You'll Never Believe What the Navy Is Doing to 'Improve Retention' of Personnel

Since 1973, the U.S. Navy and other services have relied exclusively on an all-volunteer service. The results have been self-evident in two wars and numerous smaller military actions.

Our boys and girls kick ass, and the rest of the world knows it and fears them like they fear no other nation’s armed forces.

But successful military recruitment is usually a matter of how well the U.S. economy is doing. At present, the economy is overheated. This means it’s creating plenty of jobs, but because of Joe Biden and the Democrat’s spendapalooza since 2021, inflation is rocketing along.

Nevertheless, a high school student contemplating his or her future has plenty of options to choose from besides military service. And young soldiers already in service might look at their low pay compared to friends and family members working in the private sector and wonder if serving their country is really worth it.

The Navy has a big problem maintaining its strength. So the brass has decided to give a pass to sailors with Physical Fitness Assessment failures (PFAs) on their record.

“This is connected because it clearly affects attrition, right? It will reduce attrition if we do not separate sailors based on past PFA failures,” Waters told reporters Wednesday. “But it came about through all of the analysis for this campaign plan, through a recognition that we don’t want to punish sailors because gyms were closed during the pandemic. We don’t want to disadvantage sailors.”

Any sailor who gives the closing of gyms during the pandemic as a reason for being out of shape and failing the PFA should drop and give me 20 immediately. My understanding is the PFA is not a taxing assessment, and it stands to reason that sailors who failed the assessment probably aren’t in shape to fight a war.

Just sayin’.

The wiping of failed PFAs from the record is apparently a one-time thing having to do with the brass being unable to retain enough soldiers to meet their manpower goals.

With that in mind, another announcement made Thursday affects all branches of the military; the United States military has graciously offered to pay travel expenses and given up to three weeks off with pay for women to get an abortion if they need to go to a different state to get one. The rule covers fertility treatments as well. A ‘senior defense official told the Military Times that the change in policy will help with recruitment.

“Service members and families are required to travel and move to meet the needs of the nation. And while they certainly have a voice in the process of where they’re assigned, ultimately, decisions are made in the best interest of the department’s mission requirements,” a senior defense official, who was not authorized to speak on the record, told Military Times during a Thursday interview. “And we strongly believe that these moves should not impact their access to essential health care. These policies that we’re releasing today will help ensure long-term that we’re able to recruit, retain and maintain the readiness of a highly qualified force.”

Using taxpayer money to pay military women to travel to another state to get an abortion they couldn’t get in the state in which they serve is a dubious use of tax dollars and may even be illegal.

Perhaps if military women want an abortion so badly, they should resign from the military and take care of it on their own dime.