ENROLLED
       2023 Legislature                                         SM 1382
       
       
       
       
       
       
                                                             20231382er
    1  
    2         A memorial to the Congress of the United States,
    3         urging Congress to restore the United States
    4         Department of Defense’s superior warfighting
    5         principles of recruiting, assigning, training,
    6         promoting, and retaining personnel solely based on
    7         merit and ensuring such personnel maintain and display
    8         a warrior ethos.
    9  
   10         WHEREAS, the United States became the world’s greatest
   11  warfighting nation shortly after its founding, a fact clearly
   12  demonstrated in the 1900s and early 2000s through its engagement
   13  in two World Wars and several other military campaigns
   14  throughout the globe, establishing a deterrent effect that has
   15  prevented another World War for almost 80 years, and
   16         WHEREAS, the United States’ military dominance in
   17  warfighting came about through reliance on the concept of
   18  meritocracy, in which personnel are recruited, assigned to
   19  specialties, assigned to positions within a unit, retained, and
   20  promoted based on their demonstrated aptitude and performance in
   21  the roles they are assigned to perform, regardless of their
   22  race, gender, sexual preference, or other person-centric
   23  identifiers, and
   24         WHEREAS, the United States’ military dominance in
   25  warfighting also came about through the ability of personnel to
   26  have and maintain a warrior ethos, one in which they are able to
   27  transition from being a kind, compassionate individual in
   28  peacetime to one who is willing and able to engage an enemy in
   29  battle with violence and lethality, and this includes support
   30  personnel who may not typically be called upon to engage an
   31  enemy face-to-face but nonetheless may find themselves in
   32  situations that require them to do so, and
   33         WHEREAS, over the past several years, the United States
   34  Department of Defense and its military services have engaged in
   35  various practices eroding these warfighting principles to the
   36  point at which United States military dominance has been called
   37  into serious question, which practices include, but are not
   38  limited to:
   39         (1) Overemphasizing and relying on diversity and inclusion
   40  in all its forms, including gender, gender identity, race, and
   41  sexual preference, as a primary determinant in how military
   42  forces should be comprised without providing credible and
   43  verifiable evidence that such a prescribed composition results
   44  in higher job performance, unit effectiveness, and mission
   45  accomplishment, as opposed to a model in which a meritocracy
   46  based force composition is used;
   47         (2) Making nonsensical “unconscious bias” training
   48  mandatory for all military and civilian personnel;
   49         (3) Instituting mandatory “emergency use only” COVID-19
   50  vaccines with little regard to individual medical concerns in
   51  light of the Anthrax vaccine mandate problems of the late 1990s
   52  and denying almost all requests for exemptions based on
   53  religious grounds, which is particularly troubling given the
   54  recent decision by the United States Department of Defense to
   55  rescind the COVID-19 vaccine mandate; and
   56         (4) Requiring mandatory training at the United States Air
   57  Force Academy to incorporate “person-centered” and gender
   58  neutral language when describing individuals and to request
   59  cadets to consider using the term “parent” or “caregiver” rather
   60  than “mother” or “father” as to not offend those that may come
   61  from a different parenting background, and
   62         WHEREAS, such practices are having a detrimental effect on
   63  recruitment, as the United States Army was 15,000 soldiers short
   64  of its 2022 recruiting goals, the worst recruiting year on
   65  record since the Armed Forces switched to an all-volunteer force
   66  nearly 50 years ago, and the remaining branches of the Armed
   67  Forces are well behind their historic goal rates as they enter
   68  into the 2023 recruiting season, and
   69         WHEREAS, recent studies have found that most young
   70  Americans are not fit for military service, with the Department
   71  of Defense estimating that just 2 percent of those between the
   72  ages of 17 and 21 years have the desired combination of strong
   73  academic credentials, adequate physical fitness, and an interest
   74  in serving, and
   75         WHEREAS, the combination of an incapable and uninterested
   76  recruiting age group and nonmerit-based practices calls into
   77  serious question whether the United States military currently
   78  has a sufficient number of members who hold a warrior ethos
   79  needed to effectively engage an enemy, and
   80         WHEREAS, those with the necessary warrior ethos currently
   81  serving in the United States military are more likely to leave
   82  service, and those with the necessary warrior ethos before
   83  entering into service are more likely to refrain from enlisting
   84  as they discover the composition and practices of the Armed
   85  Services as referenced herein, NOW, THEREFORE,
   86  
   87  Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   88  
   89         That the Congress of the United States is urged to use its
   90  authorization and appropriation authorities to prohibit the use
   91  of such “woke” social engineering and experimentation practices,
   92  which are eroding military effectiveness, and to mandate a
   93  return to a merit-based system for military force development
   94  and composition.
   95         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of State dispatch
   96  copies of this memorial to the President of the United States,
   97  the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the
   98  United States House of Representatives, and each member of the
   99  Florida delegation to the United States Congress.