LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. — For 50 years, the United States Military has run on an all-volunteer force. Private First Class (PFC) Carter Zaccariello is one of its newest servicemen.
"You want to come in ready to work, and you want to strive to be the best," PFC Zaccariello said.
Carter, who enlisted to become an explosive ordnance disposal technician, comes from a military family and says the choice to enlist was easy.
"My cousin does the same job as me," PFC Zaccariello said. "He introduced me, told me what he was doing and it really sounded interesting to me."
However, Major Mie Horvath, the executive officer at the Harrisburg Recruiting Battalion, says the same can’t be said for others.
"Historically, the propensity to serve hovers around 13 to 14%," Major Horvath said. "And 2022, we saw that come down to 9%.”
A recruitment crisis is dealing a major blow to the armed forces. Army, Air Force, Navy, and Coast Guard officials say they will not meet their recruiting goals this year.
“We're seeing a little bit more competition from the private sector," Major Horvath said. "[It's] something we just hadn't seen in the past, we're seeing that more and more now."
Large companies like Starbucks and Walmart are offering higher pay and similar benefits that were traditionally incentives people could only get from enlisting in the military.
"Historically, something like student loan repayment, that's military only, was something that we kind of owned," Major Horvath said. "That was an attractive point to bringing folks into military service."
So, the Army is adapting.
"Up to $50,000 in bonuses, that's a huge incentive for just about anybody," Major Horvath said. "And then on top of that, we're giving people an option of a lower contract requirement time, now it's a two-year option."
Traditionally, armed forces contracts are between four and eight years in length. The shorter option gives recruits the chance to a shorter commitment to see if the Army is a right fit for them.
Connecting with the community is also just as important as incentivizing new soldiers.
"It's part of what we do here locally and across recruiting to kind of get ourselves out there," Major Horvath said. "We're trying to make sure that the public knows their army."
PFC Zaccariello says military service offers something for everything.
“It's not all that you see, you're not just going to be going in with infantry and everything," he said. "They have anything really, it's not all just infantry and going into combat."
You can find your local recruiters or how to join the branches at the links below: