Fiscal Year 2024-2025 Recruiting Media Roundtable With Service Leaders

Oct. 30, 2024

PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY MAJOR GENERAL PAT RYDER: Ok. All right. Well, good afternoon, everyone. I'm Major General Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary. Thanks very much for joining us for today's briefing and update on the Department of Defense recruiting efforts.

As you know, the military — the US military is the strongest fighting force on Earth. For more than 50 years, our all volunteer force has been sustained by qualified patriots who stand up to serve and keep our republic secure. As Secretary of Defense Austin has said, our greatest strategic asset is our people. We must continue to recruit and retain the best that our country has to offer. The department remains deeply committed to ensuring that every qualified patriot has the opportunity to answer the call.

We're fortunate to have with us today a panel of defense leaders to discuss today's recruiting environment and preview the service's goals for fiscal year '25: Dr. Katie Helland, DOD's director of military accession policy; Major General Johnny Davis, commanding general, United States Army Recruiting Command in Fort Knox — at Fort Knox; Brigadier General Christopher Amrhein, commander, Air Force Recruiting Service; Rear Admiral James Waters III, commander, Navy Recruiting Command; and Major General William Bowers, commanding general, Marine Corps Recruiting Command.

As a reminder, today's briefing is on the record. I'll turn it over to each of our panelists for brief opening remarks before opening it up to Q&A. And please note I will call on reporters and try to get to as many of you as possible. And with that, I'll turn it over to Dr. Helland to kick things off.

DR. KATIE HELLAND: Thank you. Good afternoon. I am Katie Helland, the director of accession policy. Thank you for inviting me to this media roundtable. And I'd like to start by expressing a special thank you to everyone over the past year, from our recruiting commanders to our recruiters to our MEPCOM personnel, who've contributed to the success of fiscal year 2024 recruiting missions following significant shortfalls during the previous years.

The military service concluded fiscal year 2024 in a much improved position compared to this time last year despite a continuously challenging and disinterested recruiting market. At the end of September, the services enlisted just shy of 225,000 new recruits in fiscal year 2024. That's over 25,000 more than fiscal year 2023.

Furthermore, the services had a 35 percent increase in contracts written compared to this time last year. USMEPCOM saw a year over year increase of medical exam by 48 percent, and the active components started fiscal year 2025 with a 10 percent larger starting pool or a delayed entry program pool compared to this time last year.

OSD and the services will continue to build off the momentum that we've gained in 2024. Nevertheless, we need to remain cautiously optimistic about the future recruiting operations as we continue to recruit in a market that has low youth propensity to serve, limited familiarity with military opportunities, a competitive labor market and a declining eligibility among young adults.

More specifically, we've observed over the last decade a growing divide between military and civilians. Data indicate that many of today's youth are not interested in military service and have many misperceptions about what life is like as a service member.

Additionally, for the first time since this metric has been tracked, the majority of youth have never even considered military service as an option. That is it's not even on the radar. This divide has been brought about by a confluence of many factors, including the shrinking military footprint and declining veteran presence across society.

Young Americans now have fewer direct ties to a family member or a close friend who has served in the military. For example, in 1990, 40 percent of our young adults had a parent who served. That's down to 15 percent today. In the past, those direct ties were key to conveying the boundless opportunities and experiences that are gained from military service. And without these personal connections, we find fewer young adults are familiar with the benefits of service.

Further complicating our recruiting challenges is the low number of youth who are qualified for military service. Data show nearly 77 percent of youth between the ages of 17 and 24 are not qualified for military service without some type of waiver. This is where programs like our medical records pilot, or MARP, and service member prep courses have been helpful to expand the market.

But we also seek to expand the market by reconnecting with young adults and their influencers on the value proposition of service. For instance, the next generation of Americans to serve should know that there has never been a better time for them to choose military service. Youth today seek a larger purpose in their lives and desire jobs where they have greater participation in decision making and can create a direct tangible impact. Military service offers all of this.

Service provides new perspectives, a sense of purpose, the opportunity to take on great responsibilities and challenge the status quos. Service members find personal fulfillment in serving in every part of the world, responding with skills to truly make a difference. Military service has more than 250 occupations, where each person will be individually challenged to reach their peak potential by providing a path to success.

The military represents one of the most educated organizations in the world across all ranks. We provide our service members with competitive pay packages and benefits such as retirement savings and health care, along with unprecedented opportunities for continued education and training. We offer these things that the young adults today look for when choosing a career, but in many respects they just don't know it.

Too often, the military is falsely seen as an alternative to college or an option of last resort. We are working to reframe this narrative so that Americans understand that military service is a pathway to greater education and career opportunities while defending democracy and the freedoms we hold dear.

This is why the Joint Advertising Market Research and Studies program has launched the digital Calling Answer campaign to build familiarity and — with the value proposition of military service to nest with the services' specific campaigns. Further, the department's There Tomorrow adult influencer media campaign targets parents, educators, and other relevant adult influencers to build advocacy for military service.

Moreover, we have collaborated with our education partners through our military enlistment data to — access to LIFT students or our metals working group with state education agencies to develop a strategy and a plan to share military data with states in order to provide credit to public high schools for military readiness, in addition to college and career readiness.

We've also partnered with our fellow national service agencies like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps to help amplify a message of service because, like military service, there has been a decline in propensity for national service opportunities. So, we are working a whole of government solution.

While we're here to talk about recruiting efforts today, we also want to celebrate the 225,000 young adults who've enlisted in fiscal year 2024. Through a spirit of selfless service, we continue to build and maintain the world's most capable military.

I thank you for having me and thank you for your continued efforts to better understand and support the department's recruiting mission. I look forward to your questions.

MG RYDER: Major General Davis.

MG JOHNNY DAVIS: Well, good afternoon everyone. I'm Johnnie Davis, US Army recruiting commander. And thank you, Dr. Helland and fellow recruiting commanders for taking the time to be here.

As mentioned, the US Army Recruiting Command exceeded our fiscal year 2024 recruiting mission, with more than 55,000 future soldiers going to basic combat training. Additionally, our dedicated recruiters capitalized on this momentum and surpassed the fiscal year '24 delayed entry program mission of 5,000, contracting more than 11,000 future enlistments for fiscal year '25. This is a great start and a very positive momentum. Achieving these goals helps ensure our Army has the personnel needed to meet end strength numbers established by Congress.

Just over a year ago, the fierce competition for talented Americans and the need to modernize recruiting efforts led the secretary of the Army to announce recruiting as the Army's number one priority and the need for recruiting transformation. In the past year, we've witnessed historic changes that generated incredible positive momentum for us in the Army.

This really started in February 2024, after about a year of putting many of these initiatives together, and it hasn't slowed down. Our hardworking recruiters, whole of Army support, and transformation initiatives made our fiscal year '24 success possible. We know we are — we are not out of the woods yet, but we remain steadfast to mission success this year and beyond.

So, as I look back on the past year, I think there are two main contributors to the success we're seeing: our investment in the recruiting force and our families and the whole of Army investment in recruiting. We know the importance of putting people first, and started this investment with adapting our recruiter assessment and selection processes.

Incorporating recruiter feedback, we also revamped training at the recruiting college and added two weeks to our Army recruiting course to focus on people and quality of life. Our People Week brings recruiters and their families virtually together to prepare them for the demands of life away from military installations.

Our senior leader supported recruiters with historic incentives in fiscal year '24: recruiter incentive pay continues; authority to promote sergeants who graduate the Army recruiting course to staff sergeant. These are all volunteers. Over 927 have been promoted; meritoriously promote up to 150 qualified sergeants and staff sergeants to the next grade; and promote fully eligible sergeants and staff sergeants who enlist 24 future soldiers to basic combat training in a 12 month period. As of today, we have 21 promotions in this category.

In addition to the investment and professional development of our people, we continue to leverage our soldier referral program, where soldiers from around the globe in every formation have an opportunity to contribute to recruiting efforts. This program is a little more than 20 months old, and we've already received more than 77,000 referrals from soldiers, resulting in 5,000 contracts, and many more in the pipeline.

The Army addressed the medical backlog and surged over 60 medical providers to 33 select Military Entrance Processing Stations across the country, increasing enlistments for the Army, Army Reserve, and our sister services. Our wonderful providers completed 6,000 more physicals as compared to last year.

The Army is paving the way in other avenues for young Americans to serve. A first of its kind life accelerating program started in 2022, the Future Soldier Prep course, invests in young men and women, helping them unlock their potential and achieve academic and fitness readiness for military service, with a graduation rate over 90 percent in both academic and physical tracks.

With recruiting transformation, marketing efforts are even getting better. Throughout fiscal year '24, our teammates at the Army Enterprise Marketing Office built upon the Be All You Can Be campaign while synchronizing marketing and advertising efforts to reach expanded audiences and connect with more prospects interested in military service.

Our recruiting staff and innovation team have been hard at work to transform the enterprise's prospecting efforts and adapt to market expansion. We continue to look beyond the high school market, and in fiscal year '24 had an average enlistment age of 22 years and four months, and this is going up. Also, one out of every five enlistees has some college or is a college graduate.

Our increased usage of digital job boards and rollout of the Go Recruit mobile app, which was a recruiter recommendation, have improved our efforts immensely. We started Recruit 360 pilot, a new AI prospecting experiment that utilizes machine learning and AI assisted lead identification to enhance recruiter efficiency and focus on quality over quantity. So, we're trying to get beyond the old days of high school lists and use AI to help us refine the lead market of our qualified applicants.

Our investment in people and Army's investment in recruiting made fiscal year '24 a success. There are no words to express how proud I am of the hardworking recruiters that crushed it in every community. Compared to fiscal year '23, these young men and women increased productivity by 43 percent, an outstanding improvement.

As we kick start '25, we will continue to invest in the people, maintain momentum, transform the enterprise, and innovate our workforce. The secretary announced earlier this month the Army's enlistment goal for fiscal year '25 is 61,000 future soldiers, with a delayed entry program target of 10,000. Our recruiters are already kicking it in high gear in fiscal year '25, and they're doing very well right now.

Again, thanks again for your time. I look forward to your questions. I'll turn it over to my good friend, Brigadier General Amrhein. And of course, be all you can be.

BG CHRISTOPHER AMRHEIN: Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. I'm honored to speak on behalf of the Air Force Recruiting Service and provide you with an update of where the Air Force and Space Force stand as we concluded fiscal year 2024 and look to our FY '25 goals.

I'm proud to say that we have met our recruiting goals for FY '24 across all components, the active duty Air Force, Air Force Reserve, the Air National Guard, and the Space Force. This is an incredible achievement, particularly in today's challenged recruiting environment, where we face declining youth population, lack of familiarity, and intense competition from the private sector.

I want to start by expressing my sincere appreciation for all the hard work, dedication, and commitment from every member of the Air Force Recruiting Service, to include our Reserve and Guard partners, who were instrumental in us achieving our Department of the Air Force goals.

There was no one single element which got us across the line this year, but rather a broader shift in how we approach recruitment. Multiple levers, such as barrier removal, incentive adjustment, increasing medical review support, and a honed focus on recruiter development all played a critical role to our total force recruiting successes as we closed out this fiscal year.

This was a blend of Department of the Air Force headquarters, senior support from SAF/MR, HAF/A1, Space Force S-1, HAF/SJ — SG, not to mention Secretary Kendall, General Alvin, and General Saltzman. Additionally, Air Education and Training Command Commander Lieutenant General Robinson has been a zealot on barrier removal and resourcing support. Our success is a testament to our collective effort and unwavering commitment to bringing in the best and brightest talent into our Air Force and Space Force.

I need everyone to know the Department of the Air Force is still hiring. We have full and part time opportunities in more than 130 specialties, several with bonuses. We've put in place new incentives and modernized outdated policies beginning in the spring of 2023, bringing in a larger pool of qualified applicants. As of 30 September, more than 10,000 total force airmen and guardians joined the Air Force or Space Force due to policy changes and incentives implemented by the Air Force's recruiting cross-functional team.

By eliminating these barriers, we've optimized our recruitment requirements without sacrificing the quality and capabilities of our recruits. Some of the changes that have expanded accession opportunities attracting high quality youth include reinstating the Enlisted College Loan Repayment program, modifying the body composition program to the baseline DOD instruction, revising the tattoo policy, and continuing the Air Force THC pilot that does not disqualify high quality applicants if they test positive on their initial test and negative on a follow-on test during the application process. In 2024, I adjusted the legal permanent resident requirement in the Air Force from ten years to two years to align with DOD allowances.

We also reviewed our medical policies and processes. The implementation of MHS Genesis and the Health Information Exchange complicated the medical accession process by increased workloads in reviewing potentially disqualifying conditions in applicants versus the pre MHS Genesis. This created a large increase in medical waiver requests and caused applicant waiting time for waiver adjudications to increase significantly.

Late last fall, AFRS added 63 medical administrator contractors to help gather and screen supporting medical records, increasing efficiency and allowing for recruiters to focus more on face-to-face engagements with applicants. Additionally, we bolstered recruiter training and made adjustments to the goaling methodologies.

The Department of the Air Force has not changed its high standards nor compromised the caliber of our applicants. Rather, we have expanded the opportunities for qualified individuals to join our ranks. We have partnered with military affiliated organizations to leverage their presence and manpower in communities across the country.

The Air and Space Force Association, or AFA, has become one of our trailblazing partners in this effort, as this is an exciting opportunity to build our recruiting network beyond our traditional recruiting force. This year we have also launched a similar partnership with Civil Air Patrol, which has the potential to expand our reach and add another 30,000 members to our total force outreach network.

As we celebrate the success, we must also turn and focus to the future. FY '25 brings with it an increased enlisted recruiting goal of 32,500 for the regular Air Force, and a Space Force increase by 30 percent. Additionally, Air Force Reserve requirements will also increase from 7,200 to 7,600. Achieving these goals depends on our ongoing commitment to investing in both our recruiters and the resources they need to succeed.

The Department of the Air Force allocated more than 370 additional recruiting personnel based on manpower studies, Rand reports, and the AETC/A9 analysis. Air Force Recruiting Service is in the process of rapidly onboarding these personnel with deliberate placement in and around the United States.

As we move forward, these goals set before us in FY '25 are ambitious, but we believe they are achievable. Make no mistake. We cannot take our hand off the throttle, and we must remain laser focused on mission. In the end, deterring or winning future conflicts in a time of consequence starts right here at home by winning in the competition space for talent.

With continued innovation, dedication, and a relentless commitment to our excellence, we will bring in the talent of our Air Force, be that reg AF, Guard, or reserve, as well as the Space Force and what they need to meet the challenges for tomorrow.

Thank you. I welcome your questions. Aim high, and Semper Supra. Sir, over to you.

RADM JAMES WATERS: Awesome. Good afternoon. I'm Rear Admiral Jim Waters. I'm Commander, Navy Recruiting Command. It's a privilege to be here this afternoon to talk about the Navy's recruiting efforts over the last year and to outline some of our goals for fiscal year 2025.

We know that, to remain the most capable Navy in the world, we must recruit the best of America, building pathways for all qualified Americans who choose to serve our nation. Fiscal year 2024 was a year of significant achievement for Navy recruiting due to the hard work and dedication of our recruiters, our leadership, and support teams across the country.

Together we contracted 40,978 active component enlisted sailors into the Navy against a goal of 40,600. This was no small feat, and I want to take a moment to recognize the front line Navy recruiters who worked tirelessly to meet our goals. They did an outstanding job navigating a highly competitive recruiting market, and their efforts are a testament to the Navy's commitment to building a talented, mission ready force.

This success didn't happen by chance. It was the result of strategic changes we made to adapt to the current recruiting environment.

Key adjustments included increasing the number of recruiters by approximately 800 and removing bureaucratic barriers to rapid decision making and contracting. When we take care of our recruiters, they take care of the mission. Because we recognize that today's recruits are engaging online more than ever, we ramped up our presence on social media, expanded our esports efforts and employed creative talent in our award-winning Sailor Verses YouTube series.

Additionally, our marketing and advertising efforts focused on real, authentic stories from actual sailors addressing perceived barriers, concerns and key motivators related to joining. Another major initiative in fiscal year 2024 for the Navy was the establishment of our Recruiting Operations Center, or ROC, which has proven invaluable.

The ROC consolidated our data and analytic capacity into a single source of truth to continuously assess and improve recruiting practices. This emphasis on shared learning and best practices is helping our recruiters meet their goals and it will continue to play a key role as we move forward in 2025. Finally, we streamlined our medical waiver process to make well-informed decisions in zero to three days, giving recruiters and candidates the opportunity to act quickly.

As we turn our attention to fiscal year 2025, I want to note that while we're coming off a successful year, we are not taking our foot off the gas. Our goal for fiscal year 2025 is to build on our momentum and recruit another 40,600 new sailors, which reflects the growing needs of the Navy as we continue to modernize and strengthen our capabilities.

The road ahead won't be without obstacles. As my fellow recruiting commanders have noted, the labor market remains competitive and military service is one of many options available to young Americans today. To stand out, we'll continue to refine our message, positioning the Navy as a premier opportunity for professional development, education and service to the nation. And while mindful of evolving societal expectations, especially with regards to work life balance and career flexibility, we will continue to highlight the opportunity for each young American to forge a better version of themselves in America's Navy.

In the end, I'm optimistic about the year ahead. Fiscal year 2025 will bring its own set of challenges, but with the strategies we've implemented and the talent we have in place, I'm confident we will meet our goals. Thank you.

MG RYDER:  General Bowers.

MG WILLIAM BOWERS:  Good afternoon. Ladies and gentlemen, fellow military leaders, it's a pleasure to appear before you today to provide an update of your Marine Corps recruiting efforts. Your Marine Corps exists to fight and win our nation's battles and our performance in recruiting speaks for itself. Our combat heritage is embedded within Marine Corps Recruiting Command's DNA, and we share the same fierce competitive spirit to win as those Marines who've gone before us, no matter the challenge.

Over the past several decades, the Marine Corps has made institutional investments into recruiting to ensure that we are resourced with the very best commanders and Marine recruiters to accomplish this demanding mission. This has been and will continue to be our greatest source of strength as we face what some refer to as the most challenging recruiting environment since the inception of the all-volunteer force.

Marine recruiters will continue to meet the expectations of our nation by holding true to our warrior's ethos and our core values of honor, courage and commitment. We compete for the very best young people in every zip code in our nation and our marine recruiters are actively attracting and inspiring young men and women of character, eager to take up the challenge of earning the title Marine.

While we welcome all qualified and motivated applicants to take up this challenge, we refuse to lower our standards. We understand that to meet the high, almost mystical expectations that the American people have of their Marine Corps, that we must continue to attract and inspire young men and women of character who desire to live a life of significance by becoming a US marine.

Despite our success in fiscal year '24, we continue to face the same challenges as the other services, historic lows in qualification rates, low propensity to serve, a challenging labor market and a fragmented media landscape continued to have a compounding effect on the recruiting environment. To combat these conditions, Marine Corps Recruiting Command will do what Marines have always done, innovate, adapt and win.

As such, we are focused on my priorities of one, training the most proficient recruiting force in the world; two, manning all of our recruiting sectors; three, securing resources to support our people in the field; and four, adapting our geographic laydown to reflect the changing demographics of our nation.

And we're moving out at speed to make these organizational changes. As we attack in the fiscal year '25, we will continue to reinforce and expand the trust of the American people in their Marine Corps, positively shape the future of the Marine Corps and enable our Marines and their families to be happy and successful.

I look forward to answering your questions. Thank you. Semper Fidelis.

MG RYDER:  Thank you very much to all of our panelists today. We'll start with Associated Press, Lita Baldor.

Q:  Thank you. Thank you all for being here. I don't know, Dr. Helland, if you can answer this or if this is each one of you needs to answer. I'm wondering about bonuses. Can you tell me how much Overall the Defense Department has increased the amount of money it's providing to the services for bonuses and other sort of monetary enhancements for the services to provide for recruiting last year over this year? If you can give sort of overall or if the services need to provide their own.

And then Admiral Waters, for the Navy, can you say how closely the Navy is tracking the CAT IV that you have been bringing in over the last year or so to determine whether or not there are any increased disciplinary or other issues with that sort of larger chunk that the Navy's been bringing in, that the other services have not done?

DR HELLAND:  So I'll actually open it up to the services to talk on bonus incentives.

MG DAVIS:  Yeah. Ma'am, I don't have the exact amount, but this is one of the areas that the, in terms of transformation, should we do the same thing that we've been doing every year. So we're looking at a potential pilot to weigh bonus versus station of choice. And what we're seeing is applicants are moving towards the station of choice. With that, has garnered savings.

I don't have the final amount, but it is sizable when you look at the total number of applicants. And let's say, it could be an estimate from $3,000 to $5,000, or $6,000 each. So that's one of the areas that when we look at transformation, how can we do something different, and I think it's yielding — I mean what we're seeing is applicants prefer duty station of choice over money.

BG AMERINE:  Yeah. Ma'am, I'll follow up with my colleague, we can get you the specific number. What we do though is the incentive options that are there, they do and can flex throughout the requirements from the Air Force, specifically AFSCs or Air Force specialty codes. And so, what we have seen is a shift in my time, a little over a year, focusing on some of the most high demand and low density jobs that are out there, specifically in our special warfare atmosphere for those Air Force specialty codes.

And so, in many cases, several AFSCs are all eligible for a bonus, but the structure of this is always flexing based on the highest or the most demand. AFSCs right now for us, that is special warfare and a lot of our open and mechanical AFSCs, ma'am.

RADM WATERS:  Yeah, so like the other services, we look at each rating to specifically allocate enlistment bonuses. But the short answer to your primary question is there hasn't been a significant change in the bonus amount going from '24 to '25. And with respect to the CAT IV, we're tracking that closely.

We've seen no increase in attrition, no increase in disciplinary actions and I attribute that mainly to the fact that every recruit that comes into the Navy meets the standard for the rating to which they are assigned. So the CAT IV is from the AFQT, which is four parts of the ASVAB . Each rating is a combination of scores from those four plus the other six parts of the ASVAB, and that has never changed.

So a CAT VI sailor that comes in with an AFQT of 22, that's going to go be a machinist mate, meets all of the line requirements for that machinist mate and always has. We have not changed that.

MG BOWERS:  And, ma'am, the Marine Corps does not rely on bonuses to attract and inspire young men and women of character to take up the challenge of becoming Marines. That said, we do have some new incentives for some new career fields. This year, we have $15,000 bonuses for electronic maintenance, cyber and crypto operations and information and communication tech career fields. But again, we don't rely primarily on bonuses.

MG RYDER:  Thank you, all. Yes, ma'am?

Q:  Audrey Decker, DefenseOne, I want to thank you so much for doing this. I have a quick follow up. I just wanted to make sure I have this correct. So the Army and the Air Force Space Force is increasing their goal for 2025, Navy staying the same. And then I didn't hear Major General Bowers what the Marine Corps was doing for 2025?

MG BOWERS:  Our goal is increasing by approximately 1,800 Marines.

Q:  And then separately, Dr. Helland, you mentioned declining eligibility and I was just wondering if there were any specific efforts to get after that and specifically in terms of previous drug use? I know there was a provision in the '25 NDAA that would stop the services from requiring someone to test for marijuana before enlisting.

What does the DOD think about that provision? If you could provide any more guidance there.

DR HELLAND:  Certainly. Yeah. When we look at eligibility based on estimates, about 23 percent of youth are eligible to enlist without a waiver. That's for any of our various standards, whether they medical dependents, moral. So with regards to medical standards, it's something the department continually looks at and looks at advances in medical science, looking at the data for those who've come in with waivers to see if we can refine the medical standards.

We've also instituted a medical accessions records pilot where for at this point now, 51 conditions that used to have—most of them had any history of a particular condition, we're testing the feasibility of reducing the timeframe for those conditions. ADHD has actually been one where we've seen a lot of individuals come in under that condition.

We've also seen great success as we talked through the Future Sailor Future Soldier prep course, to invest in those individuals with potential to get them to whether it be the body composition or some of our academic standards as well. With regards to drugs, certainly marijuana is still a prohibited for federal employees and we'll have to continue to follow federal law.

MG RYDER:  Thank you very much. Let's go to Haley.

Q:  Thank you. Thank you all for doing this. Dr. Helland, you mentioned that for the first time since the metric has been tracked that there is a percentage of youth who are not even considering military service. Can you say for how long has that metric been tracked?

DR HELLAND:  I'll have to go back and double check, but I think it's mid like 2010 or so.

Q:  OK. So roughly at least a decade?

DR HELLAND:  At least a decade. Yes. Yes.

Q:  And then I apologize, I don't remember who mentioned MHS Genesis, but that was — I'm curious kind of what you've seen as the trend of that. I know that that was a pretty significant issue for a lot of recruiters and a lot of recruits of just the challenges that MHS Genesis presented. So can you kind of talk through, are you still seeing those challenges? Are those being addressed? What does that sort of look like now that we've kind of gotten further away from its implementation?

DR HELLAND:  Sure. So yes, when we rolled out MHS Genesis, which is the department's electronic health record system and when we rolled it out across MEPCOM, that provided us access to the verifiable health records, which meant we now have a lot of information on our young adults to assess Them against our medical standards.

That did increase our workloads given the sheer volume of information that was available through those health information exchange, But we've been able to implement technical solutions. One of the key ones was instituting natural language processing, to go through and pick out key elements that have helped us reduce the time frame.

We also overhauled recently our whole prescreen process, So that's the process where we're reviewing the documentation and then giving them the approval of our applicants to go to the various MEPs. Through our overhaul of the process, now 80 percent of our applicants are cleared to go to MEPs within 48 hours of starting that prescreened process.

And then for those 20 percent that have more complex medical histories, we've reduced the timeframe where it used to be about 29 days on average to get them to Florida MEPs, we're now down to below seven. So we're continuing to improve our processes. And with MHS Genesis, we're able to leverage technology more, to automate more processes, but we've also brought in more staff as well and working to increase the staff to address the workload.

MG RYDER:  All right. Let's go to the phones here. Heather Mongillo, USNI News.

Q:  Great. Thank you so much. So I guess one of my biggest questions that I'm trying to still figure out when talking about recruiting, is it that there are a lot more people who are propense to serve right now, or is it that the different services have found that they were having roadblocks preventing people from enlisting?

I guess I'm trying to figure out, are there just more people interested and that's who you tapped into Or was there a problem with the way the services were recruiting that created the services not meeting the goals the past two years?

DR HELLAND:  Certainly. I can jump in and then turn it over. But when we look at on aggregate, our measure of propensity, which is a snapshot in time when someone takes a survey, we have seen stability in a low metric for propensity. Where about 10 percent of young adults are motivated to serve, that has not changed over the past few years.

What we are seeing is propensity growing at an individual level, right? When our recruiters get out there and make contact with the individual, they can grow propensity one person at a time. That's where I believe we are seeing success, is the operations and what we've been able to get back into communities where when you think about what happened during COVID, we had to pull out of communities for almost two years. It takes time to get back in and develop those relationships again. But again, I think this is what we're seeing is a testament to our recruiting commanders and the hard work of our recruiters.

MG DAVIS:  Yeah. Dr. Helland, if I could add, you're absolutely right. I think not having our superstar recruiters in high schools across the nation for some two and a half years, has certainly had an impact and really bringing awareness and the face-to-face interaction really helps to fill knowledge gaps for, in our case, the United States Army.

And so that awareness also impacts their desire to say, well, should I consider service? We have a declining veteran population. I grew up with a family of many veterans in Wisconsin, who either served in World War II or Korea or Vietnam and they were all there to answer my questions.

Now, with the decreasing veteran population, that is also really impacting, I think, that knowledge base and propensity of those up and coming qualified military service men and women.

BG AMERINE:  Yeah. And if I could add, I think with Dr. Helland's comments, on 30 years ago if you asked somebody if they had a family member, 45 hands would go up. And if you ask now, it's somewhere between 10 and 12 or so. And it is what it is, but what I would say is one of the focus areas for the Air Force and Space Force, is building back that familiarity because over time, that created this lack of familiarity.

And then you have these exacerbating incidents like COVID that materialized. But this has been a focus point. And I know that we all spoke to this last fall as well, is all of the services are really focusing on that lack of familiarity and getting back out into the public and getting it won , whether it's one person, one touch point at a time that General Davis said, or expanding social media campaigns to meet this generation where they are.

But I think that, for the Air Force aspect of it, it is a deliberate line of effort for us, is expanding that total force outreach or recruiting network to be able to build back that familiarity into America. Thank you.

RADM WATERS:  Yeah, I think it's important in this to not equate low propensity with high anti-military sentiment. It's really an expression of lack of knowledge, lack of familiarity, to play off my shipmate here. And I think to answer a little bit more of the question that was asked, to say, this reflects an increased number of recruiters.

I mean, the Navy added recruiters, other services added recruiters and it also reflects the recognition that we need to increase propensity one American at a time. It's that prospecting work that's done by recruiters to go out not only in the schools but at career fairs. And making phone calls, social media connections, all of it to build that human to human relationship that leads to a young American, recognizing the value of service and then making a commitment to it.

MG RYDER:  Let's go back out to the phone here. Jeff Schogol, Task and Purpose.

Q:  Thank you. A question for Dr. Helland about the medical accession records pilot or MARP. So as you mentioned, it's now up to about 51 conditions. Do you foresee this as the start of something that becomes permanent, a change to military accession regulations that makes it easier for people with previously disqualifying medical conditions to enlist without having to get a waiver first? Thank you.

DR HELLAND:  Yes, so the whole intent of this is write a pilot to test the feasibility. If we can shorten these timeframes and with the data, then to make that decision to then modify our medical accession standards. So that's where we're in right now that that pilot phase. Largely we are seeing positive results, and we'll continue to monitor the data.

So ultimately again to make that decision to about these conditions and whether we can build them into our standards instruction.

MG RYDER:  Let's go out to Steve Beynon, Military Times.

Q:  I appreciate you all for doing this. A quick question for the services minus the Army and Navy. Those services have seen a lot of good early data on the prep courses. Nearly a quarter of the Army recruits in FY '24 did one of those prep courses. Has the Air Force or Marine Corps looking into establishing their version of that and Space Force as well? Thank you.

BG AMERINE:  Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for the question. From a holistic perspective across the Department of the Air Force for Recruiting, I would offer the answer is no, there's not. There's not the overarching compelling requirement that we've seen. However, I would say that for our special warfare accession pipeline, we do have a very deliberate development program for them.

So as folks identify or are interested in the special warfare Air Force specialty codes, there is a very deliberate development program both from a, you know, from a mental resiliency standpoint, but also a very in-depth training physical training regimen to prepare them for that pipeline.

MG BOWERS:  Yes, in the Marine Corps, we are not looking at starting a special program for future Marines. We have the delayed entry program that's working very well for us.

MG RYDER:  All right. Luis?

Q:  Thank you. I just want to follow up on Steve's question here because it was almost related exactly to that, but I'm going to direct my question to the Army and the Navy about the future sailor or Future Soldier Prep Course.

Can you confirm the numbers of how many of your recruits this year actually participated in that? And having heard the other two services, why did the Navy choose to follow what the Army program was and was it based on their success or what did you find that, yes, we did have a base that really needed that was of motivated individuals who wanted to join the Navy who just needed that extra incentive.

And then I have a follow up.

RADM WATERS:  Yeah, so thanks for that and I don't have the exact numbers in front of me for how many went through for the two future sailor prep course physical or academic, but the reason that we followed the Army on this was because of their great success. I mean, General Davis talked about the percentages.

It was a wonderful example and what we found especially for on the side of future sailor prep course physical which allows us to bring some folks in that are above body fat standards by up to 6 percent and have them work with our recruit division commanders. We had a lot of highly qualified, like nuclear trained operator qualified individuals, that couldn't quite get there.

And so when we saw that the Army was using that, we took it on and we're 100 percent successful on getting folks through that course. We have a few that have tapped out because this isn't for me, but anybody that was working toward that body fat standard has made it and is in recruit training. And what we found is those sailors are committed in a way that's above and beyond the average that's in recruit training command and many of them have gone on to leadership positions within their recruit divisions.

Future sailor prep course academic allowed us to provide an opportunity for young Americans to expand the opportunities within the Navy. As I mentioned before, every rating, all of them are based on individual line scores. And so by giving them some more academic training and recognition that much of America had challenges with COVID in schools to increase that opportunity and give them the opportunity to have more choice and we can fill other ratings that we wouldn't have otherwise. That's why we followed the Army.

MG DAVIS:  Yeah, if I could answer the data, so if Soldier Prep course for us is about 20-21 months, total number of graduates, we're approaching over 28,188. Now that's just more than compo-one. So now when I talk about that number, that's active duty, Army Reserve and National Guard, so they all benefit in the total Army with the Future Soldier Prep Course for us from last year's mission of 55,000, over 10,326 graduated to course.

We already have another pending shipped already to Fort Jackson about 1,500 and another, you know, 3,000 over the next, you know, quarter or so into the new year. So we are filling all of the seats because of the demand.

So let me go back to why we're seeing the success when we saw the during COVID the drop in test ASVAB by like ten points, that's the segment and it wasn't you know, recruiting command, it was actually our training and doctrine command Lieutenant Gervais and team. That said, hey, the Army's done this before, we saw this drop, why don't we go and try to invest in that segment and, I mean, half of them were within five points of a fully meeting, you know, three Bravo or Alpha, which allows to open up many job opportunities.

And so that's what we invested in and that's why we see this transformational success. Some of them are testing out within two weeks and some of them are testing to the highest category. So now every job in the Army is now open to them just from a classroom, not, you know, from an outside agency, of course the camaraderie like students, the physical fitness, academic training every day is, I think, is building this great cohort of future soldiers.

Now what I recommend everybody take an opportunity and visit the Future Soldier Prep Course if they haven't down at Fort Jackson, it will be an eye opener. I've been many times. I love it, it's a great course.

Q:  My follow up is do you plan to now expand the course as it continues to get 1 in 5, So new recruits in?

RADM WATERS:  Yes.

Q:  And also, what do you attribute the rise in age to? You said that your average age now is 22 years, four months.

MG DAVIS:  Yeah. So I don't know in terms of expansion because we want to go after that labor market, expanded market. The segment that is, you know, within ten points or that that whatever the 21 to 30 we think they can test up. So I don't think we're going to expand that based on what we're seeing. Now, let's go to the — this expanded market.

What I'm hearing from recruiters is that many are you know, graduating high school and are going on to college. And maybe that's not for them and what our recruiters are doing is really beginning to focus on that segment of the population and it's really starting to pay off.

Why are they focusing on that? Because when we were short in terms of what we're bringing in to the Army, we needed to fill training seats. So basic training battalions can be filled and we weren't filling them. So our recruiters weren't going to the high schools because they won't ship until the next year, so they're going directly into the labor market. And that has really, really blossomed for us over the last two years.

And I want to say to our recruiters, job well done. Let's stay at it and this, the current delayed entry program, it I think the average age is about 22 years and five months. So I see it going up and the high school market as we see the student, you know, population, let's say decline over time, we're going to have to expand it into the labor market or the — some college or college market.

MG RYDER:  We have time for one more. Yes, sir.

Q:  John Seward. Notes on the prep courses for both services. What are you all seeing in terms of retention after initial contract? And then a similar sort of related follow up for all services, which is in terms of finding qualified applicants, where does physical fitness rank as far as challenge?

RADM WATERS:  So as far as the Future Sailor Prep Course, the physical fitness part of it has been something of a challenge to make sure that we've got the right fitness for folks joining the Navy, but it's not one that's insurmountable. And the physical part, the future sailor prep course physical has given us the ability to really get after that. Especially in our ratings that require a much, much higher-end ASVAB score to get after.

MG DAVIS:  So for the Army, Army Research Institute is tracking every graduate, so you need more time, it's about 20 months. So we do have a large number of graduates and what we want to do longitudinally is really find out from an academic perspective if that impacts retention as they go on to the first duty station.

For the fitness, that's a really good question and we're thinking through that because we know that in the Future Soldier Prep Course they lose about 1.2 percent body fat a week. And what we want to make sure is we keep tracking them as they move on to their first duty station and figure out in terms of retention. So are they continuing on this right path or are they going down or are they going up? So that's what we're tracking because we really need that data to figure out, hey, is this so transformational that we need to look at, you know, other expansion opportunities.

RADM WATERS:  Yeah. So I think some of that's because of the length of time that we've been running the Future Sailor Prep Course hasn't been significant enough to really get after that. But I can say that our attrition rates in boot camp and A-school for this cadre, both physical and academic are on par. There's no change for that group relative to the rest of them.

Q:  And just a follow up for all services, where does physical fitness rank in terms of?

BG AMERINE:  For the Air Force, I had mentioned in my opening statement that over the past year, we adjusted the Air Force actually had a higher than DOD standard and we aligned with the DOD standard. Since then we brought in over 5,800 airmen under that DOD standard. We've had one wash out of BMT for physical fitness reasons.

And so I think it's, you know, from that standpoint and I will tell you we get the question a lot, hey, have you changed the standard. Well, the PFT standards have not changed for our basic training and that small policy adjustment offered 5,800 very high quality folks to come into our service and we lost one person for it. Thanks.

MG BOWERS:  Good question. Thanks for the question. So Marine Corps recruit training is 13 weeks long. It is the toughest, most physically demanding of the entry-level training of the services. So physical fitness is therefore very important to us. This is the value of our delayed entry program. We like every applicant to spend at least 30 days in the delayed entry program so we can work with them, they can work with their recruiter and we can get them in good physical shape to improve their chances of success at recruit training.

The delayed entry program has an additional benefit for us. While these kids are getting in good shape working with their recruiters, they bring their friends along and 25 percent of our contracts, one out of four, comes from a referral from the delayed entry program. Our Marines love the opportunity to have a delayed entry program to work with their own little squad or platoon of recruits and this gets to propensity.

You know, we like to replace propensity with inspired. So if only 9 percent of the population is propensed , 91 percent is just waiting to be inspired. What a golden opportunity. So this is the value of our delayed entry program.

MG RYDER:  All right, ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much. I really want to say thank you to our distinguished defense leaders, panelists today as they talk about our efforts to improve our recruiting and service goals for fiscal year '25. Thank you very much. This concludes our press briefing.