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Comment by Duwensatzaj | Hacker News Reader

Hope they haven’t forgotten about Project 100,000 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_100,000

Another article is more explicit about exactly who isn’t joining the military anymore. https://www.military.com/daily-news/2024/01/10/army-sees-sha...

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Well, they did reinstate the requirement a week later, so...

https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2022/07/after-criticism-ar...

>Another article is more explicit about exactly who isn’t joining the military anymore.

The article doesn't confirm whether the total of any other groups is dropping, but it can be inferred from the numbers given that recruiting is very low across the board. It's worth having a racial remark in the title for clicks alone.

> In 2018, 56.4% of new recruits were categorized as white. In 2023, that number had fallen to 44%. During that same five-year period, Black recruits have gone from 20% to 24% of the pool, and Hispanic recruits have risen from 17% to 24%, with both groups seeing largely flat recruiting totals but increasing as a percentage of incoming soldiers as white recruiting has fallen.

The use of proportions rather than actual totals means the number of recruits could have dropped by that same 12.4% in every category, in which case the focus on race is completely meaningless.

> the drop in white recruitment has baffled Army staff and isn't easily explained by any one particular factor

... after a whole article full of explanations, none of which involve surveying white men to ask them why they don't want to sign up anymore. Classic journalism.

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