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During a Feb. 15, 2025, discussion at the Munich Security Forum in Germany, Brown said the military is meeting its recruiting numbers.
Source: Department of Defense
By C. Todd Lopez
Photo: Courtesy
The military has no plans to bring back conscription as the all-volunteer force has served the United States well for decades, said Air Force Gen. CQ Brown, Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
At the end of January 1973, then-Defense Secretary Melvin R. Laird announced the military would, going forward, fill its ranks exclusively with volunteers rather than draftees. Since then, Brown said the military has found the decision to be a good one.
There are challenges in building a force with volunteers only.
The COVID-19 pandemic, for instance, shut down many schools, creating new barriers for recruiters to meet with enlistment-aged students. Competition with the private sector for talent has also made it harder for the military to attract new service members. A decline in the number of veterans — about 18% of Americans in 1980 versus about 7% today — has meant there are fewer former service members who are able to talk about the value of military service.
During a Feb. 15, 2025, discussion at the Munich Security Forum in Germany, Brown said the military is meeting its recruiting numbers despite those challenges. However, to continue being successful, the military must make itself more well-known to the civilian community, as many Americans have no connection to it.
“What we have to do is actually get out and be seen as a military,” Brown said. “As I came in as the chairman, one of the things I laid out as one of my expectations is that trust is the foundation of our profession, and that trust starts with what we do to support our service members, but it’s also how we engage with our communities.”
Service members come from across the nation, but there are pockets in the U.S. where military bases exist, for instance, that produce more new volunteers than other places. The department must work to encourage more young Americans from other parts of the country to volunteer, which means engagement and building trust.
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“The connection with the community is something we have to strive to do so we can actually engage with young people,” he said. “But not just with young people, but their influencers. Whether it’s their parents, their coaches, their scout leaders, their … church leaders, that can point them in the direction. But we also have to talk about the opportunities that are available by serving.”
Being seen, Brown said, provides perhaps the biggest boost to knowledge of military service and its value.
“We’ve got to be seen and engaged with our communities,” he said. “When our community gets a chance to meet our service members, they’re so impressed. We’ve got to make that opportunity happen. And so, part of that is making sure that our service members get off the base and engage in the communities so they can be seen as well.”
