Why is the military having problem making recruiting goals?

The men in my friend circle and I have refused to join for #1 and #3.

Regarding #1:
The Guard offers bonuses for certain in-need MOS (88M, 12K, and more), but when you've got kids and a family that bonus (even at max) doesn't go very far. And the pay as enlisted Guard, even active duty pay when you're in basic/AIT or deployed, doesn't reflect reality for a family. Obviously officer pay is better, but still not good enough for the weeks you're in OCS. My local guard armory is actually all 88M so I probably would've enlisted and been a truck driver there.

Regarding #3:
For #3 there was a release of a new Army Regulation, AR500 something. They had updated the list of discrimination offenses which now includes discriminating against trannys. I.E use the wrong pronoun and your woke officer will Article 15 you. Forget that. My Brother-In-Law who did some kind of work with Seals in Afghanistan, my Father-In-Law who did 10 years in the Navy as a bomb, aircraft, and sub electrician, and my Fire Captain (5 years Navy) and other Dept members (~20 years Marines as a "Doc", ~10 years Navy ship crewman) who served all said to forget the modern military as it's garbage.

My brother has a desire to serve as I do and he refused the military because of #3 and is instead a State Trooper.

I've instead chosen to fight fires, setup helicopter LZs, and deal with bones sticking out of people, dead folk, guts, blood etc through my local Vol Fire Department, and I steer all other young men in that direction too. I'd like to be a Sheriff's deputy in my county one day too. I expect there's a whole bunch of stories like my brother and mine refusing to join the pink haired military. It's the Military's loss and the Fire Department and Police's gain.

 

John Lovell mentions similar reasons in this video. Specifically at 5:07

 

If CRT has taught you our country is not worth fighting for, and you are aware of the Biden corruption, and that the cut and run Dems are in charge, why enlist?

 

I always try to give the police the benefit of the doubt. We both have to make split-second decisions under extreme stress and we can't expect perfection from police, fire or ems services. 1 bad action needs to be weighed against the 500 good actions an emergency service member did. The problem is people see 1 bad action nowadays and extrapolate that to an officer's entire record, which is what seems to have happened to your friend. It's entirely unreasonable. In some cases people see 1 action and extrapolate it to the entire policing system.

All that political junk figured into my brother's decision on which state to be a trooper in. He went to a certain state out in the West that is extremely anti-woke and where the population backs law enforcement 100%.

I think what's going to happen is that all the cities and suburbs are going to end up like #3. You'll have woke police, fire, EMS, etc. The rural areas will be the opposite. The Federal agencies will probably continue their march into wokeness simply because we can't unroot the bureaucrats that are pushing the nonsense. Meanwhile the country will continue to decay.