Recruiters are contending with a confounding array of political, social and economic crises that have made it harder than ever to find citizens willing to serve.
Sgt. 1st Class Dane Beaston, center, waits for the next visitor after he gives a tour of a Humvee to attendees at the Ocean County Fair in Bayville, N.J.
The unrelenting pressure Beaston and his six-person team were feeling reflected the high stakes for the military and the country. Each of the services - except for the Marine Corps - missed its 2023 recruiting goal. The Army, which had come up short two years in a row, was aiming to bring in 55,000 recruits in 2024 - about 10,000 fewer than last year’s missed goal.
Beaston, center, at a morning team meeting with recruiters at the Army recruiting office in Toms River, N.J. Today, U.S. soldiers are spread across the globe, training Ukrainian troops to fight the Russians and working alongside allies to deter China, North Korea and Iran. Several other possible recruits were waiting on waivers for medical conditions, such as asthma or ADHD, a slow and bureaucratic process that could take weeks or in some cases months.
The push that made Beaston want to be a soldier had come on Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. His school closed early that morning and Beaston, who was in the fourth grade, spent the rest of the day at home with his mom in East Bridgewater, Mass., about 30 miles south of Boston, watching video of the burning towers on the news. “In my head, I was like, ‘I am going to join,’” he recalled. “I didn’t know which branch. I just knew I was going to join.
Each Army recruiter is expected to produce at least one enlistment contract a month. Beaston’s job, as the Toms River station commander, was to make sure the station hit its overall goal.Shortly before the station shut down for the day, his company commander, who oversees seven New Jersey recruiting stations, dropped by the office. June was shaping up as a lean month for the entire company.The station wasn’t likely to meet its seven-person goal, Beaston replied, but five seemed possible.
At Toms River, Ramos’s biggest problem was finding native Spanish speakers with the English skills to pass the ASVAB exam, an area where Ramos had some personal experience. Army recruiter Staff Sgt. Ken Dziminski, left, and Beaston ride above the Army kiosk on the boardwalk to check out crowds in Seaside Heights.
Two men pass an advertising truck in Lakewood Township, N.J. The truck has various video consoles, and the public is invited inside to play simulation scenario games. Over the next couple of weeks, everything that could possibly go wrong for the Toms River station did. Beaston and his recruiters lost prospects to last-minute cases of cold feet, low ASVAB exam scores and time-consuming medical waivers.
Under Beaston’s leadership, the Toms River station rapidly improved. Last year it hit 44 percent of its active duty goal and was doing even better this year. The whiteboard, though, still sat on the floor by Beaston’s desk. With the end of the Cold War, the Army got smaller, more selective and isolated from the rest of the country. “We’re closing in on ourselves,” Wormuth, the Army secretary, worried. Today, 81 percent of Army recruits come from military families. In Pentagon surveys, young Americans and their parents said they knew little about the armed forces.
On June 24, Glass picked up Wattley at his father’s townhouse and drove him to a nearby military base where Wattley was going to pick an Army job and, if all went as planned, enlist. He didn’t own a phone, so Wattley borrowed Glass’s and called his mom from the base. “This is like so surreal,” Wattley said as he climbed into Glass’s car. Glass handed Wattley his phone, and he dialed his mom.Army recruiter Staff Sgt. Jesus Ramos, left, greets recruit Sebastian Villaorduña at his home in Seaside Heights. With four days left until the end of the month, the Toms River station kept losing prospects. One of Glass’s recruits opted for college. A second vaped marijuana at a party and had to cancel his Army physical. He probably wouldn’t test clean for 90 days.
Ramos told Villaorduña about the places he’d visited since joining the Army: the Grand Canyon, Los Angeles, Yankee Stadium. He had met people from all over the country.Villaorduña listened attentively. So many young Americans saw the military as a detour from the life they envisioned for themselves or as something beneath them. For Villaorduña, joining the Army was a pathway to becoming more fully part of a country that offered promise and possibilities beyond his reach in Peru.
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