(Ken Silva, Headline USA) U.S. military recruitment numbers have been plummeting for years, and a new report from Military.com shows that the decrease in white recruits has led the overall decline.
Military.com reported Wednesday that the number of white Army recruits fell from 44,042 in 2018 to 25,070. In 2018, 56.4% of new recruits were reportedly categorized as white. In 2023, that number reportedly declined to 44%.
“During that same five-year period, Black recruits have gone from 20% to 24% of the pool, and Hispanic recruits have risen from 17% to 24%, with both groups seeing largely flat recruiting totals but increasing as a percentage of incoming soldiers as white recruiting has fallen,” Military.com reported.
“The shift in demographics for incoming recruits would be irrelevant to war planners, except it coincides with an overall shortfall of about 10,000 recruits for the Army in 2023 as the service missed its target of 65,000 new soldiers,” the publication added.
The House Oversight Committee held a hearing related to the issue Thursday. There, military officials testified about how diversity, equity and inclusion ideology has impacted servicemembers.
“Why would a white guy want to enlist in an organization that blames every ill in the world on them? That spits in the eye of all those white guys that came before and calls them filthy names?” one veteran said, according to a report submitted by Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier (Ret.). “This veteran will encourage our youth to stay away from the military until the military stops with the ‘We hate white people’ nonsense.”
According to the report from Lohmeier, another servicemember said: “What military aged white male would want to enlist when politicians made it clear to promote Blacks and women over more experienced white men? I smell a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion quota system being used in the liberal social engineering degeneration of our military.”
However, many government officials have expressed apathy at the declining recruitment rates. Last month, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., proposed that the shortfall in white recruits could be made up for by allowing illegal immigrants to serve.
“Do you know what the recruiting numbers are at the Army, Navy and Air Force? They can’t find enough people,” Durbin said last month. “And there are undocumented people who want to serve this country. Should we give them the chance? I think we should.”
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
