My take after reading it entirely is that it shows that so far DEI policies have not negatively impacted the desire of potential recruits in the groups that are traditionally overrepresented in the military from wanting to serve. It does note that this might change as knowledge of the DEI policies increase in such groups. Nevertheless, the current recruiting shortfalls cannot be placed at the feet of DEI.

The author theorizes that the shortfall is mainly in white Democrats who are less likely to want to join due to negative views of the country as a whole. Why join the military to defend something you hate? For this theory, the author had to rely on some speculative interpretations of the available data but makes reasonable, though not definitive, justifications for the interpretations.