Policy
The US military is certainly desperate these days. With large numbers of conscripts sitting in the dumps, the next generation of young Americans is either uninterested or unable to enlist because they are not qualified to serve.
The military branches established remedial academic and physical training to prepare young Americans for military service. They have exploited social media influencers to try to make the military appear more attractive and reach an audience that exists primarily in the depths of TikTok.
However, their efforts seem to be in vain. Now, my old service is bringing back an old and failed tactic of trying to bolster their ranks… begging retirees to come back.
laughable
Last week, I came across an article in the Air Force Times discussing a program aimed at increasing service numbers. The Retiree Voluntary Return to Service program aims to fill approximately 1,000 mid-career commissioned and enlisted positions ranging from pilots and enlisted men to air traffic controllers and contracting officers.
The program will allow those who have retired from the Air Force to rejoin for 48 months of active duty. This is not the first time the Air Force has tried this tactic.
In 2017, under the Trump administration, the Air Force piloted this program to fill pilot positions during a pilot shortage. At the time, the Air Force received only 125 applications, 50 of which were for pilot roles.
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Something tells me they'll find this installment unsatisfying. The opening line of the article is simply the best:
“Regrets retirement? Here's your chance to have a second chance in the Air Force.”
I don't know anyone who regrets retiring from the military. I literally laughed out loud when I read the line.
I laughed even harder a few days later when I received an automated email from the Department of the Air Force offering me the opportunity to hang up my civilian clothes, give up my blue mohawk in retirement, and say goodbye to the independence of thought and distinction I so deserve. Free time to raise my right hand again and put on the outfit I've worn for over 20 years.
Tough pass
In addition to the email that I laughed at before deleting it, my husband, who served in the Air Force as a member of the Security Forces (for those not in the know, that's basically a military police officer), received a text from a Marine recruiter asking if he would be on Ready for recruitment. Keep in mind my husband has been out of the Air Force for about five years and is 46 years old.
To be fair, my husband is still in good shape, especially for a 46-year-old man, but is he in ideal shape for military service, let alone potential service on a Navy ship? Doubtful. But I suppose when desperate, a middle-aged man with back and knee problems is a better option than a mentally unstable, non-binary, overweight 20-year-old.
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Needless to say, my husband politely declined. But that didn't stop the recruiter from sending more text messages pleading with him to reconsider his promises of all kinds of incentives, like bonuses and higher ranks.
So why do I and my husband, patriots of our generation, both highly decorated for our service to our nation, live in a time when supporting a family of four has become increasingly difficult, and reject the life we used to know—military service? Precisely because we know it, and we know it's gotten worse.
No thank you
My husband and I are proud of our status as veterans, and we earned our pensions with blood, sweat, and tears. We gave our nation everything we had, putting our service above ourselves, each other, and our children.
Collectively, we have deployed dozens of times to different war zones, to fight for what we were told was freedom and democracy and against terrorists. We have watched our friends die in combat, we have gone to funerals of friends who have committed suicide under the weight of PTSD, and we bear the physical and emotional scars of veterans who have gone through hell in service to their country.
We have also witnessed our beloved Air Force department kneel before mediocrity and liberal ideology. As a senior military leader, in the last few years of my career, I had to sit in meetings in which I was told that I was inherently racist because I was white and that I should lift up those in my charge based on the color of their skin. In exchange for their actual abilities and achievements.
I've been told by those few people ahead of me that I'm a racist if I don't publicly admit that I'm a racist. On the other side of the coin, I had to put up with white male bosses who refused to show me the respect that my rank and previous combat accomplishments afforded me, but instead chose to refer me to a “Unity Party planner” given my biological sex.
These white men have been given a pass for being sexist and more often than not In reality Racists because of the flight suits they wore, and the privilege they enjoyed In reality I enjoyed it. The final straw, which convinced me it was time to retire, was when I was rejected for a selective position after being told that despite being the most qualified for the role, I didn't “seem diverse enough.”
Oh God… Why would I choose not to join that environment again?
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A thousand other reasons
But the truth is, it's not just DEI waste or the actual, unchecked discrimination that happens in the military that led my husband and I to choose our retired life over a life of more service to our country. Having given up so much of ourselves in the last Forever War only to see it crumble like a poorly baked pie on national television, the idea of fighting another Forever War is not attractive.
I spent a fair amount of my young adult life fighting the war on terror and some of that time was spent in Afghanistan. My husband was injured in a prison riot in the same detention center that was overrun by the Taliban in 2021.
As we watched and heard of some of our allies being hunted down and killed by the Taliban and terrorists, my husband guarding those who had been released so many years ago, our eyes filled with tears, and our souls felt and continue to feel the weight of our wasted lives. . What is the purpose of our sacrifices?
Why should we or our children sacrifice for the political elite that uses military and foreign policy as pawns to improve their investment portfolios and cover their election speeches? If that is not enough, the fact that the defense industrial complex does not seem capable of building and maintaining military equipment worthy of the men and women charged with defending this nation is enough to keep us as far away from military service as possible.
No, we have served our nation with distinction and honor. Those appointed over us. Retired generals and four-star commanders who continually fail in their jobs as strategic military leaders without accountability and a political ecosystem that uses those failures to either increase defense spending on more failed projects or claim to care about the troops without doing anything meaningful. To hold those who have failed us time and time again accountable, they need to do so He didn't do that They serve with the same level of distinction and honor.
If the Department of Defense wants to get to the bottom of its recruiting crisis, it must look internally at those it has appointed to leadership positions before relying on an aging, albeit wiser, veteran population. So, United States Air Force, thanks for the offer, but I respectfully decline it. Thanks, but no thanks.
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