Since the birth of our nation, every succeeding generation understood our freedoms and liberties were not chiseled in granite or guaranteed to last forever. They knew to remain free, and to keep the liberties promised by our constitution, there would be times we would have to fight for what we believed in, and what we held dear to our hearts, as was done in the Revolutionary War. Thus we needed a strong and dedicated military made up of citizen soldiers.

We so believed in our way of life, that throughout history we’ve sent our military around the world to help struggling and enslaved people to gain their freedoms and independence.

There were times such as after World War One we allowed our military to become weak, believing the war to end all wars was actually something mankind could believe in. By 1940 America’s total military strength of all branches was just 458,365. Many members of the military at that time joined up since finding jobs in the private sector during the Depression was impossible.

However by 1945 with the end of World War Two in sight, our military had grown to 12,209,238 men and women under arms. This number quickly dwindled when the war ended, and it would rise and fall throughout the Korean and Vietnam wars.

In 2023 the United States had 2.86 million men and women serving in all branches of the military.

Since 9-11, we have heard and seen the motto, “Freedom is not Free” in speeches, on bumper stickers, yard signs and billboards. Those words ring true to those that love America and want desperately to pass our way of life on to future generations. However, to maintain our freedoms we need a strong military made up of brave young citizens willing to answer the call to service for their country. Regrettably, way too many young Americans are no longer looking at the military as something that fits into their lifestyles. Today the military needs to compete with high-tech companies willing to pay high wages with all types of incentives for the best and brightest young people, and it hurts military recruiting.

For fiscal year 2023, the Army recruited just 55,000 new members, 10,000 short of their anticipated goal. Additionally, the Navy was down 6,000, while the Coast Guard was down 3,500, and has failed to meet their recruitment goals for the fourth straight year. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Linda Fagan says the Coast Guard now has to look at how it mans the fleet and meets its mission with the workforce it has, not the workforce it wants.

The Marine Corps was the only branch to exceed their goal in 2023, but by only 21 volunteers.

General Randy Jones the Army’s Vice Chief of Staff said the amount of people they did recruit kept the Army’s strength at 452,000, that’s 6,365 personnel less than when World War Two began. However, you must remember those troops are not just sitting around bases in the United States, slightly over 137,000 are currently deployed to 140 foreign countries around the world. Jones said his service component is challenged by the fact that a smaller number of young Americans, roughly only 23 percent are qualified to serve. He added a big problem is too many younger people are not interested in serving their country.

Retired General William Enyart speaking at a conference in Illinois said, “Stronger investments in children’s well-being are needed to curb a growing challenge to national security. The “Mission: Readiness,” a new report based on U.S. Department of Defense data, says 77% of young Americans 17 to 24 years old are ineligible for military service, a six percentage-point increase since 2017. The factors eliminating many young people are obesity, drug usage, no diploma and criminal history. Most young Gen Z people state they will not join the military due to fear of harm, violent death and PTSD. Indeed those are the same fears every soldier in America bravely faced since the Revolutionary War.

President Reagan said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.”

— This is the opinion of Gerry Feld, whose column is published the second Sunday of the month. He writes about issues from a conservative perspective and is a published novelist.

This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: GERRY FELD: Freedom has to be fought for