Story by Kellie Finch
Cover by Olivia Goodson
CHAPEL HILL, N.C.—Hidden in a business park, sandwiched between a dentist’s office and an Italian restaurant, two people sit in the U.S. Army Recruiting Center.
Past a photograph of a saluting soldier, an American flag and the classic Army star logo, volunteer recruiting officer Sgt. 1st Class Joshua Casey is at his desk. Across from him is a potential recruit.
Casey talks her through the pre-qualification form, explains the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test and physical she’d have to take and then gets to work on his tried and true: the benefits.
Up to $50,000 in signing bonuses, the post-9/11 GI Bill for tuition assistance, VA home loans, travel opportunities and free healthcare, for example.
For some, that’s an immediate signature. This recruit, however, is still on the fence. Her college is paid for, she doesn’t need a home right now, and she’s still on her parents’ health insurance.
“What’s holding you back?” Casey asks.
Fighting in a war, she says. Shooting a gun.
Dying.
Every day, recruiters ask people why they haven’t considered the military. Disinterest and disconnect with the profession come up often. Fighting, guns and death—almost always.
“What people think of when they think of going into the Army, you’re going to go to war, or, you know, something bad could happen,” Casey said. “But honestly, going into the military, setting yourself up for the future, the military [and] the Army are always going to provide for you, it’s always going to prepare you, you’re always going to be in a situation where you feel comfortable, you feel ready.”
Misconceptions about the military, other career options and a lack of information about all it has to offer push qualified recruits away constantly. Further, from 2016-2020, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research found that more than 31,000 potential recruits with behavioral health, learning disability or psychiatric diagnoses were disqualified from service.
The result: the Department of Defense, particularly the Army, finds itself amid one of the biggest recruiting droughts since the All-volunteer Force began in 1973, during the Vietnam War.
In fiscal year 2023, the Army recruited only 76.6 percent of its 65,500 active member goal, while the Navy obtained 80.2 percent of its 37,700. The Air Force hit 89.3 percent of 26,977. Conversely, the Marine Corps and Space Force exceeded their goals.
Kernis Shaw, a former Marines recruiter from 1996-1998, shares a similar sentiment to Casey. People either look past the benefits or don’t know they exist. It’s up to recruiters to find the best way to get through to them and get numbers back up, he said.
“There are thousands of advantages that you have in the military, but the average young person, whether it’s due to being misguided or not properly taught, doesn’t really know anything about that,” Shaw said. “You as the adult know, hey, you’re getting a great deal, but they’re young. You’re expected to be young.”
Despite the Army’s recruiting crisis, college and university Reserve Officers’ Training Corps programs, also known as ROTC, are bringing in an influx of cadets each year.
Lt. Col. Lisa Klekowski, the department chair of UNC-Chapel Hill’s Army ROTC, also known as the Tar Heel Battalion, said the recruiting success she’s witnessed in Chapel Hill can be traced back to transparency.
“Honesty about what the benefits are, what their different options are, how it translates into civilian service when they are eventually ready to get out of the Army, too,” Klekowski said. “All of those things are really important for young people to know. And I think that transparency is the best way to highlight those options to help educate them on what those are.”
Sgt. John Davenport IV, a student with the Tar Heel Battalion, noted the importance of social media as a recruiting tool to share this transparency with future recruits, through platforms they use every day: Instagram, X (formerly known as Twitter) and TikTok.
“The majority of our generation is on social media,” Davenport said. “So I feel like to get to the new generation, you have to speak to them in the avenue that they’re used to.”
One of the goals of social media as a recruiting tool is removing misconceptions about the military from public belief, Klekowski said. A primary one that often scares people is a certain level of physical fitness, said Cadet Braxton Brown, a student with the Tar Heel Battalion.
“I would say a big misconception, actually I’ve seen in ROTC, is that everyone has to be a star athlete,” Brown said. “And that’s something that you…do not have to be, as we kind of pull in all pools of people with different backgrounds and different experiences.”
Another tool the Tar Heel Battalion offers is a mentorship program that pairs cadets with people serving in the military. This offers cadets a unique perspective into the day-to-day of serving and assists with transparency.
“We find that this is really, really important because not only does it maintain the connective tissue between alumni and our ROTC cadets, but it also definitely helps cadets understand what mentorship is like, and it helps them as well if they do choose to pursue military service,” Klekowski said.
Brown echoed Klekowski’s focus on the importance of mentorship in the military profession and building his community.
“I know what worked for me, joining the program, was just having mentors and talking to people who kind of went through a similar experience and were able to kind of give me that advice on…what I can look for in the future,” Brown said.
Despite how enticing benefits and transparency can be to someone on the fence about joining the military, it’s not an option many people consider, especially if they don’t have family who previously served.
According to the Pew Research Center, 60 percent of veterans under 40 have an immediate family member who served in the military. Seventy percent of new recruits reported having an immediate family member in the armed forces.
For UNC-CH junior Eva Coens, the military was never on her radar—and she attributes that largely to a lack of exposure.
“My first impression of the military was probably through my uncle, who was in the Air Force,” Coens said. “He only ever did kind of behind-the-scenes stuff, like in more of a desktop scenario. But I pretty much just knew that.”
Coens learned more about the military through her involvement in music in high school and college. Recruiters came to her ensemble classes and spoke about being involved in the military as a musician.
“I remember coming out of those informational sessions and hearing everybody be like, maybe I will join,” Coens said. “Even in high school, which is kind of crazy.”
The negative stigma often surrounding the military and the idea of not knowing what the consequences of her actions would be were further deciding factors in Coens turning away from service. The career options a university like UNC-CH would extend made her decision even easier.
“I think there is a general knowledge that there are a lot of positions in the military that are so far removed from combat,” Coens said. “But it’s just a really big ask in this day and age to align yourself with the military when, especially at an institution like UNC, there’s so many other options.”
To Casey, the key to fixing this national military recruiting drought starts simple. Don’t discount it, be willing to learn—and try it.
“People, they’re afraid of what they don’t know,” Casey said. “I think if young people just kind of jump and just experience it, if you’re on the fence, just do it.”
As the potential recruit walks through the door, she tells Casey she’ll think about it. Before it swings shut, she pauses.
“Never say never,” she says.
