The Importance of Understanding the Dangers to the United States of America

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We know that Americans do enlist in the service at times of real national crisis. We certainly saw this after Pearl Harbor all those years ago. Do you think it takes that kind of crisis to convince people that they should join the Army? I just wonder if without that sense that America is under attack, for example, you lose the urgency. Well, the last thing I would want is to sort of hope for another attack on the homeland to solve our recruiting crisis. And I don't think it requires that.

The US military faces its worst recruiting crisis since the draft ended in 1973. Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth — aware of the military’s reputation of forever wars, veteran suicide, and sexual assault — is working to convince a new generation to enlist anyway.

This episode was produced by Victoria Chamberlin, edited by Matt Collette, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Paul Robert Mounsey, and hosted by Noel King.

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