As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravage the globe, a number of societal, economic, and health deficiencies are being abruptly exposed. One of these concerns is the danger associated with the National Guard and Army Reserve components of the US Military being forced to continually shoulder immense operational burdens due to an ever-shrinking active force. For example, in the last century, reservists have been mobilized into active service twice as often as in the previous century. The extensive use of this shrinking force is a national security risk that must be addressed as personnel from the National Guard and the Army Reserve are again being heavily relied upon as the nation responds to COVID-19.
The Military Response to COVID
It is important to remember that the military, specifically the National Guard and the Army Reserve, serve on numerous battlefields that are often different from what we traditionally envision. For example, U.S. military forces are often used for domestic emergencies such as bolstering states’ abilities to fight forest fires and to provide disaster relief in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The COVID pandemic is no different. Since the outbreak, nearly 1,100 military medical personnel have been called on to support civilian medical efforts at medical facilities throughout the U.S. This number does not include the additional 46,000 Air and Army National Guard personnel and 6,400 Navy, Air Force and Army Reservist who have been summoned to respond to the pandemic in a variety of other capacities. The military has also been a leading force in constructing treatment sites for COVID patients. For example, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has deployed 620 of their personnel to help construct 30 alternate care facilities in 14 states and the District of Columbia.
The COVID-19 pandemic poses particular challenges that force the military to lean heavily on the National Guard and the Army Reserve in order to effectively respond. For example, most of the wartime medical capability is in the reserves, particularly in the Army Reserve. As these medical units are mobilized and sent to COVID-19 “hot spots,” they take medical reservists away from their civilian medical activities thus weakening some localities while strengthening others. Therefore, these mobilizations need to be strategically organized in order to ensure that the medical reserve units that are offering support are being taken from less affected areas of the country. The part-time and civilian components of the Guard and Reserve enable their units to be embedded deeper in communities where diseases start and must be addressed. This deep community connection increases the effectiveness of their pandemic response abilities on a local level and is another reason why these components of the military are looked to during domestic emergencies.
The National Security Risk
The COVID pandemic is the most recent example of how vital the Army Reserve and National Guard components of our military are to our nation’s security, especially during times of crisis. Realizing that we do not have the manpower or resources to effectively respond to an emergency whether it be domestic, international, a force of nature, or a force of man is not something we want to discover when it is too late. However, as the Army Reserve and National Guard components of our military continue to shrink, we are at a much greater risk of this crisis becoming reality.
A Shrinking Force and a Shrinking Pool
Since 1975, the Army’s actual personnel levels have declined by more than 300,000. Much of this drastic decline can be traced back to the shrinking of the Army’s recruiting pool. Currently, less than 30% of Americans from ages 17 to 24 can even qualify for military service based on failure to meet recruiting standards in areas such as weight, fitness, education, and criminal records. In other words, out of the estimated 35 million Americans between the ages of 17 to 24 in 2018, 24.9 million were unqualified to serve. The military has tried to combat this issue by increasing, to the point of doubling, their use of waivers which are used to grant recruits enrollment into the military even if they do not meet eligibility requirements. Waivers can be granted for numerous reasons, but roughly ⅓ of waivers were used to provide exceptions for requirement deficiencies that stem from conduct and drug (mostly marijuana) use. Waivers pertaining to exceptions for potential recruits who fail to meet the military’s physical requirements are harder to grant and therefore less frequently seen. There is likely a correlation between the shrinking pool of eligible recruits and the increase in obesity rates of Americans from ages 18 - 24. From 2011 to 2018, the obesity rate in Americans aged 18 to 24 rose 2.9% from 15.2% to 18.1%.
A Lack of Desire
The lack of desire to join the Army is the other main factor contributing to the shrinking recruiting pool and the factor whose solution must take precedence if the Army is to effectively solve its recruiting problem. From 1987 to 2015, the overall propensity to serve in the military declined by 5% which equates to 1.3 M individuals. Out of the 35 million Americans between the ages of 17-24 in 2018, a staggering 29.8 million were unwilling to serve. Many of the political and ethical reasons for this decline may stem from citizens’ personal or religious beliefs that military and policy leaders can not effectively influence. However, there are some key reasons for the decline in the desire to serve that can and should be addressed by our nation as a whole.
More Than an Issue of Money
The Army’s current mitigation strategy centers largely around increasing recruiting bonuses and advertising budgets as a means to attract more recruits. From 2016 to 2019, the Army increased its advertising/recruiting budget by 31% ($219M) from $479M to $699M. However, it is not a problem that can be solved through ad dollars, instead, we must look at social and policy changes.
A Backwards Trend
There is a valid argument in the case of the Army Reserve and National Guard that the lack of desire to join may stem from the increased operational burden that bearing and the impact that it is having on their civilian lives. As we continually lean on the Reserve and Guard we are stressing the balance between their civilian and military lives to a breaking point. More deployments mean more time away from their civilian jobs which also puts employers in a tough situation. The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act protects military personnel from being terminated due to deployment, but it can not protect them completely from other forms of discrimination, whether malicious or not. The fact is that spending more and more time away from their civilian job puts many reservists or guard members at a significant disadvantage. These potential career disadvantages could undoubtedly lead to a lack of desire to join or rejoin the military which in turn weakens our national security.
This trend is backward. Joining the military should not be seen as a career deficit, but as the opposite, a distinct career advantage. Military experience can equip potential employees with specialized training in highly sought after industries such as IT, health care, and operations, while also heightening general skills like discipline and leadership that are valuable across all industries. The problem cannot be attributed solely to employers, as many do everything that they can to support their military employees but are placed in an almost impossible situation when those employees are constantly being taken away. But the problem can’t be entirely blamed on the military either as they must maintain a certain level of operation to ensure that national security requirements are met, especially in cases of domestic emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic.
The First Step Towards A Solution
The complexity of this situation will require the collaboration of the military, policymakers, corporations, and the general public to generate an effective and innovative solution that directly addresses the heart of the problem more effectively than simply increasing the ad spending and recruiting bonuses. A problem of this magnitude will obviously take time, however, the first step is to spread awareness so that all parties may adequately educate themselves in order to collaborate more effectively on a long-term solution. That is the goal of this article, to act as the spark that begins the education, discussion, and eventual collaboration that might lead to a solution.