Kyra Rousseau remembers feeling trapped in her high school media center last fall when a phalanx of military personnel and faculty members shut the doors behind her and about 100 classmates before gathering everyone’s phone.
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Rousseau, 18, was a senior here at Liberty-Eylau High School. The service members were recruiters. She recalled asking to leave but being told to sit down — that her graduation hinged on completion of a military aptitude test.
“They tricked us,” Rousseau said. “They said ‘ASVAB,’ but they didn’t say what the ASVAB was.”
It stands for the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, a standardized test developed by the Defense Department decades ago to help the military funnel recruits into occupations that match their skills and intellect. And if Donald Trump’s last defense secretary could have his way, all public high school students would be required to take it.
Christopher Miller, who led the Pentagon during the chaotic closure of Trump’s tenure in Washington, detailed his vision for the ASVAB and a range of other changes as part of Project 2025, the conservative Heritage Foundation’s government-wide game plan should the presumptive Republican nominee return to the White House. Miller is among a cluster of influential former administration officials and GOP lawmakers who have mused aloud about a national service mandate and other measures to remedy what they see as a “crisis” facing the all-volunteer military.
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Trump has signaled that Miller, if there is a second term, might reprise his role as defense secretary, a powerful Cabinet post with sway over Pentagon policy. And though the former president has not publicly endorsed this Heritage strategy document, he did embrace many of the organization’s proposals at the outset of his first term.
In an interview, Miller said a national service requirement should be “strongly considered.” He described the concept as a common “rite of passage,” one that would create a sense of “shared sacrifice” among America’s youth.
“It reinforces the bonds of civility,” Miller said. “… Why wouldn’t we give that a try?”
Under his plan, he said, the ASVAB would be used to identify potential military “weaknesses” and help plug knowledge gaps as U.S. defense leaders size up competitors like China, and devise plans for possible conflicts with a range of foreign adversaries.
“If we’re going to prepare for a great-power competition,” Miller said, “it’s helpful to have a baseline understanding of the pool of potential military service members and their specific aptitudes prior.”
His contribution to Project 2025 also advocates granting military recruiters greater access to secondary schools, and he’s proposed halting use of the Defense Department’s electronic medical records platform, which he says leads to “unnecessary delays” and “unwarranted rejections” for some people with disabilities or other conditions who otherwise want to serve.
Trump’s own relationship with the military is complicated. As a teenager, he attended a military academy but later sought deferments to avoid service during the Vietnam War. As president, he embraced the role of commander in chief but routinely clashed with the Pentagon as its leaders balked at many of his impulses and recoiled when claims surfaced that he’d disparaged those killed in combat.
Trump’s campaign declined to address whether the former president supports mandatory military service and sought to tamp down speculation about his agenda. In a statement, top advisers cautioned that unless announced by the former president or “an authorized member” of his reelection team, no conjecture about future staffing or policy “should be deemed official.”
Collectively, the military services fell short of the Pentagon’s recruiting goal by about 41,000 last year, officials told lawmakers in December. Only the Marines and the Space Force met their objectives.
In explaining its shortfall, the Army, the largest of the services, points to internal data indicating that most of America’s youth — 71 percent — do not qualify for military service for reasons that include obesity, drug use and aptitude.
Only 1 percent of the U.S. population serves in the armed forces, Army data shows.
The United States halted conscription in 1973, two years before the Vietnam War ended, and since then the idea of mandatory military service has remained politically unpopular. But some in the GOP appear willing to make a case for change.
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), a potential Trump running mate, said in an interview that he sees a clear need for measures to boost participation. “I like the idea of national service. And I’m not talking about in wartime,” he said, calling for more Americans to put “some skin in the game.”
