While the world’s military battles amid a recruiting gap, the , Connecticut National Guard , has been replenishing its divisions fairly well, Guard recruiting officials said this year.
” We’re getting up on speed. We’re moving in the right direction” , , Army National Guard , Lt. Col.  , Giancarlo D’Angelo , said.
The Army Guard’s full power is about 3, 700 men, D’Angelo said, adding that the Guard seeks to sign up about 450 joined men and about 50 soldiers periodically. Additionally, according to D’Angelo, about 50 additional enlisted soldiers and officers commonly leave other states each year for the Connecticut Guard, frequently as they relocate to a new human career.
The Guard did also with recruiting at the start of the COVID- 19 crisis, when people were looking for work, he said. However, 2022, when work increased across the country, was the worst recruiting time since 1973.
In 2023 and so far this year, but, the Army Guard is rebounding, D’Angelo said. For the first quarter of fiscal year 2023- 24 ( the federal fiscal year, so the first quarter is October through December ), the Guard signed up 110 recruits, while the regular Army and Army Reserves attracted a combined 100 recruits in , Connecticut, D’Angelo said.
” We are out- enlisting them, which is rare”, he said.
Both D’Angelo and the , Connecticut Air National Guard ‘s , recruiting and retention superintendent, Master Sgt.  , Marc Mojica, said clinical testing for possible recruits is difficult and time consuming, a huge hurdle to traverse compared with previous training. The Connecticut Air Guard aims for a force of 1, 100 to 1, 200 service members and is currently at about 1, 090, Mojica, a , New Britain , native who joined the Guard in 2002, said.
Nationally, the all- volunteer force, created in 1973 after the draft ended, “faces one of its greatest challenges since inception” , , Ashish Vazirani, the , Department of Defense ‘s , acting undersecretary for personnel and readiness, said in December.
In the fiscal year that ended on , Sept. 30, 2023, military services collectively missed goals by about 41, 000 recruits, the , DOD , reported.
Recruiting challenges include:
— A strong economy, which has given young people many more career options.
— Generation Z, born from 1997 to 2012, “generally has a low trust in institutions”, Vazirani said.
Young people have fewer family members who have served, which makes them less likely to. In 1995, 40 percent of young people had a parent who served in the military, Vazirani said. By 2022, just 12 percent had a parent who had served, leading to” a disconnect between the military and a large share of society”, he said.
” While the picture of the current recruiting environment is acutely difficult, the , Defense Department , and the military services are working together to resolve issues, improve processes, and expand awareness of the many opportunities military service offers”, Vazirani said.
The military needs the help of leaders across the nation, including members of , Congress, to make a “national call to service”, especially for military service, but also for other public service, he said.
The , Marine Corps , and Space Force made their recruiting goals in the past fiscal year, the , DOD , reported, but recruiting patterns have increasingly come to reflect the nation’s red state- blue state political divide, with sign- ups strong in the South and Midwest, but lagging on the coasts, retired Army Brig. Gen.  , Michael Meese , said at a , Rand Corp.  , event in January, according to , Military .com, a military news site.
” When you look at it regionally, the North and the West tend to be less positive” on military service” than the South and the Midwest”, said Meese, the former head of , West Point ‘s , Department of Social Sciences, according to the report.
The pattern has been in place for decades and, should it continue, Meese said, he could envision a time 50 years from now when recruits from , New York , and , Oregon , would number in the single digits,” and everybody else is gonna be from , Georgia , and , North Carolina” despite the ongoing efforts of the services to attract recruits nationwide.
A , Rand Corp.  , report in December,” What Americans Think About Veterans and Military Service”, found the , U. S.  , public’s overall confidence in the military is declining in line with lower recruitment.
” Although the public still holds the military generally in high esteem compared with other major institutions”, Rand reported,” that esteem is wavering, influenced by such factors as the end of the war in , Afghanistan, the increased polarization of the public and heightened politicization of the military”.
The report found that a majority of Americans ( 54.4 percent ) would discourage a young person close to them from enlisting in the military, but a majority ( 61.2 percent ) would encourage a young person to join the military via , Reserve Officers ‘ Training Corps , ( ROTC ) or a service academy ( for example, as an officer ), according to the report.
The , U. S. Army , recently announced a” transformation” to meet its mission with a smaller force. The branch finished fiscal year 2022- 23 with 452, 000 active- duty soldiers, its smallest force since 1940, the , Army Times , reported.
The healthy jobs market has affected Connecticut Guard recruiting, D’Angelo said, but he pointed to the benefits of military service. The Guard offers health insurance to single members for$ 50 a month, free tuition to public higher education in , Connecticut, up to$ 50, 000 for student loan repayment, sign- up bonuses as high as$ 20, 000, and retirement benefits for those who serve 20 years.
The typical enlistment is six years, D’Angelo, an , East Lyme , native who has been with the service since 1999, said. One weekend a month and two weeks a year are served by guard members. Starting annual pay for a private is about$ 4, 700, he said. The Army Guard jobs include infantry, engineers, medics, cyber warfare specialists, truck drivers, cooks, and band members.
Representatives from the other Guard and Reserve branches did not respond to inquiries for comment right away.
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( c ) 2024 the New Haven Register ,
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