 Good morning, AUSA, and welcome to our second presentation of Warrior's Corner, Building the Army of 2030, Reconnecting America and the Army with Presenter Major General Johnny Davis, Yuserec CG. Well, thanks, thanks. So first of all, thanks for being here. As you know, my name is Major General Johnny Davis. I just took over U.S. Army Recruiting Command, and I think everybody in the Army wants my job, huh? And let me tell you, I'm so excited because it's so, it's such an important part of who we are as a nation and to make sure our force is fully manned. With 30 plus years of service, when I think about being fully manned, I remember the days of the early 90s, the mid 90s, each of the transformations our Army has went through as a young captain in 95, 96, through the early 2000s, all of that training, the NTC, everything that was all about investing in our future and all those men and women that I served with by my side, they strengthened me to where I am today. And I also think about that next generation. Right now, my oldest daughter, 2013 West Point grad, she is deployed in Africa, serving our nation. And I think about her and all of the men and women with her in Tunisia, and when they deploy, they should have all of the men and women they need for their mission, right? And that's what motivates me to get up and make sure that this wonderful nation, you know, service to our nation, service to not only the Army, but any service is so, so very important. I know we all know that there's, you know, there's challenges out there, right? I mean, it's a lot of different challenges. And we can name a few, but, you know, I'll touch on that, but that's not where I'm focused. And I want to share with you where I'm focused. We know that, oh, by the way, this is happening everywhere, right? Everywhere. Everyone's dealing with this, this war for talent in this, in the current market. So we have to understand that first. We ought to understand the problem. There is a war for talent and everyone has to compete for it. I don't want to compete. I want to win. We want to win for our nation and we want to win for the Army. So that's my approach. You know, qualification. We know the percent, you know, propensity of those who want to serve is about 9%. We know that, you know, about 23% are qualified to serve. So that's another 77% that are not qualified. You know, this is a big deal and we all need to understand what that impact can mean to all of us. And no matter where you go, we cannot sit idly by and allow this percentage to decrease, right? Because then that population of men and women who serve decreases every day. And I want my daughter and my daughter that, you know, Marine Corps, my daughter in JRTC, and if she decides to serve, I want to make sure that their squad that they deploy with this fully manned and equipped and trained. You agree? So that's why I'm so focused. I think there's, of course, the, you know, negative perceptions, there's fear. There's a lot of different things going on. And where I think I can, you know, I'll ask for your help. I think each and every one of you, I call it a superpower. Everybody has a superpower. And that's what I'm trying to unleash in the United States Army recruiting command. Because these men and women are soldiers just like me and many of you who have served. They're no different. We've asked them as direct, you know, Department of the Army, you know, recruiters to serve. So they could be a armor, you know, platoon sergeant, and then goes from that, the armor community, and to Madison, Wisconsin, or Key West to serve as a recruiter for our nation and their, in their neighborhoods. So just remember that that, first of all, this is a big jump for many of these men and women. And I've talked to so many. So I've sent out a survey. Now remember, I've only been in command five days. All right? I'm going to be honest with you. I think a lot of folks have said to me, have you fixed it? I'm sure some will say, yes, we're going to fix it. Not only will we fix it when with your help, we're going to crush it and we're going to make history. We're going to turn this all around. I promise you that I am, I am tireless in this effort to ensure that our men and women, wherever they are in the future, have the right personnel to the right and left. That is so very important. And I know those days when we, when we would deploy and not have 90 or 100 percent strength, that impacts all of us. And I don't want that to impact our wonderful nation and all of our wonderful men and women because all that does is raise the stress level of an already stressful deployment. So I sent out a questionnaire before I took command. I said, hey, to all of the mostly 9,000 recruiters, we have recruiters all over the world, ladies and gentlemen. I just want you to know that we have recruiters and you name it country, the Guam, Mariana Silence, Korea, Camp Zama Japan, Key West, Maine, Madison, Appleton, Wisconsin, as you know, I'm from Wisconsin. So there's so much and they're everywhere. But bottom line, I asked them, hey, tell me what am, what am I missing? What can I do for you? Okay, I got the entire United States Army behind this endeavor. What can I do for each and every one of you? Eight questions to the recruiting command. Guess how many responses I got so far in about three weeks? 44,000. I'm going to tell you what they said. I'm going to tell you exactly what they told me to focus on and I think it's so very important. They said, sir, before you assume command, and again, 44,000 responses. We took an entire platoon of Orsas. We used all of the word, computerized, AI, word readers, and it enabled us to focus on the top 20. The first one was please support and resource us, all right? Please support and resource us, and that's what I promise. I'm listening to this recruiting force. Did you hear me once talk about numbers? No, I'm talking about people and that's who I am. I focus on the men and women. I bring out their superpower and make that organization transformational and powerful, and that's what I'm sharing with you because I think this is so very important, and you will also help us get this. The second thing they asked me to do, boss, focus on the organization. Build a positive climate, think about it. Think about the stress in an already tough environment. I'm a staff sergeant, I got five years in the army. Okay, I went from installation that had everything I needed to direct army recruiter in Montana. Now the BAH they're receiving is not compatible with the cost of living there. So potential challenge one. And now remember, you don't have the commissary and PX. So all of these things are adding up and impacting this wonderful recruiter population. So I'm so focused on them, and that's what they've asked me to do. And I'm listening. And I owe this to every single one of them. And I'm sharing this with you because I'm so open and transparent. I think it's so important to understand the human endeavor of what we do in the service. The third thing, talent management. We want to make sure, and remember, I think we're all fighting for this right talent. But we got to have the right people in the right place. And more importantly for us, they got to, as a family, they got to be a strong, you know, family, a strong soldier. Because we're going to ask them to be the United States Army wherever they are. Okay, remember, we pulled them from an installation that had everything they needed. And then we put them in, you know, a town in Nevada. Okay, or we placed them in, you know, another city that they, you know, 3,000 miles from home. So I ask you, this is what's so important. The fourth thing they asked me to do, sir, reduce the stress on a recruiting force. I've listened to them, and we're going to get after that. And whatever I can do, and every single one of you will help us reduce that stress. Because remember, there's so much on them right now, and they're thinking through, you know, based off of the declining, you know, propensity, the numbers that are moving forward to serve, the potential negative perceptions, that's all on them. These are 23, 24-year-old staff sergeants. This is their second duty assignment in the United States Army, and we can't forget that. And they're out there trying to man, and you know, the greatest army this world has ever seen. So I'm listening to them, and I know, I shared this with them in my recent town hall. I think we had over 5,000 on the town hall, which was, I told them was a day off. So they still tuned in. The fifth thing they asked me to do was, sir, focus on training. Training, that was a good point. So what, during this period of COVID, we weren't able to have the interaction and access. So training atrophies, very smart comment from I think about 1,200 recruiters. So there are master trainers in the recruiting force, and I think I'm going to bring all them in and sit down with them, give them my philosophy. We're gonna retrain and recertify, and we're gonna place them where we need within the recruiting force. Because that's what they've asked me to do, and I've listened to them. So I want to share that with you. And then increase access. We all know, and I know I have six children, two are out of the house, three in high school. My three high schoolers, one's a senior, but only attended high school one year because of COVID. So access is so very important. So our recruiters didn't have that access, and that each and every year is a population of about four to five million who didn't get a chance to see United States soldiers, or those who serve our nation. Think about that. So access is so very important, and we're working on that very hard. I wanna be able to have any recruiter who are representing our great army to go to the local high school and be able to walk in and work out of time to talk with the counselors, share their army story without being told, hey, we love to have you, but we want you to sit in the cafeteria at 16.30 for an hour. That's not gonna work. So access is so very important. And then the last thing they've asked me to do, I nip 44,000 responses. Sir, drive positive change. Oh, we gonna do it all right. I'm all in, because I'm listening to them, and I wanna give them everything they want to succeed, because guess what? All of them will lead our nation after many of us are retired, all right? So you have to listen to them. And like I said, I'm all in, and we're going to transform this. And with your help, with all of your help, we're gonna crush this, and we're gonna bust every model that's ever been ever imagined, every algorithm, and we're going to take this nation into the future, because that's what it's all about right now. And that's why, again, I've only been in command four days, I ain't got it right yet. Just give me a couple more weeks, and then I'll be able to help. But before I take any questions, where I can ask each and every one of you? Please, please. If you see someone, whether it's Army or whatever, I prefer Army, that if there is a prospect, please reach out to your nearest recruiter, and I'm gonna send this information out and a note to everyone, to the world. We're gonna create a 1-800 number so that you can, if someone you're interested in, let us take it from there. Of course, you got to goarmy.com, but if you take a look at that, you can put some information. But I wanna make this as simple as I can for each and every one of you, all right? I owe you that. So that's something I would ask you to do. I would ask you to help us with local school districts and superintendents. Access is so very important. So I would ask each and every one of you, when you return to wherever you are, please, take the time, you can link up with your local recruiter, you can find that out on goarmy.com or you can link up with either the local official mayor, superintendent, you name it. But the goal is let's talk about that relationship building and really access for our wonderful men and women so that they can go in. And then the next thing I would ask you to do, help me mobilize the entire army. So on one November, I'm gonna send out, I pinned it, personally pinned a note to all army retirees in their family. I think it's Army Echoes. It's gonna go out to 1.5 million. I didn't tell them, hey, let's think about this. I'm gonna ask each and every one of you within the next seven to 10 days, you will go, you can use the app that I'm gonna place in the Echo. I want you in the next seven to 10 days to go to your nearest recruiting station and let's mobilize and help them because they need it. And that's what's gonna help lower some of the stress on these wonderful men and women. They're us. They're us. We've asked them to serve in areas that they've never served in before and they're trying to crush it. So there's a lot of different things I can talk about. I got plenty of notes, but let me stop right there because I wanna take the time because you know I'm motivated. If you don't know I'm all in, something's wrong. So I'll stop right there and I'll take a moment to answer any questions. Yes, sir. He's right there. Thank you. General, I'm the Army Reserve Ambassador for New York and last week we had the Cassin ARA meeting about market research on Gen Z. I'm sure you're familiar with the research on it. One of the things that had come up is that Gen Z is let's say unique and they have differences in how the rest of us looked at the Army. And one of the issues that I brought up and continue to bring up is my belief that Army marketing is not focusing on the specific issues that Gen Z is. Particularly, Army should be talking about vocational training. We will train you to a job and train you to your future and I'll be perfectly frank. I think the warrior advertising is not going well with Gen Z. Yeah. So that's a great question. And before I get into detail, so I have daughters who are Gen Z and you're right. To them, it is YouTube, TikTok and how they communicate with each other is a lot different. But what I will share with you is that the Secretary of the Army and whose top three priorities right now are recruiting, recruiting and recruiting. She set up the Army Recruiting Task Force and that is served one of the key areas that they're looking at, marketing. So when you think about marketing is, what's the high level marketing? What's mid-level? And local, in my case, where I want to focus in the zip codes that need the marketing. So there's a lot of different areas when you talk marketing, but I'll tell you, Alex Fink and his team in Chicago and DBB and the Army Recruiting Task Force, they are working through that specific point. So trust me, they're working on this right now. So thank you. Sir. General? Yeah. I wanted to know your thoughts on how Recruiting Command plans on integrating with our other programs, such as H2F, before they even stepped foot inside of Basic. Yeah, so that's one area in terms of we have to get better at. And I don't think the integration is there. And based off of the, like I said, the thousands of comments, that is a particular focus for me to try to align all of our health and fitness, holistic fitness with our recruiters. What I want to do is I want to prepare them for this remote type of assignment. And remember, wherever they are, they are the United States Army, but I want them to be a strong pillar of the United States Army wherever they go. So that is one area that's really, if I think about constantly, it is that. Because when you think about a stressed force in the middle of nowhere with no means to access the things that need H2F that I can find at any military installation, that right there keeps me up at night. Yeah, thank you. Sir. Yeah. Thank you for all your work. Former Army Infantry Officer, your recruiters are doing a lion's share of work, as you mentioned. Yeah. Recruiters are salespeople, whereas marketing is reaching one to millions or hundreds of millions. What should the Army marketing story be? Well, like I said, they are, so this is a key area for the secretary of the Army. And without going and getting ahead of the Army senior leaders, they are working on this right now. And this is a big deal, ladies and gentlemen. This is not something that, this has got the attention of our secretary, the chief of staff and all of the key leaders. I mean, this is, it is being worked right now. And I'm sure that everyone will benefit when the Army makes the announcement. Sir. Hi, sir. I'm a former recruiting battalion commander. You know, Gallup and Quinnipiac do recurring polls on trust in public institutions. And a lot of them are really low and the military has been the holdout. The military has had an elevated status for a long time until the last three years. And we've taken a serious dip. And I think if we're asking young Americans to join a team and their opinion of that team is getting worse, it's something we've got to address. What are your thoughts on that coming in? Yes, sir. And that's where I would ask each of your help. A lot of our wonderful future, you know, soldiers or men and women out there across the nation just don't know about the United States Army. And what they know of it are those perceptions and negative perceptions that I have been all over this country. Before this, I was the U.S. Army Connect Command. So I have been in places. And you would not believe some simple questions when I ask about, hey, what do you think about the Army? It is, you know, it's the flak jacket platoon scene. Hey, sir, if I join the Army, can I have a pet? Hey, sir, if I join the Army, can I get married? Ladies and gentlemen, this is totally 100% real. So we have to get out there and educate because there's been a period that that education has not taken place. So I will share with you, and that's why I ask everyone, we got to mobilize the entire force to educate our nation. Because right now, you know, some of the perceptions and although negative, they're penetrating and reaching those that may not know anything about the Army. And so that's why I think it's so very important. The Army is transformational. You know, a kid from, you know, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, I needed a way to pay for college. I took on student loans to get into the door, but I knew I did not want to graduate and I wanted to serve and that's what led me to ROTC. So each one of us has a story, but I need to share mine. And I think everyone has their story, but that we have to keep them informed. That's everyone. And that's why you can never assume everyone knows about the Army or the goodness about the Army because it's not, it's wrong. We all have to get out there, mobilize, and educate everybody. Thank you, sir. General, hi, I have a question. Could you explain to us the role that the U.S. Army eSports team can play with Gen Z to connect them with America? Yeah, so, you know, I talked to my, this is a good one, I talked to my daughters about that. And they said, well, dad, you gotta have your own Army tiktok. And I said, well, I don't know if I, I mean, there's a lot of things involved with that. But where I would ask each and every one of you how we can have access to this generation or talk with their parents, the influencers. So I've been to events, both Junior ROTC and ROTC, where they may be focused on the student on some things, but where I was able to penetrate was able when I spoke with all of their parents. And so that's what I think is important. My youngest daughter, not my youngest, my second, last from youngest, she was interested in JROTC, but she heard some rumors and bad things. I said, let's sit down. And let me explain to you about Junior ROTC and why it's a citizenship program, focused on civics, teamwork, and everything. And I think it's going to help you begin to shape your way forward as you make adult decisions. And I think when you look at the stats, it's very clear, Junior ROTC, they graduated higher GPA, higher graduation rate, and they go on to do great things for our nation. So that is why I think, to answer your question, you have to be able to connect with their influencers or if you want to connect with the students, you actually need to have younger, like young soldiers with you to talk with them. Sir, you're talking about one of my favorite subjects, Junior ROTC. So if this is such a good program, understanding that only 20% go in the military, I got that. But why don't you double, triple the number of JROTCs and then you'll have 60%? Well, sir, that's a great question, but as you know, this is a JROTC's cost money. And that's a decision by our Army, senior leaders where those investments takes place. I mean, we all know that. So just to give you an idea, it's about 1700 JROTC in the United States, but when they stood up in 1916, they were mostly in the Southeast and they really only expanded from there. So Florida all the way to Texas, all the way up through Virginia, that's where 70% of the nation's JROTC is. So there's more JROTCs in three cities in Georgia than there are in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan combined. So that just gives you an idea about the placement, so you're right. There are places, I grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, one JROTC, 900,000 people. So that gives you an idea. So we have to look at the distribution, but again, this is a decision for Army, senior leaders as to how we, you know, marketing, whether it's JROTCs, these are all tough decisions. They're out there waiting to go. I know there's 250 on the order of merit list, waiting to take home programs. Yes, sir. 250,000 a year, that's how many tank grounds. I mean, it's a trade-off. Yes, sir. I mean, it's a very good question, so yes. General. Oh, in terms of what we're, so this is, with my U.S. Army Connect Command hat on, we saw the gap and recommended two Army senior leaders with a 50 school increase for five years. So 250 schools over five years, which will reach 300,000 high schoolers across the nation. General Bruce Dillaport. Yes, sir. Former deputy for recruiting for Army National Guard and current DAC. Not to turn this into a junior ROTC briefing, but I did want to highlight a positive aspect that you were involved in, I guess in April with the rollout of the cyber program for junior ROTC. Yes, cyber pilot. And it kind of talks to some of the skill sets that we're looking for and how do we change the mentality of how junior ROTC is seen by students and how do we get left of educating the public and students. Yeah, so junior ROTC is not the 1960s program, so junior ROTC today, we have artificial intelligence, we just started a cyber pilot. The investments that we're putting in junior ROTC is preparing these men and women to exit school, maybe go on to college, but wherever they do, they're gonna have the skill sets, robotics, you name it, all of the key areas that we're focusing on as a nation, that's what we're introducing at JROTC and they're crushing it. So they're doing very well. That's a great question. All right, well, first of all, I just want to take the time and thank each and every one of you personally. Oh, we got one more. Good afternoon, sir. Hey. First of all, there's two of us here. So my question is, with less Americans going to college and with the student loan relief that's going into effect, what other type of levers is the army pulling to recruit those Americans? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's a great question. And I'm working through this with the staff right now, but the type of levers that we're looking at get after what you just talked about exactly without going into details, of course the transformational piece of the future soldier prep course, let me throw something else at you. One of the things is I want to focus also on the college grad market, okay? And that fight for talent based off what we're working on right now is not to go in there and compete, but to win. So this will be transformational. So we're working on that right now. We're working on some soldier referral programs, but without going into all the details, again, I just been in command five days and my boss is right there saying, hey, hey, hey, hey. What I don't want to do is get ahead because what we're working on right now is transformational and it will change the way we get after the future of talent. And in this war for talent, I meant it to win it. I don't compete and an army should never compete. The army should always lead the nation in terms of how we invest in our talent because these men and women are so talented, they're wonderful, they're wonderful. Wherever I go, they're so wonderful. Their hearts are in the right place and they want to succeed and we just got to give them all the tools they'll need. All right, hey, for everyone, I'm probably, this is good, I'll give you a little bit more time back, about eight minutes, but bottom line, I just want to personally thank each and every one of you for being here. I was thinking about what I was going to share, but I just said, hey, speak from the heart. Tell them what I think my role and responsibility is in recruiting command, but I just want to share with each and every one of you, I'm all in, okay? And I want, you should know that I'm going to fight for all of these men and women and get everything they need when they're out there and I ask you to educate these wonderful men and women our future about the powers of national service and service to the service of the United States Army. So I will stop right there. God bless you. Have a wonderful rest of the week at AUSA. It's over Thorne. I was at your changing command. Oh yes, sir. I'm not an important ox and all that kind of thing. I didn't want to raise this question publicly, but...