{"id":13444,"date":"2019-07-10T23:00:31","date_gmt":"2019-07-10T23:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/07\/10\/why-we-should-lower-the-age-for-recruitment-to-16\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T05:06:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T05:06:07","slug":"why-we-should-lower-the-age-for-recruitment-to-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/opinion\/commentary\/2019\/07\/10\/why-we-should-lower-the-age-for-recruitment-to-16\/","title":{"rendered":"Would lowering the age of recruitment fix the military\u2019s recruiting worries?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At the end of World War II, the Army had over 8 million service members. Today, the Army has fewer than 500,000 troops. And it\u2019s struggling to reach its recruiting goals<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, much of the disparity in these numbers can be attributed to the transition from mandatory service to an all-volunteer force. But are a growing military-civilian divide and ineffective recruiting methods also to blame?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, far less of the younger generation has a connection to military service. In 1995, 40 percent of those ages 16 to 24 had at least one parent who had served in the military. By 2016, that number had fallen to 15 percent, according to the Department of Defense. When the United States eliminated the draft in 1973 and transitioned to an all-volunteer system, leaders assumed that a combination of patriotism, stable benefits and other factors would keep numbers up. But this hasn\u2019t been the case<\/a>. In a recent panel discussion on the crisis, Army Maj. Gen. Malcolm Frost, the former commander of the Army\u2019s Initial Military Training Command, proposed that, \u201cthe next existential threat we have\u2026is the inability to man our military.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t