For 50 Years, Recruiting a Volunteer Military Was Salesmanship. Now, Few Are Buying – By Sonner Kehrt (Miltary.com) / July 31, 2023
In the spring of 1977, a letter appeared in Proceedings, the long-running journal of the U.S. Naval Institute.
“I am no malcontent,” wrote a junior enlisted Navy man. “I love the Navy and believe in a strong national defense. But, I believe a man who is treated with dignity and respect, rather than like a child by an elitist, is bound to be a better fighter.”
The letter writer represented his division at his ship’s human relations council, where he could bring his shipmates’ concerns to the attention of leadership. But the ship hadn’t held a council meeting in nine months. The man wrote that he had inquired up the chain of command as to why the meetings had suddenly stopped.
The answer he had received infuriated him. “If the ship has no problems,” a higher-ranking officer told him, “I see no reason to have the meetings.”
