Good morning and thank you all for joining with us today. As MG Davis said, General George and I are proud to recognize these outstanding recruiters from across the Army.
These Soldiers have gone above and beyond in their efforts to attract and recruit the best talent for our force, and they have all had a hand in keeping our Army the best land fighting force that the world has ever seen.
Recruiting is one of our top priorities because it is an existential issue for the Army. Recruiting is the foundation of the Army house, and if we have cracks in our foundation, we have a serious problem.
Part of the solution to our recruiting problem is ensuring we have capable recruiters – attracting and recruiting talent into our ranks takes immense effort and considerable skill.
We are here today to recognize 13 top recruiters because we know how difficult this is and have seen how consistently they have engaged with prospects and produced contracts, exceeding their missions quarter after quarter.
As recruiters, they are the face of the Army to the American public – sometimes the only face-to-face interaction that our citizens will ever have with the military.
The example that they set, the conversations that they have, and the way that they conduct themselves every day, all leave a lasting impression in the minds of not only our prospects, but also the families, friends, influencers, mentors, and veterans in our communities who often shape the thinking of American’s young people.
We trust them to help the Army maintain its competitive edge as the best land fighting force in the world – a competitive edge that is based on each of our individual soldiers and the discipline, professionalism, and competence they demonstrate when a prospect walks into a recruiting station, visits a recruiting booth, or responds to a text or phone call.
Our standard for our soldiers is high – and it is no secret that it has been more and more difficult to recruit military service for a variety of reasons.
We face a very competitive labor market, historically low unemployment rates, increasing numbers of students seeking further education, as well as declining trust in the military.
But these recruiters fought through those conditions to find the best prospects and match them to jobs in our Army.
And they have done an incredible job in not only meeting the needs of the Army, but in making those lasting connections with the communities where they serve.
For some of these Recruiters, those connections were a homecoming, as they serve in the states and cities that they consider home.
For others, it’s building new relationships in a new town, sometimes far away from where they were raised and the communities where they grew up.
But for all of them, building those relationships was key to their success – whether that was through their social media presence, involvement in youth mentorship activities, sports programs, volunteering, or leadership in their church or community.
They have all done an outstanding job representing the Army at a time when recruiting has been one of our toughest missions.
Over the past two years we have set a very high goal for the total number of new recruits– but we knew that we had to, not just to defend the nation today, but to build the force that will defend the nation for years into the future.
We made significant progress in FY23, increasing marketing and other resources for our recruiting stations, leveraging the solider referral program to give new leads to our recruiters, and surging resources to our MEPS stations to help reduce the backlog in our recruiting pipeline.
We’ve graduated more than 14,000 soldiers out of the Future Soldier Prep Course and shipped them to basic training.
But we must maintain this momentum and build on the terrific work of recruiters like these here today to not just meet our requirements now but build back our end strength for the force that will be needed for the future.
In the past ten years, as our total number of recruits fell, we were forced to reach into our Delayed Entry Pool or “DEP” to close the gap between our stated recruiting target and what our recruiters were able to achieve.
After years of making withdrawals from our “DEP bank account” our remaining balance is uncomfortably low. We need to renew our focus on building that reserve account back up.
That is why this year we have set a goal to recruit 55,000 new soldiers by the end of the fiscal year, and another 5,000 who agree to ship to basic training within the next fiscal year – rebuilding the DEP that serves as our savings account for the future.
This will be a challenge to accomplish - a challenge that I know the recruiters are ready to take on, but one that requires us to make significant changes to the way that we do business.
Over the summer we established a study team to take a “clean sheet” examination of the Army’s recruiting challenges and practices that identified shifts in the job market, changes in modern hiring practices, and trends within our eligible population.
Based on this analysis we announced plans in October for the fundamental redesign of our recruiting enterprise.
This will be a long-term process, but changes are already underway.
As I look at the 13 recruiters we are recognizing today, I see that half of them serve in a non-recruiting military specialty, and at some point, we will need them back in the force serving in positions as military police, maintainers, and air defenders.
At the same time, we now realize we need to take a page from the private sector playbook and create a more permanent, specialized recruiter workforce.
Part of that effort will include providing a path for advancement, education, and development for our 79Rs that have chosen to make recruiting their main specialty and can be the vanguard of the new specialized group of recruiters.
So, to begin that work we have developed a new MOS – 420T, giving our recruiters the opportunity to pursue a career as a Warrant Officer.
Over the past month we have already received dozens of applications to become recruiting warrant officers.
We are using the lessons learned from assessing and selecting battalion and brigade leaders at the command assessment program at Fort Knox to assess the applicants for the talents needed to be successful in recruiting.
These assessments are in large part built on the talents modeled by outstanding recruiters like these 13 today.
As we select the first class of recruiting warrant officers, we are also getting more tools and resources into the hands of our current recruiters to maximize their potential.
It is long overdue, but the GoRecruit app – designed by the Army’s own Software Factory makes it possible for recruiters to complete a lot of the paperwork directly on their mobile device – allowing them to spend more time where it counts, out in the field talking to prospects and building connections rather than sitting at their desks in recruiting stations.
We are also testing new tools and techniques to reach prospects in junior colleges and technical schools and putting more emphasis on online job postings in key markets across the nation.
And behind the scenes we are testing new analytical systems that will leverage machine learning to match prospects with critical MOS’s and key vacancies within the Army.
We are doing all of this now, and we are simultaneously making structural changes to Recruiting Command, increasing its access to resources and senior leader guidance, enhancing its ties to Army marketing, and expanding its ability to develop and pilot new recruiting techniques that will carry us into the future.
The Army is doing all of this to maximize the potential of recruiters like these 13 soldiers that we are recognizing today – to arm then with the best training, the best marketing techniques, the most up-to-date analytical tools, and the resources they need to accomplish their mission.
Because coming back to where I started, we know how critical recruiters are to everything the Army does.
Today, as we recognize these top 13 recruiters for their outstanding contributions, it’s not just for achieving a high number of contracts, it’s recognizing them for the contribution that they have made to our Army and its ability to continue to defend the nation.
Thank you for not letting your feet off the gas.
Thank you for representing the Army all across the country, and for understanding that your personal interactions with our citizens may shape their impression of the Army and the military forever.
You have all done tremendous work.
I am proud to recognize you here today - to present you with these awards that represent the contribution that you have made to securing the future of our Army.
Thank you.
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