This summer, at a small recruiting station in Toms River, New Jersey, Sgt. 1st Class Dane Beaston met with a team of Army recruiters to offer some encouragement.

“Let's change the places we're looking,” Beaston told his colleagues. “Let's change our messaging. Let's change what we're doing if it's not working, right? But the potential's out there.”

Beaston has given a lot of talks like these lately. While his team has gotten closer to meeting its goals since he joined a couple years ago, it fell short of meeting its quota in June.

This isn’t just a problem in Toms River. Across the country, the Army is struggling to sign people up. Negative trends accelerated by the pandemic have shrunk the number of young people able to meet the Army’s academic and athletic requirements. Trust in American institutions is also waning.

Today on “Post Reports,” Martine Powers speaks with Greg Jaffe, a national reporter at The Post, about the time he and reporter Missy Ryan spent at the Toms River recruiting station to see how recruiters there are trying to persuade young people to join the Army.

Today’s show was produced by Sabby Robinson, with help from Peter Bresnan. It was edited by Monica Campbell and mixed by Sean Carter.

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Selling America: The Army’s fight for recruits 36:14 Share

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Selling America: The Army’s fight for recruits