The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY)

A Laredo high school graduate became a Marine, with tragic results.
This piece was produced in collaboration with Latino USA. Please visit their site for the audio version of this story.

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September 15, 2023 / Reynaldo Leaños Jr./ Texas Observer - The house on Sabana Lane in Laredo is a repository of memories. Military posters, American flags, crosses, and photographs hang on the wall, each of them a piece of David Lee Espinoza’s story that ended in Afghanistan.

“This was his cross he was wearing when he passed, and I wear it,” said his mother, Elizabeth Holguin, grabbing the necklace in her hands. “I always feel like he’s around me.”

Espinoza, a lance corporal in the U.S. Marines, died in the waning days of the U.S. evacuation of Afghanistan when suicide bombers blew themselves up near the Kabul airport on August 26, 2021. Twelve other service members, about half of them Latino, and more than 150 Afghans perished in the attack.

Born just months before the war began, Espinoza was one of the last to die when America’s longest war came to an end. He was 20.

Espinoza is one of an estimated 7,000 American service members who lost their lives in the post-9/11 wars that include Afghanistan and Iraq, according to Brown University’s Cost of War Project. Another 30,000 of these service members and veterans later died by suicide.

For decades, the U.S. military has targeted communities of color for recruitment. Latinos, according to the U.S. Department of Defense, make up about 18 percent of the active duty force. The numbers are even higher in the Marine Corps, in which Hispanics make up 24 percent of active duty members. Latinos are already the largest demographic group in Texas, and will account for most of the country’s population growth—60 percent—through 2050. A 2022 report from the Department of Defense showed Latinos were the fastest-growing segment of the military.

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August 22, 2023 / Blake Stilwell / Military.com / Book Review - In August 2023, the U.S. Army released its latest attempt to reach potential recruits from the generational cohort known as 'Generation Z.' Called​​ "First Steps," it's a series of brief "documentaries" that attempts to capture the spirit and emotions associated with life as a young recruit. A drill sergeant is never seen, but we can hear marching cadence in one of the videos, a siren song that quickly morphs into a sick beat.

Will these spots resonate with Gen Z, the generation of Americans born after 1997? The Army certainly hopes so: In 2018, it invested $4 billion in marketing over the next 10 years to reach them. But so far, that effort has come up short, with the Army expecting to fall 15,000 recruits short of its goal in 2023 -- the largest shortfall of all branches of the U.S. military. The Navy expects to be 10,000 recruits short while the Air Force will miss its goal by 3,000; only the Marine Corps believes it will meet its own needs.

Gen Z interest in military service is low and only dropping lower. The Wall Street Journal reports that only 9% of American youth ages 16-21 said they would consider enlisting in 2022, which is down from the 13% recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic. It appears no one wants to join the military, and the military can't seem to figure out what to do about it.

There is one Gen Z officer who believes he has the answer to the military's recruiting woes. Second Lt. Matthew Weiss is a 25-year-old Marine Corps intelligence officer whose new book, "'We Don't Want You, Uncle Sam: Examining the Military Recruiting Crisis with Generation Z" lays out what he believes are some of the major problems his generation has with military service -- and what the military can do about it.