The U.S. military is having a very hard time recruiting. The Army is calling it the most challenging recruiting era since the military became an all-volunteer force in 1973. CNBC recently aired a segment examining the problems facing America’s military recruiters.
With the above video in mind, imagine the mental gymnastics it must take for the bean counters at the Department of Defense to consider allowing new recruits to join the military who don’t meet the physical fitness requirements, or who have been convicted of crimes, but not the unvaccinated. In the face of the military’s recruitment crisis, GOP lawmakers are calling on the Pentagon to end its vaccine mandate for National Guard troops, which has sidelined 45,000 guards who are desperately needed back on the job. Elizabeth Elkind reports in The Daily Mail:
House Republicans sent a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday demanding he lift the COVID-19 vaccine mandate that they say has kept roughly 45,000 National Guardsmen inactive since the end of June.
The memo, obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com, was authored by Rep. Michael Waltz of Florida – a member of the House Armed Services Committee and the first Green Beret elected to Congress.
It’s signed by more than a dozen of his colleagues including GOP Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik and Republican Study Committee leader Rep. Jim Banks.
They call on Austin to lift the vaccine mandate immediately in light of the military-wide staffing shortage and harrowingly fast advancements in rival nation forces like China.
‘All of this is happening with the backdrop of a recruiting and retention crisis the military services have not seen in decades,’ the letter warns.
National Guard troops who have not received two COVID-19 vaccine doses by June 30, 2022 are under threat of, or actively being barred from, federally-funded deployments and receiving pay, according to the Pentagon’s late 2021 vaccine order. They’re also banned from participating in training exercises that vaccinated service members take part in.
That affects approximately 10 percent of the force who are either unvaccinated or awaiting approval for exemptions.
‘Our military has been crippled by the restrictive COVID-19 policies that the Department of Defense under the Biden administration have implemented,’ Waltz told DailyMail.com.
A National Guardsman himself, Waltz warned the military could ‘lose hundreds of highly trained, specialized, and skilled active service members that our nation has invested millions into training if this mandate is not lifted.’
‘At a time when our adversaries, including China, are rapidly expanding and modernizing their militaries, why would the Department of Defense continue to implement a policy that decreases military recruitment, retention, and readiness?’ he added.
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