Today is December 7th and every patriotic American knows this is the day we remember Pearl Harbor. It’s been 81 years since the Japanese suddenly and without provocation bombed our Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, killing over 2,000 Americans and sinking most of our Western Fleet. As President Franklin D. Roosevelt said at the time, “It is a day that will live in infamy.”
Thankfully, the military and the Roosevelt government responded quickly to this invasion of our country by declaring War on Japan and War on Germany and would go on to win the Second World War. While we honor our heroes of that war, it’s disheartening to think we might not be able to respond the same today.
The military is facing the greatest recruiting challenge in almost half a century, according to Bloomberg News. The Army missed its recruitment goals by 25% or 15,000 soldiers. The Navy and the Air Force also report significant gaps in their recruiting goals. Only the Marines are reporting they have met their annual goal, and this largely due to successful efforts in retaining existing Marines.
The reasons for this recruiting difficulty are many, including the sad fact that 77% of young Americans ages 16 to 24 years old are physically or mentally unqualified to serve in the military. Only about 9% of the remaining youth are willing to even consider serving in the military. This makes retention of the existing service members crucial to defense readiness.
Despite this situation, woke military leadership, at the behest of the White House, has declared war on our own soldiers through vaccine mandates. This has significantly impaired recruiting efforts for all branches of the military, despite denials from the Department of Defense. Thousands of current service members are being discharged for failure to conform to vaccine mandates. At a time when the Covid pandemic is winding down and the risk of serious illness to these otherwise healthy young Americans is slight, these mandates are inexplicable.
Fortunately, there is some progress on the horizon. Lindsay Wise and Katy Stech Ferek, reporting for The Wall Street Journal, say House and Senate negotiators agreed to rescind the requirement that members of the military be vaccinated against Covid-19, in a move to secure Republican support for the annual defense-policy bill (National Defense Authorization Act – NDAA) that authorizes spending for new weapons and pay increases for the troops.
The bill approves a 4.6% pay raise for military service members and Defense Department civilians, and increases the housing allowance for service members by 2%. The bill, which typically passes with bipartisan support, would also authorize funding for the State Department and intelligence agencies, and for new aircraft, ships and vehicles for combat, while budgeting for newer technologies such as microelectronics, and hypersonic weapons.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that the 3,400 U.S. military members that have already been discharged for failure to conform to the vaccine mandates will not be re-instated. Some people just can’t admit they made a mistake, even when our nation’s defense is at stake.
