SIMI VALLEY, Calif. – On Saturday, Senator Jim Banks (R-Ind.) spoke at the Reagan National Defense Forum’s Recruitment and Readiness: Restoring Confidence in the U.S. Military panel with Representative Jimmy Panetta (CA-19), Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps General Eric Smith, U.S. Under Secretary of War for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata and moderator Leo Shane.
Senator Banks addressed the challenges that faced U.S. military recruitment under the Biden Administration. Sen. Banks also highlighted how President Trump and Secretary Hegseth have rapidly turned recruitment numbers around, meeting target goals ahead of schedule.
Key Excerpts:
Sen. Banks on Biden’s Recruitment Crisis and the Trump-Hegseth Recruitment Surge: 3:49:14 – 3:53:00
“We have to go back to the Biden Administration: The worst recruitment crisis in the fifty years of an all-volunteer force. The Marine Corps taught us lots of lessons, but the Army was eight thousand soldiers short, the Navy was way short, and then, immediately, Donald Trump wins on Election Day, and then the Navy and the Army meet their recruitment goals within months, like many months short of the targets. There’s something giant to learn from that.”
“While it might have been a gradual decline of the confidence of the military, what happened on August 26, 2021? 13 soldiers died at Abbey Gate in Kabul, Afghanistan. If you put that on TV and you ask young men and women, ‘do you want to be a part of that military?’ That is when you saw the drastic decline in recruitment, not just in public confidence. Now today, 71% of Americans say they support the American military taking out these drug boats and you ask young men and women, ‘do you want to be a part of a military that is stopping drugs from flooding our country and killing our brothers, sisters, neighbors, and our family members?’ That’s a type of military that’s inspiring young people.”
“I want to focus on the retention and recruitment goals, which is the single best story that’s come out of the Trump-Hegseth Pentagon. It’s through the roof. These guys have had a very successful run in a short period of time of fixing a recruitment crisis. There’s a larger discussion about restoring trust and confidence in the military, but the greater story in all of this is in a short period of time fixing something that was really broken.”
Sen. Banks on Embracing Military Families as a Source of Recruitment: 3:58:33 – 4:03:17
“The single biggest source for military recruitment are children of service members. I think 80% of military recruits come from a home of a mom or dad who served in the military. Yet under Biden, Secretary Wormuth, Secretary of the Army, preached about the dangers of a warrior caste and suggested that we should avoid recruiting from military families. That is completely backwards. We should be embracing that as a source of recruitment. I think it’s one of the reasons that recruitment has now surged in a way that it has.”
“At the end of the day, it’s about patriotism. It’s about teaching kids in schools that America is great, America’s worth serving and fighting and dying for, and joining the military. And at the end of the day, that’s the single most important thing that we can do to maintain long-term military recruitment and save the country.”
“It’s outrageous that we would avoid the single biggest source of military recruitment traditionally in our country, which are the members of families who did serve.”
“One of the biggest sources for military members getting out of the military is the condition of military school options. So, the focus on DoDEA schools and improving those schools for kids, as moms and dads in the military decide that they want better options for their kids to go to school, that’s been a large focus of ours in this year’s NDAA.”
Sen. Banks on Modernizing Civilian Service Pathways Using Space Force Model: 4:09:12 – 4:10:53
“When we created the Space Force, we tried to create something that was much more flexible than what we had across any of the other branches, and I think it’s worked. Recognizing that many of the skills of the future, and how fast everything is adapting with AI, the Space Force created pathways for MOSs for civilians with experience and more flexibility to enter them into service.”
“With the Space Force, we tried to create something that could welcome people, the type of civilian experience that we need with more flexibility than what we had across the other branches. I think we’ve learned from it, but we probably need to do more to go back in the NDAA and implement some of those changes across the other branches too.”
