三年前，华盛顿已对这一代人彻底失望。太软弱、太不合格、太脱节，无法服役。2023年，陆军、海军和空军均未完成征兵目标。这座城市里的人们开始公开询问全志愿役制能否存续。有人甚至开始谈论恢复征兵制。他们看错这些孩子了。
Three years ago, Washington had written off a generation. Too soft, too unfit, too disconnected to serve. In 2023, the Army, Navy and Air Force all missed their recruiting goals. People in this town started asking out loud whether the all-volunteer force could survive. Some started talking about a draft. They were wrong about the kids.
在特朗普总统和赫格塞斯部长领导下，每个现役军种均在2026财年完成了征兵任务，且大多数提前数月达标。陆军签约61,500名未来士兵，提前四个多月完成任务。海军将目标提高10%却仍在7月达成。三年前海军还差7,450人未达目标，而2026财年全年入伍水兵达45,112人。空军和太空军于4月即完成目标。海军陆战队表示这是多年来见到的最佳征兵环境，且已签下明年征兵计划一半的人员。
Under President Trump and Secretary Hegseth, every active-duty service made its recruiting mission in fiscal year 2026, and most of them did it months early. The Army signed 61,500 future soldiers with more than four months to spare. The Navy raised its goal by 10 percent and still hit it in July. It finished the year with 45,112 sailors, three years after coming up 7,450 short of its goal. The Air Force and Space Force had met their goals by April. The Marines said it was the best recruiting environment they'd seen in years, and they already have half of next year's class under contract.
自2024年11月以来，军方征兵任务完成率创下15多年来最佳纪录。这发生在美军于中东参战之际。全现役部队各人口群体兴趣均有所增加，女性征兵人数再次上升。这种实力延伸至预备役。海军预备役完成率达113%，海军陆战队预备役108%，陆军国民警卫队102%，陆军预备役103%——这是10年来首次超额完成任务。
Since November 2024, the military has posted its best rate of recruiting mission achieved in more than 15 years. We did it while American troops were in combat in the Middle East. Across the active-duty force, we saw interest across all demographics, and women’s recruitment is up once again. That strength extended beyond active duty. The Navy Reserve finished at 113 percent of mission, Marine Corps Reserve at 108 percent, the Army National Guard at 102 percent, and the Army Reserve at 103 percent, its first time surpassing its goal in 10 years.
孩子们没变，变的是领导层。特朗普总统和赫格塞斯部长对年轻美国人讲出了真相。军队的存在是为战斗、为取胜。工作艰苦，赢得在其中的位置令人自豪。原来，这一代人被告知没有什么值得牺牲，却渴望听到：有些东西值得。
The kids didn't change. The leadership did. President Trump and Secretary Hegseth told young Americans the truth. The military exists to fight and win. The work is hard.
我是战争部招募工作组（Department of War Recruiting Task Force）的共同主席，我们的工作是确保今年的成功是一个起点，而不是最高峰。纪录不会自己维持。如果我们想继续创下纪录，我认为我们必须做两件事。培养倾向（propensity），即服役的愿望；并建立近距离接触（proximity），让军队与美国人民贴得足够近，以至于这种愿望变成一项决定。
Earning your place in it is something to be proud of. It turns out a generation that had been told nothing was worth sacrificing for was hungry to hear that something is. I co-chair the Department of War Recruiting Task Force, and our job is to make sure this year’s success is a starting point, not a high-water mark. Records don't sustain themselves.
倾向有一张照片比我更能表达这一点。一个小男孩，大概五岁左右，穿着防晒泳衣，站在脚踝深的浪花里，手里举着一面小型美国国旗。两架美国陆军阿帕奇直升机正在他面前的水面上空低空轰鸣。他永远不会忘记那一天。
If we want to keep setting them, I believe we have to do two things. Build propensity, the desire to serve, and create proximity, a military close enough to the American people that the desire turns into a decision. Propensity There's a photo that says this better than I can. A little boy, maybe five years old, stands ankle-deep in the surf in a swim shirt, holding up a small American flag.
这就是倾向。它源于敬畏的时刻。海浪上空的阿帕奇直升机。周五晚上呼啸掠过体育场上空的喷气式飞机。一个孩子在县集市上爬进坦克的舱口。没有任何广告活动能起到这些时刻所起的作用。它们让一个孩子渴望成为我们中的一员。
Two Army Apache helicopters are thundering low over the water in front of him. He's never going to forget that day. That's propensity. It comes from moments of awe. Apaches over the surf. Jets ripping over a stadium on a Friday night. A kid climbing into the hatch of a tank at the county fair.
这就是为什么本届政府批准的飞行表演比以往任何一届政府都要多。公众完成了剩下的工作。每一次飞行表演都被拍摄下来、分享并在网络上传播，这种分享不会花纳税人一分钱。我们需要在此基础上，开展实地演示、特种作战展示以及不仅限于海岸的舰队周。心脏地带有些内陆河港城镇从未见过海军舰艇。它们应该见一见。
No ad campaign can do what those moments do. They make a kid want to be one of us. That's why this administration has approved more flyovers than any administration before it. The public does the rest. Every flyover is filmed and shared and passed around online, and that sharing costs the taxpayer nothing. We need to build on that with live demonstrations, special operations showcases, and Fleet Weeks that don't stop at the coast.
没有人会在长大后渴望成为他们从未见过的人。近距离接触我曾在阿富汗随第10山地师领导过一个步兵排。每个步兵都会迅速学到同一个教训：如果你不守住阵地，你就会失去它。你可以在一个下午清理一个山谷。撤出后，别人就会搬进来。坚守阵地的唯一方法就是每天都身处其中。
There are river towns in the heartland that have never seen a Navy ship. They should. No one grows up wanting to be something they've never seen. Proximity I led an infantry platoon in Afghanistan with the 10th Mountain Division. Every grunt learns the same lesson fast: if you don't hold the ground, you lose it. You can clear a valley in an afternoon.
招兵买路也是如此。阵地是美国每一个城镇，而二十年来我们一直在从中撤退。我们将兵力整合到更少、更大的基地。我们离开了那些过去每天都能看到军服的城市。然后，当年轻人不再考虑从军时，我们却表现得十分惊讶。
Pull out, and someone else moves in. The only way to hold terrain is to be on it, every day. Recruiting is no different. The ground is every town in America, and for twenty years we've been pulling back from it. We consolidated onto fewer, bigger bases.
我们剩下的这支部队已经变成了一个家族企业。我们一次又一次地回到军人家庭，因为他们是我们唯一还能经常接触到的美国人。这些家庭是这个国家的脊梁，我们亏欠他们的恩情无法回报。但是，一支只从自身进行招兵的部队正在耗尽一笔无法补充的储备。五角大楼计划明年增加44,000名军人。如果我们接触不到那些从未认识任何穿军服的人的美国人，我们就找不到他们。
We left the cities that used to see uniforms every day. Then we acted surprised when young people stopped thinking about serving. What we're left with is a force that's become a family business. We go back to military families again and again because they're the only Americans we still touch on a regular basis. Those families are the backbone of this country, and we owe them more than we can repay. But a force that only recruits from itself is burning through a reserve it can't replace.
近距离接触是我们夺回这片阵地的方式。我们希望在美国的每一个城镇都有招兵的存在。身着礼服的士兵、水兵、空兵和海军陆战队员出现在县集市、周五晚上的比赛和独立日游行中，面对面地开展工作。新兵在半场休息时宣誓入驻。征兵人员是社区的一部分，而不是被困在商业街的办公室里。国民警卫队则部署在人们能看到他们的地方。
The Pentagon plans to add 44,000 service members next year. We won't find them unless we reach Americans who have never known anyone in uniform. Proximity is how we take that ground back. We want a recruiting presence in every town in America. Soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines in dress uniform at the county fair, the Friday night game and the Fourth of July parade, doing the work face to face. New recruits sworn in at halftime.
两者都需要。单靠任何一方都行不通。没有近距离接触，参军倾向就会消退。海滩上的那个男孩在17岁时，需要在他的家乡有穿军服的人出现。没有参军倾向的近距离接触只是一张无人驻足的征兵桌。
Recruiters who are part of the community, not stuck in a strip-mall office. Guard units out where people can see them. You need both Neither one works alone. Propensity without proximity fades. That boy on the beach is going to need someone in uniform in his hometown when he turns 17.
再次露面。美国的年轻人从未停止过服役的意愿。我们只是停止了露面。在总统特朗普和部长赫格塞斯的领导下，美国回来了，兵役制度也回来了。现在我们必须确保我们永不停歇，在体育场里、在海滩上、在集市上以及在基地永远无法到达的每一个城镇。
Proximity without propensity is just a recruiting table nobody stops at. Showing up again America's young people never stopped being willing to serve. We just stopped showing up. Under President Trump and Secretary Hegseth, America is back, and so is military service. Now we have to make sure we never stop, in the stadiums, on the beaches, at the fairs and in every town a base will never reach.
参军倾向让他们想要服役。近距离接触则在我们准备好的时候让我们出现在他们身边。
Propensity makes them want to serve. Proximity puts us there when they're ready.