Text of OH HCR 9 (2023)

As Introduced 135th General Assembly Regular Session H. C. R. No. 9 2023-2024 Representatives Gross, Willis Cosponsors: Representatives Demetriou, Click, Klopfenstein, Lear, Claggett, King, Kick, Stein, Dean, Creech, McClain, Barhorst, Lorenz, Plummer, Wiggam, Ferguson A C O N C U R R E N T R E S O L U T I O N To urge the United States Congress to restore the Department of Defense's superior warfighting principles of recruiting, assigning, training, promoting, and retaining personnel solely based on merit and ensuring such personnel maintain and display a warrior ethos, and to name this resolution the "Restoration of America's Readiness (ROAR) Resolution." BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF OHIO (THE SENATE CONCURRING): WHEREAS, The United States became the world's greatest warfighting nation shortly after its founding, a fact clearly demonstrated in the 1900s and early 2000s through its engagement in two World Wars and several other military campaigns throughout the globe, establishing a deterrent effect that has prevented another World War for almost 80 years; and WHEREAS, The United States' military dominance in warfighting also came about through the ability of personnel to have and maintain a warrior ethos, one in which they are able to transition from being a kind, compassionate individual in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 H. C. R. No. 9 Page 2 As Introduced peacetime to one who is willing and able to engage an enemy in battle with violence and lethality, and this includes support personnel who may not typically be called upon to engage an enemy face-to-face but nonetheless may find themselves in situations that require them to do so; and WHEREAS, Over the past several years, the United States Department of Defense and its military services have engaged in various practices eroding these warfighting principles to the point at which United States military dominance has been called into serious question. Such practices include: (1) Overemphasizing and relying on diversity and inclusion in all its forms, including gender, gender identity, race, and sexual preference, as a primary determinant in how military forces should be comprised without providing credible and verifiable evidence that such a prescribed composition results in higher job performance, unit effectiveness, and mission accomplishment, as opposed to a model in which a meritocracy- based force composition is used; (2) Making nonsensical "unconscious bias" training mandatory for all military and civilian personnel; (3) Instituting mandatory "emergency use only" COVID-19 vaccines with little regard to individual medical concerns in light of the Anthrax vaccine mandate problems of the late 1990s and denying almost all requests for exemptions based on religious grounds, which is particularly troubling given the recent decision by the United States Department of Defense to rescind the COVID-19 vaccine mandate; and (4) Requiring mandatory training at the United States Air Force Academy to incorporate "person-centered" and gender neutral language when describing individuals and to request cadets to consider using the term "parent" or "caregiver" rather 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 H. 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No. 9 Page 3 As Introduced than "mother" or "father" as not to offend those that may come from a different parenting background; and (5) Requiring mandatory indoctrination of every cadet at the United States Military Academy in Critical Race Theory, a theory focused on dividing the American population along racial lines, which ignores the progress accomplished within the United States since our Civil War of the 1860s, so as to manufacture voting blocks for radical politicians, and creates distrust of the leadership of the United States Army; and WHEREAS, The United States' military dominance in warfighting came about through reliance on the concept of meritocracy, in which personnel are recruited, assigned to specialties, assigned to positions within a unit, retained, and promoted based on their demonstrated aptitude and performance in the roles they are assigned to perform, regardless of their race, gender, sexual preference, or other person-centric identifiers; and WHEREAS, Such practices are having a detrimental effect on recruitment, as the United States Army was 15,000 soldiers short of its 2022 recruiting goals, the worst recruiting year on record since the Armed Forces switched to an all-volunteer force nearly 50 years ago, and the remaining branches of the Armed Forces are well behind their historic goal rates as they enter into the 2023 recruiting season; and WHEREAS, Recent studies have found that most young Americans are not fit for military service, with the Department of Defense estimating that just two percent of those between the ages of 17 and 21 years have the desired combination of strong academic credentials, adequate physical fitness, and an interest in serving; and WHEREAS, The combination of an incapable and uninterested 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 H. 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No. 9 Page 4 As Introduced recruiting age group and non-merit-based practices calls into serious question whether the United States military currently has a sufficient number of members who hold a warrior ethos needed to effectively engage an enemy; and WHEREAS, Those with the necessary warrior ethos currently serving in the United States military are more likely to leave service, and those with the necessary warrior ethos before entering into service are more likely to refrain from enlisting as they discover the composition and practices of the Armed Services as referenced herein; therefore be it RESOLVED, That we, the members of the 135th General Assembly, urge the United States Congress to use its authorization and appropriation authorities to prohibit the use of such "woke" social engineering and experimentation practices, which are eroding military effectiveness, and to mandate a return to a merit-based system for military force development and composition; and be it further RESOLVED, That this resolution be known as the "Restoration of America's Readiness (ROAR) Resolution;" and be it further RESOLVED, That the Clerk of the House of Representatives transmit duly authenticated copies of this resolution to the President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and each member of the Ohio delegation to the United States Congress. 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105