A new report claims that the United States Army has lost approximately 25% of the soldiers the military branch has recruited since 2022 prior to the completion of their service contracts.
According to Military.com, internal Army data obtained by Military.com shows that almost 25% of Army soldiers recruited since 2022 have not completed their initial contracts. The outlet noted that the report comes after the Army surpassed its recruitment goal and recruited 55,300 new active-duty troops last year after repeatedly struggling to meet recruitment goals under the Biden-Harris administration.
The reason behind the Army’s struggle to retain soldiers during their first contract with the military branch has not yet been revealed; however, Military.com suggested that one factor that could be contributing to the issue is a sharp decline in the quality of the Army’s recruitment pool.
In an interview with Military.com, Gil Barndollar, a senior research fellow with the Center for the Study of Statesmanship, said, “If this is the new normal, we’re taking in a whole quarter of the Army that isn’t hitting the standard.”
“The bigger question, though, is a human capital problem,” Barndollar added. “If we have a crisis and we need a lot of people, what is the state of the nation? We’re looking at a country which by a lot of metrics — physical ability, cognitive ability — all those numbers are going in the wrong direction.”
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The service data obtained by Military.com shows that approximately 25% of the soldiers who take the Army’s preparatory courses do not complete their first service contract and are washed out of the military branch within the first two years of their enlistment with the Army.
Military.com reported that approximately 25% of all Army enlistees were required to go through at least one of the Army’s Future Soldier preparatory Courses last year as the Army attempted to increase recruitment by helping Army applicants meet body fat and academic enlistment standards prior to basic training.
Military.com reported that 11.3% of the soldiers who do not attend any preparatory courses wash out of the Army’s basic training, while 15.3% of those who attend the academic track preparatory course, 16% of those who attend the fitness track preparatory course, and 18.7% of those who attend both preparatory courses wash out of basic training.
Addressing the issue of retaining Army recruits, an anonymous senior Army official told Military.com, “I don’t know what an acceptable attrition rate is, but we have to meet people where they are. The quality of new soldiers is an enormous problem we’re paying for. But that’s just where the country is.”
