By Wasana Nadeeshani Sellahewa
(Commonwealth) _ The Marine Corps met its recruiting targets for calendar year 2022, making it one of the few branches to do so this year. While each branch has had recruiting issues, which service officials credit to factors like as the COVID-19 epidemic, low enthusiasm in military service, and a dwindling eligible demographic, the Marine Corps has addressed its enrollment challenges.
The Navy met its active-duty enlisted recruiting targets this year, but not its officer recruitment goals, according to Navy Times. And the Army fell almost 15,000 men shy of its target. The Navy met its active duty enlisted recruiting targets for fiscal 2022, but fell short on active duty and Reserve officers, as well as Reserve enlisted troops.
This year, all of the military services faced recruiting issues, which service officials ascribed to factors such as more comprehensive medical checks, fewer Americans eligible to serve, and low civilian unemployment. In all, the military recruited 33,442 new active duty sailors in FY22, slightly above the 33,400 goal number of accessions for the year. The service received 5,442 new Reserve enlisted soldiers, well short of the 7,400 target. As a result, the Navy expects prospective recruits for FY23 to report to Recruit Training Command Great Lakes weeks or days after signing a contract.
The service fell more than 200 persons shy of its objective for active duty officer accessions, bringing in 2,298 new officers rather than the 2,507 target. The Navy also planned to hire 1,360 Reserve officers, but only 982 were hired. Although the Navy surpassed its active duty enlisted objective, the service said it had to reduce its Delayed Entry Program pool to the lowest it had seen in 40 years. Approximately 33% of those still enrolled in the Delayed Entry Program, which permits people to join the Navy before their shipping date, are high school seniors who won’t be able to sail until May or June 2023.
Air Force officials planned to just-barely reach active-duty objectives while the newest military branch Space Force, which has significantly less troops than the other services, was projected to meet its recruiting estimates for this year. In fiscal year 2022, the Marine Corps recruited 28,608 active-duty enlisted Marines, missing its goal by by eight service members. The Corps met its precise objective of 4,602 Reserve enlisted soldiers.
The service also met its objectives for active-duty and Reserve officer recruitment. It brought in 1,592 active-duty officers and 113 Reserve officers, barely beyond its respective targets of 1,576 and 91 for each component, according to the Marine Corps.
“Our recruiting force is undoubtedly facing the most difficult recruitment climate since the inception of the all-volunteer force,” said Jim Edwards, a spokesperson for the Marine Corps Recruiting Command, in a statement to Marine Corps Times.
In all, for the 2022 recruiting year, 99% of the enlisted accessions were high school graduates (the Defense Department norm is 90%) and 67% scored in the top three tiers of the Armed Forces Qualification Test (the DoD standard is 60%), Edwards said.
Furthermore, individuals from varied backgrounds accounted for 35% of officer accessions, matching the Corps’ “record high.” More over 15% of all officer appointments were made to women, while the Marine Corps exceeded its objective of 10% for female enlisted appointments.
The Corps had intended to recruit 30,100 active-duty personnel and 5,502 Reserve troops for a total of 35,602 for fiscal year 2022, but it was permitted to cut that objective by 2,400 due to good retention, as previously reported by Marine Corps Times.
The military plans to hire 37,700 additional active duty enlisted members in FY23, as well as 8,100 Reserve enlisted troops. The term “responsibility” refers to the act of deciding whether or not a person is responsible for his or her own actions.
