It is no secret that the military is facing deficits in recruitment. From its recent peak in 1987 to 2022, military recruitment declined by 39%. The army, airforce, and navy expect to fall short of their 2023 recruitment goals by 10,000, 10,000, and 6,000 recruits respectively.

There are several contributing factors to this decline, especially in up and coming high school graduates, namely 17 and 18-year-olds, who make up 51% of the military’s recruits.

As of 2020 Only 23% of U.S. citizens are eligible for military recruitment in the first place, as opposed to 29% in 2016. Furthermore, college is generally a more popular option for graduating seniors. 61.8% of high school (or equivalent) graduates go on to postsecondary study according to EducationData.Org. College, especially in high income, well educated areas, is seen as the favorable next step after high school, and there is a strong perception that the military is for kids who are not smart enough to attend college.

Boulder High is heavily representative of this college preference. 85% of Boulder High students enroll in college, and of the 15% left over, only a select few choose to join the military. Out of a graduating class of around 528 students, only one or two join the military each year, which comes out to only about 0.00379% of students at Boulder High.

According to USAfacts.org, the possibility of physical and emotional trauma are the two most common reasons for not joining the military. Other discouraging factors include leaving family and friends, other career interests, and dislike of the military lifestyle. Though the military does provide many short and long-term benefits, such as pay during training, an option outside of college, insurance, and healthcare, providing enough of these benefits for recruits to overcome the fear of war is no easy feat. 

Due to a general lack of interest, recruiters often visit high school students to boost awareness and find potential candidates for service. As it stands, military recruitment on Boulder High’s campus is heavily monitored and prohibited most of the year. Similarly, advertisements via email are also filtered. Army recruiters are banned from school property, while only the Marines are allowed to advertise for a few select days a year.

Military Recruiters have a negative stigma, especially amongst those in opposition to U.S. military practices, who argue that their existence in itself is inherently manipulative to children. PrismReports.org says “As the military falls short of its recruitment goals, it is engaging in manipulative tactics that anti-militarism groups are educating and organizing against.” Even pro-military organizations recognize how recruiters can bend the truth to sound more appealing. According to Operation Military Kids, “Most recruiters are not bad, but they have quotas to meet, and that pressure can lead to bending the truth or outright lying.”

These misdirections can include fibs about what kind of jobs will be available post-service, benefits like healthcare, housing, and food, or telling recruits they have the right to refuse deployment (which they don’t). It can also be as simple as pressuring candidates whoif they seem unsure. This kind of manipulation is especially effective with fresh graduates who might not have many other options, meaning the shady elements of recruitment may disproportionately affect lower-income kids. According to inequality.org, “57% of students at public high schools with JROTC programs, or Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, rely on free or reduced-price lunch — about 10% more than schools without them.”

So just how prevalent is manipulation within military recruitment? Turns out, it can vary.

Taylor Robinson, a student at Boulder High currently undergoing the enrollment process, has had mixed experiences across different recruitment offices.

“I’ve interacted with two different recruiters. The first recruiter I interacted with was the Boulder recruiting office … I know of three other people who are from Boulder who chose to not enlist with the Boulder recruiting office. So to have a young smart person come into Boulder, they were pushy. They were more pushy towards it, they were giving me a lot of like time limits, which, in like, if you don’t enlist by this point, you’re probably not going to get the MOS [military occupational specialty] you want. Which isn’t true.” -Taylor Robinson

However, their experience differed drastically when interacting with the Longmont recruiting office.

“The other guys that I went to were so laid back and really chill. The guys in Longmont were super excited, like if this is what you want to do, we’re gonna make it happen. If you tell us that you’re just trying to gain information and you don’t want to do it, alright, cool. You can leave then.”

-Taylor Robinson

The quality of recruiters can vary across the board, which can even influence what branch of the military candidates enter. I talked to an anonymous high school graduate about his experience with recruiters for both the Army and Marine Corps.

“When I was talking to the army recruiter I felt they put so much emphasis on money that I was turned off. My Marine Corps recruiter sat with me and helped me make my decision on whether I wanted to join from an informed position, while describing all of the benefits that the Marine Corps could provide me.”

-Anonymous

The quality of recruiters, how likely they are to pressure candidates, and how much they care about their recruits, can be drastically different across the board, and thus it seems that the quality of recruitment experience is less influenced by policy from higher up the chain, and more about finding the right recruiter to work with. For those that I spoke to, while they had bad experiences with some recruiters, the recruiters who worked well with them performed exceptionally, and formed almost familial bonds with their recruits.

There is no question that military recruitment is lagging behind the military’s quotas, and this is unlikely to change due to the increased risk of armed conflict. Though the pressure to recruit can and does taint some recruiters, there is also a high level of variability in this element depending on the recruiting office. For those considering enlistment, it seems the logical choice is to make a longer drive in exchange for a better, more trustworthy experience.