TRADOC Pam 525-3-7-01 - TRADOC - U.S. Army

TRADOC Pam 525-3-7-01future Modular Force. Declining physical fitness will continue to be a reflection of a moresedentary lifestyle and increasing obesity. Clearly, the Army can develop recruits throughrigorous training that can meet Army standards, but this requires more time and resources.Perhaps the most troubling and the one area that the Army cannot directly affect is theincreasing trend toward single parent families and, particularly, absent fathers, creates a shortfallin good role models for youth to emulate. Absent the traditional role of the father, one that hasnot been universal in the first place, American youth end up looking to other individuals, bothgood and bad, for people to emulate. This is a problem for an institution challenged withtransforming individuals into trained, competent, and inspired Soldiers. So much of thesocialization process occurs before an individual enlists or enters an officer training program thatthe Army’s ability to influence entry level Soldiers is a definite challenge.Consistently highlighted in previous chapters is the importance for Soldiers to have a highlevel of reasoning ability. While the Army values higher level thinking and decisionmaking,maintaining this cognitive quality leads to the real question facing tomorrow’s Army—what typeof individual does the Army want to recruit?How will the Army want (or be willing) to attract the right mixture of the population? TheArmy leadership has struggled with this “build or buy” paradigm since the inception of the allvolunteerforce.The Buy OptionSome intelligent young people (those with the strong cognitive skills the Army requires)when contemplating career choices tend to view the Army as a less attractive option than civilianpositions. To attract this group of people the Army uses a buy strategy. This can either bemonetary—an approach already becoming prohibitively expensive—or incentives of intangiblevalue. The two primary mechanisms to increase the value proposition are to change the productor alter the price. Either of these options will accomplish the goal of attracting the highlytechnical, cognitive applicants.When applying the buy mechanisms, an assessment must be made of who influences theapplicant's decision to buy or not to buy. The real buyer may be the parents (especially mothers)who resist the idea that they should be willing to sacrifice their sons and daughters in the name ofnational security. The Army must improve on its ability to make the sale to these “centers ofinfluence.”Changing the ProductChanging the product (Army service) or better, the perceived value of Army service, is verydifficult. Public law governs Army service, to a large degree. There are efforts underway thatmay help change the perception of Army service. The first includes increasing publicappreciation of duty, honor, and service to county. The second is advocacy, and the third isencouraging public service.153