After some research and consideration, rather than beginning with a look at the Army’s recruiting woes — the most conspicuous of the services — I decided to go in “reverse order” of recruiting-troubled service, or best-to-last. So we’ll be evaluating the Army on Friday.

Today, we’ll begin with Space Force — the military’s newest branch. Founded in 2019 during the Trump administration to some fanfare and a fair deal of good-natured joking, Space Force has never missed a recruiting goal. True: it’s only had two recruiting goals to meet, both very small compared to other services. The burden of expectations is much greater with a need for tens of thousands rather than a few hundred.

But the Space Force’s recent founding also means its style is looser — their social media accounts fresh, the voice of their recruiters, unincumbered by history. Yeah, Space Force has hit the two recruiting goals it’s ever made. It also appears to be doing a pretty good job of attracting talent.

THE BIG STORY

Space Force: Surprisingly Effective at Recruiting

When it comes to recruiting, there’s one bright light among the services. Not the Marines — they’ve had difficulties (relatively speaking) like the rest. Not the Air Force, either. No: the service with no trouble making its numbers is Space Force.

There are a few reasons why Space Force is likely doing better than its counterparts. Evaluating those in some depth may shed light on where the other services are failing to connect with recruits, as well as what can be done to remedy that cultural disconnect.

First and most importantly, Space Force is small, with around 16,000 personnel. For context, that’s a single plussed-up US Army Division. Its first two recruiting goals of 404 in 2021 and 521 in 2022 were both met — precisely in 2021, and exceeded by 11 in 2022 for a total of 532. For other growth it relied on inter-service transfers.

This is a straightforward advantage for Space Force, in terms of recruiting. When your goals are smaller, it requires less work to meet them.

On the other hand, one might say (correctly) that Space Force also has fewer resources to meet its recruiting goals. Contrast the resources the US Army has to make its recruiting goals — between 10,000 and 13,000 troops and civilians on any given year, or a very light Army Division. There are almost as many people working on recruiting in the US Army as there are in the entire Space Force.

Referencing the Office of People Analytics (OPA) study mentioned in Friday’s newsletter, much of the hesitance about joining the military can be summarized as “fear of death, injury, or madness.” Here are two other advantages enjoyed by Space Force in addition to its size: its novelty, and its somewhat hazy current mission. Every other service uses its past to recruit, hoping that people focus on the bravery and accomplishments of past troops, and not on the disasters or catastrophes. To invoke the idea of a brave soldier during D-Day, the Army must also present the D-Day landings. Marines remembering Iwo Jima’s triumphant flag-raising must also on a certain level grapple with the days and weeks that preceded it. Air Force planes roar through the sky (and are shot down), just as Naval vessels cruise through the water (and, under the guns of enemies, sometimes, sink).

So for every person thinking about joining the military for whom glory or honor are not as important as a whole body and mind — Space Force’s pitch may be the most attractive.

The pitch to people considering becoming recruits is another advantage, both in content and execution. If Space Force doesn’t get any advantages from past glories, it doesn’t have to struggle against the weight of perceptions or expectations, either. It is free to define itself. And the jobs for which it’s recruiting are largely in areas that younger Americans feel has a future — tech-heavy, or involved somehow in logistics or procurement.

Visiting Space Force’s home page or its social media accounts, one is immediately struck by the extent to which Space Force has embraced this opportunity. The tone of posts and content is casual, conversational, and confident. Its ambiance feels similar to that of the Air Force, but without any of the aforementioned baggage (for good and for ill). This isn’t a huge surprise; Space Force recruited heavily from the Air Force when it was standing up, and depends on its infrastructure for education (ROTC) and basic training.

That Air Force infrastructure and Space Force’s size reveal another advantage when it comes to recruiting: location. Its bases are located in three states: California, Colorado, and Florida. For people who aren’t interested in “joining the Navy, seeing the world” — not everyone is — knowing that one can reasonably predict the path and location of a career is a major selling point. Especially for folks who already have families.

The positives for Space Force outweigh many considerations that many active duty troops and veterans of the older services see as absurd, including Space Force’s inchoate mission, truly awful uniforms, and the lack of an inspiring presence in the place for which the service is named (space). Troops and veterans see the military through the lens of their experiences and expectations. Space Force is beholden to none of those things. At present, it’s doing the best job of maximizing its resources, and making sure it has enough people on hand to do so for years to come.

TOP READS IN MONEY & FINANCE

One big company is using crowdfunding to validate concepts as market-ready: GE tracks who orders a product via crowdfunding as a way of testing the product’s popularity beforehand. Smart way for any business to operate. If only Juicero could have used this model…

Corporate benefits based on “ESG” (environment, social, and governance) don’t seem to actually be leading to better business outcomes, according to investors.

Interesting model in TN for educating a workforce for some of the factories due to open there in the next few years. Could be a model for the rest of the US if we want to recapture some of our jobs and industrial base from China.

TOP READS IN THE MILITARY

Double-dipping to earn benefits for disabling health conditions while flying planes? That’s a no-go!

A V-22 Osprey mishap killed 3 Marines and wounded others during a training exercise in Australia over the weekend.

September means big savings for troops and family members with access to the commissary

TOP READS FOR VETERANS

Tired of seeing those advertisements about the suit against 3M for faulty hearing protection? Our deliverance may be at hand.

According to a study, active duty military and veterans experience food insecurity at nearly double the national average. It’s not an uncommon phenomenon for student veterans — even at Ivy League schools — so isn’t all that surprising to me, though it’s a sad statistic.

A business was charging veterans $700 a month to live in a condemned building. Hell isn’t hot enough!

TOP READS AROUND THE WORLD

An interesting take on how to return to the workplace, led by an old American company — Smuckers.

Chromebooks are moving from being kind of a hassle for parents and students to a serious hassle for school districts.

Why do the US and Europe still buy nuclear fuel from Russia?

Europe is staring at a huge and quantifiable shortfall of drinking water. We know about this in part because Europe is transparent with their data — one wonders how bad the drought is in other parts of the world.

If you’re in Florida — looks like it’s that time of year again.

HUMOR

Prigozhin dead after fall from 30,000 foot window, per Duffel Blog.