WASHINGTON -- As the coronavirus pandemic worsens and the country increasingly turns to the military for help, America's armed services are struggling to get new recruits as families and communities hunker down.
Recruiters scrounging for recruits online are often finding people too consumed with their own financial and health care worries to consider a military commitment right now.
The services, as a result, could fall thousands short of their enlistment goals if the widespread lockdowns drag on, forcing them to pressure current troops to stay on in order to maintain military readiness.
Marine Gunnery Sgt. Kevin Meyer does his best recruiting face-to-face. He can look people in the eye, read their body language and get insight into whether they would make a good Marine.
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But quarantines have shut down most recruiting stations, so Meyer and other recruiters have turned more to social media. And that has its drawbacks.
"They usually won't run away if you're talking to them in person," said Meyer, noting that if they are online or on the phone, they can just hang up. "They just stop responding, and the conversation just ends without a conclusion."
"This is going to have somewhat of a corrosive effect on our ability to have the numbers of people that we really need," said Maj. Gen. Lenny Richoux, director for personnel for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "The concern, it is growing."
He said the military is watching this day-to-day and knows that it could take "a very long time" to rebuild the force.
Recruiters are talking more broadly about service to the nation in difficult times while hoping to get a recruiting surge during the peak summer months. And the military is an option for those facing lingering unemployment because of the pandemic.
Most military movement stalled when the Defense Department froze nonessential moves several weeks ago. But the Army and Marine Corps have continued to send recruits to initial or follow-on training.
New Marines are still going to boot camp on the West Coast, but not to Parris Island, S.C., where there have been several cases of the virus at the base. Those finishing boot camp are immediately going to their follow-on infantry training at Camp Lejeune, N.C., or Camp Pendleton, Calif., without getting the usual 10-day break at home.
Just last week, the Army chartered 32 buses to carry 812 new soldiers from Fort Jackson, S.C., where they had finished basic combat training, to Fort Lee, Va., to start quartermaster and logistics training. A similar caravan will take medic trainees from Oklahoma to Texas.
Maj. Gen. Lonnie Hibbard, commanding general of the Army Center for Initial Military Training, said people ask why the Army is still recruiting and training during a pandemic.
"We have to," he said, adding it can be done with minimal risk to health and safety. "It's our responsibility to America right now."
Information for this article was contributed by Robert Burns of The Associated Press.
A Section on 04/05/2020