Uncle Sam Wants You!

by W.D. Ehrhart

In a recent essay in the Lynchburg News & Advance, my friend, former enlisted Marine and now-retired Major, Ed Palm pointed out that in spite of minimum starting salaries twenty (20) times higher than my $88 a month back in 1966, “signing bonuses” as high as $40,000, and generous educational benefits, the U.S. military has been unable to meet its enlistment needs in the era of the All-Volunteer Force (AVF).

The AVF was supposed to ensure that the U.S. would never again suffer another humiliating defeat like the American Fiasco in Vietnam when reluctant and unwilling soldiers ultimately engaged in open revolt that left the military effectively dysfunctional (see 1971’s “The Collapse of the Armed Forces” by Robert D. Heinl, Jr., or the documentary film “Sir! No, Sir!”).

But why would anyone other than a starry-eyed idealist, a pathological pugilist, or a person completely hard-up for a job enlist in the military services today? Let’s look at the military’s track record since the end of the American Fiasco in Vietnam.

First came Gerald Ford’s failed rescue attempt of the SS Mayaguez (anybody remember that one?). How about Jimmy Carter’s failed attempt to rescue the hostages being held by the Ayatollah in Iran? Then there was Ronald Reagan’s attempt to intervene in Lebanon’s civil war, resulting in the deaths of 241 Marines, sailors, and soldiers.

Our armed forces did manage to conquer Grenada, which had a military the size and firepower of the Providence, Rhode Island, police department, but U.S. forces on the island had to call the Pentagon from a phone booth in order to relay messages to U.S. ships within sight offshore (think I’m kidding? Look it up). And a few years later, U.S. forces under George Herbert (Hoover) Walker Bush did manage to arrest Panama’s Manuel Noriega, who had been on the American payroll for nearly two decades, but only after killing between 300 and 500 Panamanian civilians.

Bush and Stormin’ Norman Schwarzkopf followed that one up by putting the Emir of Kuwait back on his gold-plated toilet while the U.S. military stood by and watched as Saddam massacred thousands of Iraqi Shiites who had openly rebelled against him in response to overt U.S. encouragement.

And of course, let’s not forget Bill Clinton’s attempt to bring aid and comfort to Somalia, an adventure that resulted in the book and movie “Black Hawk Down,” making Mark Bowden both rich and famous. (Bowden is, by the way, a very good writer. Speaking of Iran, I especially like his Guests of the Ayatollah.)

The attacks of September 11th, 2001, temporarily reversed the fortunes of U.S. military recruiters as large numbers of outraged patriotic young Americans stepped up and enlisted, reminiscent of the response to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor nearly sixty years earlier.

But as the endless wars in Afghanistan and Iraq dragged on year after year with U.S. military personnel getting sent back into one or both war zones over and over again, young Americans coming home in caskets or horribly mangled (ever watch those Wounded Warrior ads asking for your $$$$$ because the Veterans Administration seems to be short on cash?), and the incidence of suicide among veterans and active duty personnel reaching epidemic proportions, it didn’t take long for enlistments to decline steeply again.

Meanwhile, U.S. military involvement in Syria hasn’t gotten Bashar al-Assad out of power, U.S. military involvement in Libya has left that nation a failed state, American soldiers have been killed in Nigeria (what the heck were they doing there, anyway?), and the U.S. military has just been unceremoniously kicked out of Niger (what the heck were they doing there?).

Recently the U.S. military’s attempt to build a temporary pier to provide Palestinians with humanitarian aid while the Pentagon supplies the Israeli Defense Forces with the bombs being used to leave Gazans in need of humanitarian aid ended up as a very expensive failure.

All in all, over the past half century, the U.S. military’s track record isn’t particularly distinguished. It is, in fact, a pretty shabby succession of failures and fiascos that have hardly made the world a better or safer place. The Navy used to advertise itself as “a Global Force for Good.” At least they’ve had the good sense to drop that particular recruiting pitch.

But who has the U.S. military been good for? Well, the stockholders and senior executives of U.S. defense contractors have done pretty well. Lockheed Martin got $68,590,000,000 last year. Raytheon got $27,820,000,000. General Dynamics got $22,965,000,000. Boeing got $21,790,000,000. Northrop Grumman got $15,094,000,000. (No wonder the VA hasn’t got enough money to take care of America’s Wounded Warriors.)

But it gets even better. According to the Washington Post, 26 of 32 four-star admirals and generals who retired between June 2018 and July 2023 were later employed in roles including executive, adviser, board member, or lobbyist for companies with significant defense business. That’s 80 per cent of the top brass.

So the poor bastards they send off to do the dirty work have to go begging for prosthetic devices and physical therapy while the generals and admirals get cushy jobs with the guys who make big bucks producing the weapons the poor bastards use to make the world a better and safer place.

Do you really wonder why the U.S. military is having major problems persuading enough young Americans to enlist in our All-Volunteer Forces?

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W. D. Ehrhart is a retired Master Teacher of History & English, and author of a Vietnam War memoir trilogy published by McFarland.