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