Congressman Mike Rogers recently told Military.com that Republicans will be aggressively trying to root out wokeness in the military if voters give Republicans control of Congress in the midterm elections.
Rogers said the GOP would put military personnel issues at the forefront of the agenda if they retake control of the House of Representatives next year. Rogers vowed to take aim at “woke” policies in the military.
“All this wokeness in the military, we are going to be aggressively trying to root that stuff out,” Rogers said. Rogers said that doing so would help with recruitment and retention.
Rogers is the ranking Republican on the powerful House Armed Services Committee and would likely chair the committee if the GOP wins the House.
Fellow Republican House Armed Services Committee member Jim Banks (R-Indiana) agreed.
“I think it’s one of our very top priorities to clean up the mess the administration has made with the excessive and dangerous COVID mandates on our troops at a time where we have historically low recruitment,” said Rep. Banks. “Those are issues that we’ve been very passionate about in the minority, and I guarantee we’ll be just as passionate about them when we get the majority. When it comes to the posture hearings and the legislative process of the NDAA, I think you can expect more of the same from what you’ve seen the last couple of years.”
Republicans have criticized the Biden administration’s handling of the nation’s armed forces, including COVID-19 vaccine mandates that have threatened to kick service members out of the military for refusing the vaccine and mandatory diversity training that has been compared to critical race theory initiatives.
“The Department of Defense’s only focus should be ensuring that our military is the most capable and lethal in the world,” Rogers said on social media. “Wokeness doesn’t win wars.”
The military has ended Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policies, allows women in combat roles, and accepts transgender people. Instead of this being a bonanza for recruiting, the military has struggled to meet recruiting goals. The Army alone is 25% below its recruiting goals for 2022. The Army came 15,000 recruits short of its goal of 60,000 for the 2022 fiscal year, which ended on September 30. The other branches have had to go into their pool of delayed entry program candidates to barely hit 2022 goals but put them behind for 2023.
The Army plans to increase its investment in marketing and is expected to expand a new program for struggling recruits in order to achieve its goals.
Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told reporters that a new recruiting task force is coming up with ideas. Still, any new plans would have to gel quickly to reverse the dramatically low enlistment numbers over the past year.
Wormuth said that it is too early to speculate on whether or not the Army will meet its 2023 goals.
Wormuth and Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville said that a new program that helps low-performing recruits meet academic and fitness standards is showing some promise. The Army is considering expanding the program to more sites.
“We want to make sure that there is the amount of recruits that can do that,” McConville said. “The initial results that we’re seeing is this may fundamentally change the way that we do recruiting.”
McConville recently made a trip to see the program at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. In August, McConville said the program could be set up at three other Army training bases. Commanders had suggested they could put up to 10,000 potential recruits through the classes. The program provides up to 90 days of academic or fitness instruction to help recruits improve to the point where they can meet the minimum standards to enter the military.
Rogers has represented Alabama’s Third Congressional District since 2002. Rogers is seeking his eleventh term in the House of Representatives. He faces Libertarian Thomas Casson and Democrat Lin Veasey in the November 8 general election.
To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
