Shortfalls in some of the military services' recruiting goals for fiscal year 2023 demonstrate the challenges that lie ahead for the all-volunteer force, the Defense Department's acting undersecretary
I know that Native Americans were the largest racial group to join the US military by percentage of their population. Not sure if that's still the case but most of it was due to poverty and those living on reservations not having much opportunities anywhere else.
A lot of people enlist due to lack of opportunity. I think the difference is once you join, you do indeed get a lot of opportunities for serving in a military that treats its soldiers pretty kush. I used to live in a neighborhood with a bunch of Puerto Rican vets, all of whom grew up poor, but the GI bill made them all landscaping company owning CHUD fucks even worse than the whites in the community.
That's a lot less fertile of a recruiting ground than a military that crews up and spits out peasant boys into a life equally as shit as the one they were pulled out of.
Its gotten better in the past few decades but rez life can be bleak as shit and you mix in "military families" and a bit of the "you aren't an adult until you do military things" mentality (particularly with young native men) and you end up with the quintessential victims of US empire fighting for that empire. But there are some hopeful changes. Anecdotal, but none of my family that joined the military encourage that path which isn't the way it used to be. There's also less of the "do anything to get out" mentality. So I remain hopeful we can finally break that stereotype.
I know that Native Americans were the largest racial group to join the US military by percentage of their population. Not sure if that's still the case but most of it was due to poverty and those living on reservations not having much opportunities anywhere else.
A lot of people enlist due to lack of opportunity. I think the difference is once you join, you do indeed get a lot of opportunities for serving in a military that treats its soldiers pretty kush. I used to live in a neighborhood with a bunch of Puerto Rican vets, all of whom grew up poor, but the GI bill made them all landscaping company owning CHUD fucks even worse than the whites in the community.
That's a lot less fertile of a recruiting ground than a military that crews up and spits out peasant boys into a life equally as shit as the one they were pulled out of.
Its gotten better in the past few decades but rez life can be bleak as shit and you mix in "military families" and a bit of the "you aren't an adult until you do military things" mentality (particularly with young native men) and you end up with the quintessential victims of US empire fighting for that empire. But there are some hopeful changes. Anecdotal, but none of my family that joined the military encourage that path which isn't the way it used to be. There's also less of the "do anything to get out" mentality. So I remain hopeful we can finally break that stereotype.