By Mimi Nguyen Ly
The National Guard lost about 7,500 members over the past year, and membership could dwindle even more due to potential future discharges of up to 14,000 soldiers amid the U.S. military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, according to reports.
The total annual loss of some 7,500 members is due to higher numbers of soldiers retiring or leaving the National Guard compared to those coming in, officials told The Associated Press. They have cited challenges in recruiting, as well as how more soldiers are deciding not to reenlist when their tour concludes.
Army National Guard chief of staff Maj. Gen. Rich Baldwin told AP that the current staffing challenges are the worst he has witnessed in the past 20 years.
Both the Army National Guard and Air National Guard have fallen short of their targets for the total number of service members in the fiscal year, which ended on Sept. 30. The Army National Guard missed its total goal of 336,000 by about 2 percent, and the Air National Guard missed its total goal of 108,300 by nearly 3 percent, Baldwin said.
While the current impact on the National Guard’s readiness is “minimal and manageable,” if recruiting and retention challenges cannot be solved, “we will see readiness issues related to strength begin to emerge within our units within the next year or two,” he told the news agency.
‘Unprecedented’ Challenges
Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau, told reporters during a call on Sept. 20 (pdf) that many recruiters have told him they are facing “unprecedented” challenges in their roles.
“If you look at last year and the years prior to that, we have always met our authorized end-strength and it’s probably due to a myriad of factors that affect all services,” he said of the challenges in recruitment and retention.
Hokanson noted that the military could be losing potential recruits due to a strong civilian job market. He also said that recent statistics show that “only 23 percent of what we consider primary military age 18 to 24 even meet the requirements to join the U.S. military.”
In addition to pressure with recruitment and retention, the Army National Guard is projecting a loss of up to 14,000 soldiers across the country over the next two years due to refusals to comply with the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Specifically, Anson D. Smith, the deputy chief of the Army National Guard Strength Maintenance Division, told reporters on Sept. 20 that it is projecting a loss of about 9,000 soldiers in fiscal year 2023, and another 5,000 soldiers in fiscal 2024.
So far, no National Guard members have been discharged for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine, because the Guard is awaiting instructions from the Army on how to proceed. Officials have said it’s not clear when they will get that guidance.
“Right now, we haven’t had any discharges because of COVID, because we still, again, are waiting on the phase two memorandum from the Secretary of the Army before we get into who will be discharged based off refusals” to take the COVID vaccine, Smith told reporters.
Smith said the 9,000 figure is “based on the numbers that we have of refusals.” Recent data from the U.S. Army published in mid-September reported that 9,835 Army National Guard members have refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
The losses in the Army National Guard reflect a broader situation across the U.S. military. While the U.S. Army was the only active service branch not to meet its recruiting target this year, all the other active armed services have also struggled to meet their targets. They have needed to seek recruits from their delayed-entry pools, which will put them behind next year’s recruiting goals.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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