The Ministry of National Defense sent Lieutenant General Liu Pei-chih (劉沛智), deputy chief of the General Staff for personnel, to a quetion-and-answer session at the Legislative Yuan on Thursday last week. In response to a question put to him by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應), Liu said that the armed forces are meeting targets for recruitment and retention rates, but more than 4,600 people last year and more than 3,000 people in the first nine months of this year had applied to terminate their service prematurely on the grounds of not being fit for active service.
Starting last year, total assigned armed forces personnel is to increase annually to more than 50,000 by 2029, Liu said.
Difficulty in adapting can affect people in any situation, whether it is studying at a military academy or working in a civilian job. When I was in my first year at a military academy, I wanted to drop out because of the heavy physical strain, the centralized management and the lack of freedom in the military.
However, after attending guidance meetings with officers and counselors, and talking the matter over with my parents, I canceled my application to withdraw.
Following this decision, I not only graduated without a hitch, but went on to serve 20 years in the military.
The military is like a closed society. The unit in which one serves is like a small company, in which there are all kinds of people. Whatever happens in ordinary society can more or less also happen in the army, such as fraud, drunk driving, drug abuse, jealousy and snitching.
However, when such things happen in the relatively closed and unfree conditions of the armed forces, it makes many people want to quit.
The 7,600 people in nearly two years leaving the military on the grounds of being unfit for active service is not a small number, so the Ministry of National Defense should give the issue serious attention. After all, Taiwan’s falling birthrate is already making it harder to recruit people.
The ministry could improve the situation by offering more guidance sessions to those who have trouble adapting to military life.
If necessary, such people can be transferred from their original units to give them another chance to adapt. This might reduce the number of people who leave the military before completing their service, which takes a toll on the military’s strength.
Chen Hung-hui is a student counselor at a university.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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