EXCLUSIVE: Military Units Are Not Ready for a Combat Deployment, According to Recent Survey of Those Currently Serving

Last fall, the author distributed a survey to 229 service members currently serving in the U.S. military. Each individual was given an opportunity to anonymously express his or her views on various issues concerning the military, including Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) training, coercion by leadership to get the COVID-19 jab, and more.

The Gateway Pundit spoke to one of the survey’s participants, who used a pseudonym out of concern about reprisals. Officer Alvin Johnson (a pseudonym), a 20-year combat veteran of the Army with multiple deployments around the globe, anonymously answered questions concerning the nation’s readiness to go to war.

When asked whether the United States could win a war against a near-peer threat like China, Iran, North Korea, or Russia, Officer Johnson offered a definitive “no” as his answer. According to the survey, 188 of the survey’s 229 participants agreed, approximately 82 percent expressing that the U.S. could not win a war against such a foreign adversary.

For Officer Johnson, the quandary stems from Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s now-rescinded 2021 military vaccine mandate. Over 8,400 service members were booted out of service while tens of thousands opted to resign or retire.

In October 2023, Navy Commander Rob Green warned of a “massive readiness crash” to unfold because of the military’s enforcement of the COVID-19 shot and subsequent personnel losses. Today, the author of “Defending the Constitution Behind Enemy Lines” and others continue to embrace a call for “sweeping reforms and accountability within the Armed Forces.” Seeking accountability, 231 signatories of the Declaration of Military Accountability (DMA) are asking others to also pledge their support.

The lack of accountability has contributed to Cmdr. Green’s concern about a “looming” readiness crash. Officer Johnson concurred, pointing out that “many of the people who were kicked out [of the military] or left on their own [as a result of the COVID-19 jab], they were the warfighters.”

According to him, “Many were the ones with actual, physical experience in combat.” Their skills were learned in combat, not “theorized” in a classroom, he explained. “Now we have this massive experience deficit that cannot be filled by book learning, lectures, and PowerPoint presentations.”

“Countries like Russia and China are training to fight,” he said. “And they’re not mired by various sociocultural issues like transgenderism and other social experiments.” Sadly, he said, “I can’t tell you the last time I had rifle training, but I can tell you the last time I had inclusivity training.”

Mission Failure Imminent

Officer Johnson serves with a combat unit that is considered deployable and was asked to share what percentage of his unit he personally considered ready for deployment. Expressing that he did not want to be dubbed a “sensationalist,” an emphatic “zero percent” was his answer for the reasons named above. Collectively, the survey’s other participants considered about 68 percent of their units to be deployable.

“Warfighters have been bled from the military at a rate that’s not been seen for decades,” he lamented. All the while, the nation’s primary land service branch has failed to meet its recruiting goals by 26,000 recruits in the previous two years. Nearly 80 percent of the survey’s participants said the quality of new recruits in the last two years has failed to meet the needs of their unit.

With that, Officer Johnson said he does not believe the Army currently has enough service members who are “trained and experienced enough” to face a combat deployment. Over 72 percent of the survey’s participants agreed, determining their units are also not trained enough to face a combat deployment.

“We don’t have warfighters training [recruits and others] any longer,” Officer Johnson pointed out. “Many of the people running Advanced Individual Training (AIT) are not wearing combat patches. They have not been to combat.” Thus, he questions how someone who has not seen combat can successfully train someone for combat.

Apart from training as it relates to combat readiness, according to the survey, approximately 74 percent of the 229 participants also said their units are not equipped enough to face a combat deployment.

As a result of the loss of experienced service members and low recruitment numbers, Officer Johnson said the maintenance of equipment has fallen behind what would be considered operational—and this has occurred, in peacetime, outside of a combat theater. As an example, he is aware of aircraft that are “restricted from certain flight profiles and certain types of operations because of a mechanical or maintenance deficiency.”

According to him, “Some of the aircraft have been carrying these deficiencies for months and months on end.” Considering this, he said his unit would be unable to reach the operational status required for warfare should they be called to combat.

The failure to be “fully mission capable” is the result of either “a lack of oversight” or “a lack of training,” he suggested. “While we don’t have the necessary functioning equipment, we also don’t have enough people that are trained to safely and effectively operate that equipment.” He attributed these same factors to the rise in accidents and other incidents in aviation being seen in the military.

Officer Johnson emphasized that his views don’t reflect those of the Department of Defense or the Department of the Army.