LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The White House has been celebrating a jump in military recruiting with some of the highest Army enlistment numbers in more than a decade. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth posted on X, America's youth want to serve under the bold and strong America First leadership of Donald Trump. Now, that may be true, but as NPR's Quil Lawrence reports, Army recruiting numbers have been increasing for at least a year.
QUIL LAWRENCE, BYLINE: Army recruiting numbers in December and January broke records, according to Pete Hegseth. Here he is speaking last Friday at his first public forum since he became secretary of defense.
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PETE HEGSETH: I think we've seen enthusiasm and excitement from young men and women who want to join the military actively because they are interested in being a part of the finest fighting force the world has to offer and not doing a lot of other things that serve oftentimes too often to divide or distract.
LAWRENCE: Hegseth went on to condemn slogans about diversity in favor of unity. The same day, Hegseth signed an order that no one with a history of gender dysphoria would be accepted into the military, though he did say trans people who have volunteered to serve will be, quote, "treated with dignity and respect." It is true the military was having a hard time hitting its recruitment goals. According to Army data, they were 15,000 enlistments short in 2022 and 2023. But that turned around in 2024, months before Trump's electoral victory.
TAREN SYLVESTER: It's more that they had met all of the goals that they needed for FY24 and then had a surplus.
LAWRENCE: Taren Sylvester researches military recruitment at the Center for a New American Security in Washington. Sylvester says at the end of 2023, the numbers started improving, and the surplus from 2024 is making the numbers look really good now as that trend continues. A major reason is an Army program for future soldiers that helped Americans get physically fit or academically up to speed so they could qualify to join. As for the military being woke, Sylvester says the people who enlist are pretty much like other Americans.
SYLVESTER: Across the political spectrum, the military is generally reflective of society. You have the same kind of spread of political ideology among service members as you do in the wider society.
LAWRENCE: In fact, the Army data show that the recruiting bump in the past year included an increasing number of women and a disproportionate number of Black Americans - especially Black women - signing up to serve.
Quil Lawrence, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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