“Concerns about the Army being, quote, woke, have not been a significant issue in our recruiting crisis,” she said. “They weren’t at the beginning of the crisis. They weren’t in the middle of the crisis. They aren’t now. The data does not show that young Americans don’t want to join the Army because they think the army is woke — however they define that.”
Hegseth has vowed to remove “woke” programs and officers from the military. And during his hearing Tuesday, he told senators that troops will rejoice as the Trump administration takes office and makes those changes.
“We’ve already seen it in recruiting numbers,” he said. “There’s already been a surge since President Trump won the election.”
In fact, according to Army data, recruiting numbers have been increasing steadily over the past year, with the highest total in August 2024 — before the November election. Army officials closely track recruiting numbers.
Instead, a significant driver of the recruiting success was the Army’s decision to launch the Future Soldier Prep Course, at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, in August 2022. That program gives lower-performing recruits up to 90 days of academic or fitness instruction to help them meet military standards and move on to basic training.
In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2024, the Army met its recruiting goal of 55,000 and began to rebuild its delayed entry pool. About 24 percent of those recruits came out of the prep course. Wormuth said she expects it will contribute about 30 percent of this year’s recruits.
The Army and the military more broadly have struggled with recruiting for about a decade, as the unemployment rate shrank and competition grew from private companies able and willing to pay more and offer similar or better benefits.
Just 23 percent of young adults are physically, mentally and morally qualified to serve without receiving some type of waiver. Moral behavior issues include drug use, gang ties or a criminal record. And the coronavirus pandemic shut down enlistment stations and in-person recruiting in schools and at public events that the military has long relied upon.
Wormuth said a private survey along with more recent data show that the key impediments to joining the military are concerns “about getting killed or getting hurt, leaving their friends and family, and having a perception that their careers will be on hold.”
That survey, done in 2022, found that “wokeness” was mentioned by just 5 percent of respondents.
Wormuth acknowledged that the latest data show one element mentioned by Hegseth — that the number of white men enlisting is a bit lower. She said the persistent criticism about wokeness could be one reason.
“Any time an institution is being inaccurately criticized and demeaned, it’s going to make it harder to recruit. And I think that is what we have seen,” she said. “In terms of ‘is the Army woke’ — which I will take to mean focused on things that don’t make us more lethal or effective or better able to defend this nation — I would say the Army is absolutely not woke.”
