Recruiting the Future Force: A Proactive Approach
Abstract
The Department of Defense (DoD) plays a critical role in the national security strategy of the United States, and the military s success is predicated on recruiting highly qualified applicants to fulfill this vital mission. For almost forty years the all volunteer force (AVF) proved a remarkably successful approach to manning the most effective and dominant military in history. Today, however, the concept of a volunteer force is stressed as never before. Nearly a decade of protracted conflict, increasing deficiencies in our public education system and nearly epidemic obesity among our nation s youth provide a new set of challenges to our recruiting force. Currently recruiting efforts focus on a passive strategy; simply extracting the qualified individuals from the available resource pool. This is a short term strategy that has run its course. In the future, we must focus on a more proactive approach to the resource pool requiring not only mining the current pool of America s youth, but also taking proactive steps to increase the number of qualified applicants. This paper will discuss the background of the AVF and provide recommendations for how DoD can shape the recruiting environment to overcome these challenges.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 24, 2011
- Accession Number
- ADA560222
Entities
People
- Randy L. Smith
Organizations
- United States Army War College