Military Family members less likely to recommend service

A recent survey by the Military Family Advisory Network confirms concerns about the sustainability of the US military’s all volunteer force.

According to Shannon Razsadin, president and executive director of the Military Family Advisory Network (MFAN), active duty service members, veterans, and dependents are becoming less and less likely to recommend military service based on their experience with the military.

Razsadin said, “At the end of the day, families are having a hard time making ends meet, and that’s affecting their overall well-being. We see the connection between well-being and loneliness, well-being and housing, well-being and food security. When you layer that on top of the fact that fewer people are likely to recommend military service, it paints a very clear picture of concern related to the future of the all-volunteer force.”

The MFAN usually conducts this study every two years. According to Razsadin, the number of active and former troops and their dependents who would recommend military service fell from 74.5% in 2019 to 62.9% in 2021. This is the forth study of this kind performed by the organization.

8,638 respondents participated in the Military Family Support Programming Survey which was conducted online from October 4th to December 15th of last year.

Almost 60% of the survey participants were between the ages of 25 and 39, 44% of whom were active duty spouses and 14% were active duty.

Razsadin said, “This was troubling for us. It was really the fact that families do not feel like military life lines up with family life.”

This survey serves as an interesting accompaniment to another survey conducted by the National Military Family Association (NMFA) which found that 65% of military teens want to follow in the footsteps of their military parents. While this number sounds optimistic for military recruitment, the study also indicates that the teen respondents in this survey “are not okay.”

According to NMFA and Bloom: Empowering the Military Teen, among the teens surveyed who intend to serve like their parents, 42% exibit signs of emotional distress, 11% have experienced domestic abuse or violence, and almost 33% have food insecurities.