“As we look to the pacing threat, we must recruit and retain talented people from across the nation. Our recruiting and manning crises are themselves existential threats.”
-Admiral James W. Kilby, Vice Chief of Naval Operations
No mission in any of the sea services, despite modernized technology improvements and investments, can be completed without a workforce that is trained, equipped and motivated. The sea services are each embarked on their own workforce plans the Navy League strongly supports as fully funded. However, non-profit reports and academic research reveal a growing gap of need currently unmet by the services. Learn more here.
“Proper ship manning is essential to operational readiness and the well-being of our Sailors. ... I would ensure the Navy aggressively addresses these gaps and employs effective efforts to attract and retain America’s best and brightest.”
- Secretary of the Navy, John Phelan
The Navy is prioritizing readiness first, which includes personnel readiness. In testimony, then-Vice Chief of Naval Operations Admiral James W. Kilby stated, “As we look to the pacing threat, we must recruit and retain talented people from across the nation. Our recruiting and manning crises are themselves existential threats.” The Navy’s Culture of Excellence 2.0 provides an integrated framework of programs to improve the Sailor experience. This strategy is accompanied by a coordinated message, “Setting a New Course for Navy Quality of Service,” providing a map to move forward with urgency on initiatives to improve sailor quality of service. Learn more here.
The Marine Corps has detailed nine personnel reform initiatives nested within four lines of effort. These include:
Rebalance Recruiting and Retention,
Optimize the Employment of the Talent,
Multiple Pathways to Career Success, and
Modern Talent Management Digital Tools
The Marine Corps Commandant’s Maintain Momentum guidance and retention program improved first-term enlistment submissions with a 72% increase. Also, a Small Unit Leader Initiative helped to eliminate a shortfall of Sergeants with improved early re-enlistment. Additionally, the Marine Corps’ Barracks 2030 program is receiving much needed congressional funding to improve the conditions of barracks, modernize bases, and improve quality of life for Marines. Learn more here.
The Coast Guard is working on multiple fronts to improve recruitment and retention, though the challenge is considerable. “The Coast Guard is currently 10 percent below authorized strength within the enlisted workforce. ...” stated Vice Admiral Paul F. Thomas during congressional testimony in March 2024. This shortfall places additional strain on the rest of the workforce in an organization that is already under-resourced for the substantial mission placed on them. Lack of Pay Parity during government shutdowns alongside recent revelations about sexual misconduct have also impacted recruitment and retention. The commandant conducted an extensive review and directed several dozen actions to help in prevention and response protocols, improve transparency and cultural norms, address accountability and data management. Learn more here.
The U.S. Merchant Marine has not only faced similar challenges to the Coast Guard but has also sailed into harm’s way as Houthi rebels attacked merchant ships transiting the Red Sea. Despite the danger, there has been no indication that Mariners are avoiding missions in dangerous waters or that recruitment has been adversely impacted by such missions. However, the Merchant Marine requires greater funding for its academy as well as the six state maritime academies, and more billets are needed to provide the pool of Mariners needed in wartime. Learn more here.
With an increasingly dire recruitment landscape, Congress has stepped up its efforts to assist the sea services in improving quality of life for service members and thereby recruitment and retention. The 2024 NDAA provided critical improvements to programs like basic allowance for housing, cost of living allowances, and access to mental health care. Learn more here.
According to extensive research conducted by the Military Family Advisory Network, there are numerous areas for improvement in the effort to incentivize service members and their families to stay in the military. Among the identified issues were perennial concerns related to spouse employment and childcare, enlisted pay and food insecurity, mental health care, housing availability, and loneliness (which increased in prevalence during COVID-19 but is still a significant concern). The MFAN and other organizations have provided a list of recommended actions to alleviate these issues that the Navy League has included in this section. Learn more below.
No mission in any of the sea services, despite modernized technology improvements and investments, can be completed without a workforce that is trained, equipped, and motivated. The sea services have their own workforce plans that the Navy League strongly supports fully funding. However, nonprofit reports and academic research reveal a growing gap of need currently unmet by the services.
During his confirmation process, the new Secretary of the Navy, John Phelan, submitted written testimony that underscored the necessity of increasing uniformed and civilian manning in the Navy and Marine Corps. "Proper ship manning is essential to operational readiness and the well-being of our Sailors. ... I would ensure the Navy aggressively addresses these gaps and employs effective efforts to attract and retain America’s best and brightest ... The Department of the Navy’s highly technical civilian workforce plays a vital role in supporting warfighting readiness, contributing to Department of Defense mission capabilities and operational effectiveness. Our civilians are able partners with our warfighters and are essential to maintaining the strength of the all-volunteer force. As we right size and refocus the civilian workforce, we must likewise commit to a campaign to recruit America’s best talent to public service."
As the new Secretary further develops his strategies for addressing manpower challenges, the Navy League strongly supports this increased focus on workforce recruitment and retention.
In 2024, then-Secretary of the Navy Carlos del Toro testified about a strategy to improve not only direct manning for the Navy and Marine Corps but to assist with civilians in the shipbuilding and maintenance fields. “I’ve been calling for a call to National Maritime Services, not just to uniform service, obviously in the Marine Corps and the Navy and through our recruiting efforts, but also to increase the number of civilians that we have working in the Department of the Navy and in our shipyards as well, too, because it is honorable service, as you know. And we need electricians, we need plumbers, we need welders, fitters, we need everything to build these great ships. But in my call to a national maritime statecraft, I think resurgence of the commercial shipbuilding industry would also help tremendously so, and it would help the economy. It would help create more jobs across the entire country. ... The challenge, however, is that we need more workers ... to continue to feed our growing economy.”
The Office of the Secretary of the Navy also produced a companion strategy to address gaps in several areas, including shortages in the commercial and government labor fields. This “Maritime Statecraft” was written to “attract the most advanced shipbuilders in the world to open U.S.-owned subsidiaries and invest in commercial shipyards here in the U.S., modernizing and expanding our shipbuilding industrial capacity and creating a healthier, more competitive shipbuilding workforce.” This will continue to be a challenge, as the average age of a shipyard worker is 57 years old.
Finally, SECNAV oversaw production and approval of “Advantage at Sea, designed to further the integration of the sea services and broaden engagement with international partners. The office acknowledged the next update to this will include both Maritime Administration and NOAA.
The Navy League strongly supports these strategies and visions and the sea services’ efforts to implement them.
The Navy is prioritizing readiness first, which includes personnel readiness. In testimony, the-Vice Chief of Naval Operations Admiral James W. Kilby stated, “As we look to the pacing threat, we must recruit and retain talented people from across the nation. Our recruiting and manning crises are themselves existential threats.” The Navy’s Culture of Excellence 2.0 integrated framework incorporates programs already familiar to Sailors, such as suicide prevention, sexual assault prevention and response, and Warrior Toughness, as well as more recent initiatives, such as the Navy Women’s Initiative Team and the Mental Health Playbook. While there were parts of the structure implemented earlier, it “did not achieve its desired effect for several reasons, to include the impact of COVID-19, too much complexity, and an incomplete approach to building culture.” Recruiting and manning challenges remain an “existential threat.” Increasing and filling recruiter billets remains a very high priority.
This strategy is accompanied by a coordinated message, “Setting a New Course for Navy Quality of Service,” providing a map to move forward with urgency on initiatives to improve Sailor quality of service. Quality of service is the combination of ensuring our Sailors are supported in and out of the workplace by effective leadership, establishing enforceable standards and transparency, and ensuring their mental and physical health. The Navy has identified deficiencies in unaccompanied housing, parking, and medical support at fleet construction areas. These sites also have insufficient mental health providers at both medical treatment facilities and through virtual alternatives.
Congress produced a bipartisan panel report in advance of the 2025 NDAA. It calls for a “15 percent pay raise for service members to ensure they and their families can pay their bills, put food on the table, and invest in their future” to ensure that the U.S. recruits “America’s brightest ... and efforts to improve military housing, especially unaccompanied housing; childcare access; spousal support programs; and health care services are also critical for us to retain the most qualified, talented, and diverse fighting force.”
The Navy League supports the CNO’s desire to work with Congress and the Office of the Secretary of Defense to “ensure sailors and their families have all they need as they support our nation’s security and prosperity.”
Like all military services, Marine Corps recruiting and retention directly contribute to mission performance. Some of the many societal influences of this trend include labor shortfalls, physical and mental qualifications, and the propensity to serve. These have all affected the service’s workforce. In recent testimony, the vice commandant of the Marine Corps said, “Over the past 12 months, we have implemented nine major personnel reform initiatives nested within four lines of effort.” These include the following:
1. Rebalance recruiting and retention
2. Optimize the employment of the talent
3. Multiple pathways to career success
4. Modern talent management digital tools
The commandant’s Maintain Momentum guidance and Retention Program improved first-term enlistment submissions with a 72 percent increase. Also, a Small Unit Leader Initiative helped eliminate a shortfall of sergeants with improved early reenlistment. As a result of these initiatives, the Marine Corps entered fiscal year 2023 with a persistent shortfall of approximately 2,000 sergeants across the force. Recruiting also has had some success; the Armed Forces Qualification Test and accessing high school graduates all exceed Department of Defense standards. Retention for the highest performing Marines is historically high, and quality-of-life improvements are crucial to provide “nutritious food, high quality and accessible gyms and a safe quiet place to recover from a hard day’s work.”
The Marine Corps uses a strategy to provide both resiliency and fortitude. Its approach intends to reduce risks to harmful behaviors, including sexual violence, substance abuse, suicide-related behavior, child and domestic abuse, youth violence, and more. However, post-pandemic, all services noted increases to weight, suicidal ideations, and the overall feeling of loneliness and isolation. Nonprofits such as the USO and Navy Marine Corps Relief Society all have increased programming to combat these areas. Furthermore, infrastructure readiness is “below the standards that our Marines and their families deserve.” According to the commandant, “Our Barracks 2030 initiative is our most consequential barracks investment ever, and it is sorely needed.” A Government Accountability Office report found poor temperature control, bad plumbing, and mold around all services. Other reports by media sources found similar conditions, including lack of hot water, dead vermin, and feces, filth, and mold. Modest improvements to childcare, subsidies, and spouse employment are designed to improve Marine readiness.
While Marine Corps strategic imperatives are acknowledged, the Navy League fully supports its efforts, and all congressional efforts, to improve cultural and physical environmental factors that directly and positively affect quality-of-life gaps.
In congressional testimony, Coast Guard senior leaders noted shortages in the workforce, unit realignments, and efforts to improve the culture of the Coast Guard. “The Coast Guard is currently 10 percent below authorized strength within the enlisted workforce ... we expect the shortage to grow throughout 2024. While we continue to work to bolster recruiting efforts, improve retention, and make risk-based adjustments to operations, the workforce is feeling the strain.” Officials believe the Coast Guard will meet recruiting goals in 2024, in part because overall positions have decreased due to internal force realignment, professionalized recruiting, technical school partnerships, and mariner training programs. To retain its workforce, the Coast Guard continues to facilitate dual military families, expanded subsidies for childcare, and enhanced parental leave policies. The service also notes telehealth services, behavioral health, and physical therapy expansions.
Pay parity remains a challenge for the Coast Guard; now six years after the last lapse in appropriations (35 days in 2018-19), legislation to ensure the Coast Guard is paid in the event of another government shutdown has been sponsored several times throughout the years but has yet to be signed and enacted.
In addition to standing oversight, congressional interest from various committees has and will continue to focus on sexual assault and harassment within the Coast Guard, since an extensive media investigation exposed prior sexual misconduct at the Coast Guard Academy. “The failure to disclose the investigations or the findings deprived Congress of the opportunity to conduct proper oversight, and the Coast Guard is committed to cooperating with the Committee’s inquiry.”
The commandant conducted an extensive review and directed several dozen actions to help in prevention and response protocols, improve transparency and cultural norms, and address accountability and data management. While much activity is underway, there remains gaps in existing legislation and in Coast Guard participation in related Defense Department federal advisory committees (Defense Advisory Committee on Investigation, Prosecution and Defense of Sexual Assault in the Armed Forces). Furthermore, social media reporting and service veterans continue to push for better access to help for survivors and accountability where action is possible but not yet taken.
The commandant of the Coast Guard said, “Every Coast Guard service member deserves a culture where they feel safe, supported, valued, and respected — a culture that is intolerant of sexual assault and other harmful behaviors that undermine the mission and everything we stand for.”
The Navy League unequivocally supports the Coast Guard’s work to increase recruiting and retention, quality of life, and pay parity and to improve the culture of the service, as well as congressional oversight.
Based on testimony from Maritime Administrator Ann Philips, the Maritime Administration’s mission is to foster, promote, and develop the maritime industry of the United States to meet the nation’s economic and security needs. Paramount to this mission are mariner training programs that provide credentialed officers for the Merchant Marine, including the Merchant Marine Academy and six state maritime academies.
Responding to reports of sexual assault and harassment during training programs, MARAD is continuing efforts to improve safety for mariners aboard more than 180 vessels, including reducing sexual assault and harassment, supporting survivors, and strengthening accountability.
The Coast Guard is also working to protect mariners through regulatory efforts. This work is important and should continue.
The Navy League strongly supports fully funding budget requests for cadet, faculty and support staff, and infrastructure for the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and the state maritime academies.
According to David Heindel of the Seafarers International Union and the Maritime Trades Department, “The United States Merchant Marine ensures that our nation has a reliable, dependable and loyal maritime transportation system ... messaging the continued need for a United States Merchant Marine, crewed by American citizens, that can carry a significant portion of the waterborne commerce of the United States, as well as serve as a naval auxiliary and defense asset in times of national emergency or armed conflict.”
Despite an adverse sailing environment in the Red Sea and Yemen with known risks to commercial ships carrying U.S. strategic cargo, Heindel said there has been no “appreciable impact on mariner willingness to accept jobs on vessels heading into the combat zone, and to date we have not had a ship fail to sail on time because of a lack of crew due to these attacks.”
The 2024 NDAA has several personnel initiatives that address some of the noted gaps. Although not completely closing readiness gaps, the act:
• Modifies the calculation of basic allowance for housing rates with respect to junior enlisted members in markets with limited housing inventory.
• Authorizes licensed mental health professionals to provide nonmedical counseling services to qualifying populations without regard for their geographic location.
• Reduces the threshold used to determine high cost-of-living areas for the purpose of providing a cost-of-living allowance.
• Directs a review and report on Department of Defense Education Activity students’ access to resources and services related to mental health.
• Expands access to student loan deferment for dislocated military spouses.
• Authorizes basic allowance for housing payments for enlisted service members who are assigned to vessels stationed at shipyards.
This list is only an excerpt of various portions of the law.
The Navy League strongly supports these and encourages continued progress in future NDAAs to address known gaps in personnel support that impact service readiness.
And while the impact of continuing resolutions (CRs) has been largely characterized as affecting fleet readiness and acquisition costs, the new personnel initiatives are also affected. The Navy League unconditionally supports all efforts to eliminate CRs that affect all sea services.
For the past decade, the Military Family Advisory Network has researched and provided data-driven recommendations for the armed forces. The latest report, the fifth biennial report, broadly calls for modernizing how families serve and how they are supported. The MFAN recommends the Department of Defense follow the example set by the Department of Veterans Affairs and create a military and military family experience office. Excerpts from the report follow and are worth congressional review.
In 2023, the Military Family Support Programming Survey first sought to better understand respondents’ expectations when they entered military life and what incentivizes them to stay in military service. When asked, five key themes emerged: the benefits of military life; patriotic calling; family legacy and tradition; push factors; and intrinsic motivation. Interestingly, when respondents first entered military service, 24 percent revealed they only originally planned to serve five years or fewer. However, when asked about their current plans, 58 percent indicated they plan to serve 20 years or more.
• Pay and compensation: Unless perennial issues like spouse unemployment and childcare are solved, the military compensation package must evolve to reflect the reality that Americans require two incomes to sustain a household.
• Financial readiness:
Enlisted family respondents were significantly more likely to report low (57.4 percent) financial well-being. Families who make less than $75,000 in gross family income, including allowances for those who receive them, are significantly less likely to report excellent family health and significantly more likely to report poor family health.
The MFAN did not cover the blended retirement system this cycle. Service members are beginning to enter the time in service in which their vested benefits under the BRS become active. However, according to the Marine Corps, “marketing and awareness of the BRS and military compensation and benefits overall is insufficient ... we need more data to fully understand its opportunities and implications.”
• Food insecurity: The MFAN first uncovered the issue of food insecurity within the military in 2017. In 2023, the MFAN found that one in five military and veteran family respondents indicated some level of food insecurity, and slightly more than one in four active-duty family respondents reported the same (27.7 percent). About 40 percent of respondents who indicated poor family well-being were experiencing marginal, low, or very low food security.
• Health care: Consistent with the 2021 findings, 2023 data show a statistically significant relationship between both general and mental health care satisfaction and family well-being scores. Health care has remained a top priority for respondents in every support programming survey that the MFAN has administered. General awareness of mental health challenges and the need for appropriate care has increased in recent years, and the military family space is no exception. Regardless of military and veteran family persona, the most commonly reported obstacles to general health care in 2023 were a reported lack of appointments, challenges with provider availability, and challenges obtaining referrals. Encouragingly, of all respondents, most shared positive satisfaction ratings for mental health care.
• Housing: The top reasons respondents chose to live in military housing were affordability, the housing market, and lack of housing availability off the installation. Respondents who chose not to live in military housing did so due to the lack of military housing available, preference for homeownership, and poor military housing conditions. Respondents who lived in privatized military housing were asked if they had noticed a change in their housing experiences since the privatized housing conditions gained national attention over the last several years. For most respondents (58.5 percent), conditions were unchanged. Most of the respondents who did notice a change in conditions experienced a change for the better, with 10.9 percent noticing a decline in conditions.
New this year, the MFAN asked about time spent in temporary lodging. Nearly 30 percent of respondents reported staying in temporary lodging between 11 and 30 nights, and another 20.6 percent of respondents reported between 31 and 60 nights. The reimbursement process took one to two months for 43 percent of respondents. Findings suggest that 79.8 percent of respondents were paying more than they could afford to cover housing, rent, or utility payments.
• Loneliness: The 2023 findings show that reported loneliness was strongly connected to an increased likelihood of accessing mental health care resources. In 2023, the proportion of military and veteran family respondents reporting loneliness rose to 59.1 percent from 54 percent in 2021 (during the COVID-19 pandemic).
• Childcare and caregiving: The need for childcare was significantly higher for currently serving families in 2023 (51.6 percent) than other respondent populations. The report goes on to explore satisfaction, access, and more. Separately, to better understand what caregivers need, this subpopulation was asked whether they currently receive support tailored to fit their unique needs. 33.6 percent reported receiving support from their family and 22 percent from their friends. Unfortunately, a third of respondents said they received no support at all.
• Spouse employment: Interestingly, 56.5 percent of active-duty spouses are employed (39.1 percent full time and 17.4 percent part time), 21.8 percent of active-duty spouses are unemployed and looking for work, and 16.5 percent indicated that they were unemployed and not looking for work.
Another external committee, the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Military Services, provided a list of recommendations. Two are the following:
• Marine Corps recruit training: Integrate recruit training at the platoon level, where recruits are formed into integrated platoons after basic daily routine. Maximizing integration at the platoon level develops the foundation of a successfully integrated force. This would be a milestone toward compliance with the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act directing the Marine Corps to not segregate training by gender.
• Gender-based discrimination: Update Department of Defense policies to: (1) distinguish between sexual harassment and gender-based discriminatory harassment; (2) define how gender-based, nonsexual discriminatory harassment can occur; and (3) clarify reporting mechanisms so that service members can better comprehend, identify, and report discriminatory behavior.
The Navy League, as a nonprofit charity designed to educate the public on the need for the sea services and to advocate for the services, is proud to help fill gaps that cannot be met by the government, where possible. In conjunction with the Military Aid Societies, partnerships with the USO, Navy Safe Harbor, MOAA, and other nonprofits, we continue to proudly assist where we can and express the unmet needs of the services and their workforce.
