SM 1382 — United States Department of Defense

FloridaENROLLED SenateLegislature - 2023 SM 1382 By20231382er Senator2 Collins 14-01912-23 20231382__ Senate Memorial A memorial to the Congress of the United States, urging Congress to restore the United States Department of Defense’s superior warfighting principles of recruiting, assigning, training, promoting, and retaining personnel solely based on merit and ensuring such personnel maintain and display a warrior ethos.

FloridaENROLLED SenateLegislature - 2023 SM 1382 14-01912-2320231382er 20231382__ personnel who may not typically be called upon to engage an enemy face-to-face but nonetheless may find themselves in situations that require them to do so, and WHEREAS, over the past several years, the United States Department of Defense and its military services have engaged in various practices eroding these warfighting principles to the point at which United States military dominance has been called into serious question, which practices include, but are not limited to:

FloridaENROLLED SenateLegislature - 2023 SM 1382 14-01912-2320231382er 20231382__ cadets to consider using the term “parent” or “caregiver” rather than “mother” or “father” as to not offend those that may come from a different parenting background, and WHEREAS, such practices are having a detrimental effect on recruitment, as the United States Army was 15,000 soldiers short of its 2022 recruiting goals, the worst recruiting year on record since the Armed Forces switched to an all-volunteer force nearly 50 years ago, and the remaining branches of the Armed Forces are well behind their historic goal rates as they enter into the 2023 recruiting season, and WHEREAS, recent studies have found that most young Americans are not fit for military service, with the Department of Defense estimating that just 2 percent of those between the ages of 17 and 21 years have the desired combination of strong academic credentials, adequate physical fitness, and an interest in serving, and WHEREAS, the combination of an incapable and uninterested recruiting age group and nonmerit-based practices calls into serious question whether the United States military currently has a sufficient number of members who hold a warrior ethos needed to effectively engage an enemy, and WHEREAS, those with the necessary warrior ethos currently serving in the United States military are more likely to leave service, and those with the necessary warrior ethos before entering into service are more likely to refrain from enlisting as they discover the composition and practices of the Armed Services as referenced herein, NOW, THEREFORE, Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

FloridaENROLLED SenateLegislature - 2023 SM 1382 14-01912-2320231382er 20231382__ That the Congress of the United States is urged to use its authorization and appropriation authorities to prohibit the use of such “woke” social engineering and experimentation practices, which are eroding military effectiveness, and to mandate a return to a merit-based system for military force development and composition.