Gen Z recruits in the US Army are taking to TikTok to complain about the food, pay, and body shaming

• Some Gen Z recruits in the US Army are sharing their discontent for the job on social media.
• They're complaining about the pay, food, and lack of privacy.

The US Army has been struggling to recruit soldiers in recent years — and it might be because some of its youngest hires are discouraging their peers from signing up by sharing stories of low pay and poor food on TikTok.

Anthony Laster, who describes himself as a US Army vet on his Instagram profile, posted a video on TikTok about the cons of being in the Army. The video has been viewed over 600,000 times and was most recently reported by the Daily Mail. Laster is in uniform and appears to be in the desert in the recording.

In the video, he listed "No Privacy," "Shitty food," "Disrespectful leadership," and "No sleep," as negative factors of being in the Army.

In another video, Laster joked about "watching TikTok all day on my deployment," and getting caught by The Taliban.

Another TikToker Dana Estrella made a series of videos complaining about her life in the Army. In one video, she's seen wearing her uniform, with text saying: "If you see this, this your sign to not join the military."

In another video, she lists some of the things she didn't consider before joining the Army. This included having to show up to work even when she is sick and sharing a room with a stranger.

Others expressed regrets about their choice to join the Army, including TikToker Itzel Hernandez, who said: "You had a boujee life as a civilian but were really stupid at 18 so you joined the military and now you're forced to sleep and shit out in the woods like an animal."

Hernandez also complained that she had been criticized for being three pounds away from being overweight.

The US Army has been plagued by recruitment issues in the past few years, falling short of its hiring goals. It came up 15,000 short of its recruitment goals for the year 2022 and around 10,000 short in 2023.

This is because one of the key generations for recruitment — Gen Z — hasn't met the standards in recent years. A 2020 Pentagon study found that 77% of Gen Z were ineligible for military service without a waiver. Reasons for this included being overweight, drug and alcohol abuse, and medical, physical, and mental health issues.

The Army said in 2022 that it would introduce a 90-day boot camp training program for those who failed its initial academic and body fat standards. The course would aim to help them improve their test scores or lose body fat percentages.

Business Insider reached out to the US Army for further comment but didn't immediately hear back.