After it failed to meet recruitment goals in 2022, experts worried about the future of the US armed forces. But by 2025 the military had exceeded its recruiting goals. Trump and Hegseth take credit but it started during Biden's presidency – and women, not men, led the surge. (In 2024, women's recruitment increased 18%, while men saw an 8% bump.) Experts credit an advertisement blitz and the creation of a course that helps aspiring service members get test scores up and body weight down.
Still, gen Z has a less-than-favorable view of the military; a Department of Defense poll found that positive attitudes toward the armed forces among the cohort dropped from 46% in 2016 to 35% in 2021. A more recent poll from March conducted by SocialSphere's Gen Z Tracker, an opinion research consultancy, found that 34% of gen Z recipients strongly opposed war in Iran; only 9% strongly supported it.
Today's 18-year-olds were born in 2008. It's not difficult to see why a younger generation of service members that has known nearly endless American war might indulge in unfiltered posting. As one army member, shown throwing her patrol cap down in anger, posted to TikTok: "POV: you believed ur recruiter, now u regretting everything."…
