise have been willing to serve. Meanwhile, polls have shown that the country’s youngest populations show declining patriotism, a value strongly linked to military service.
According to the results of a Wall Street Journal/NORC survey released last month, the percentage of Americans who consider patriotism a “very important” value to them has fallen 32% over the past 25 years. The lack of patriotic values is most pronounced in the 18-29 age range, with only 36% of those in that demographic reporting that patriotism was a “very important” value in their lives.
Spoehr believes a nationwide effort is needed to reverse the trend, starting with the country’s education system.
“I think part of that is probably our education system,” he said, adding that it also takes leaders, like the president, to take the initiative and consistently deliver a message of the virtues of service.
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“The good news is it’s reversible,” he continued. “We can, if we put our minds together, we can change that. But it’s going to take people who think differently about America.”
Spoehr says another area the military needs to improve is how it markets services to youth, noting that benefits for military service have remained largely unchanged over the past 40 years and are typically marketed to those with families.
The medical costs associated with treating the trainees’ injuries have piled up, with the study estimating that the military spent $14.8 million on the issue in fiscal year 2017 alone. (Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images/File)
“Our benefits and compensation system is designed primarily with retirees or those already employed in mind, rather than attracting people to join,” Spoehr said. “The GI Bill was and is a great benefit, but now there are a lot of other employers… offering tuition fees, so that has lost some of its value.”
Some of the other benefits Spoehr mentioned were family housing, medical care, and the military grocery stores known as commissars. Those are things young people “don’t think about,” he said, arguing that in order to attract more young people and overcome the crisis, the military needs to meet young people where they are.
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“They think about free time, where they can be allocated,” Spoehr said. “Can they be assigned to their friends? What will my life be like? Can I have a pet? All this stuff that our current compensation system doesn’t address.”
Michael Lee is a writer at Fox News. Follow him on Twitter @UAMichaelLee
