“Be All You Can Be:” Army brings back classic jingle in effort to increase recruiting

Washington – The nation’s top soldier, Sgt. Maj. Michael Grinston came to Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C., armed with a new twist on an old recruiting slogan.

With the military’s recruitment targets slashed last year, the Pentagon is returning to a familiar slogan in its new recruiting efforts: “Be all of you.”

In the 1980s and 1990s, the song was everywhere. But this is not a replay.

“We’re reinventing ‘Be All You Can Be’ for Generation Z,” Maj. Gen. Alex Fink, chief of Army Enterprise Marketing, told CBS News.

Fink is the man behind the new campaign, which is being launched during March Madness. It features actor Jonathan Majors, star of “Creed III,” reflecting on the history of the Army.

“We needed someone who was popular with Gen Z.” said Funk.

Fink noted that the military is aware of the reasons young people don’t want to join the military, such as “risk of death or injury, fear of PTSD and thirdly leaving family and friends.”

When recruiting, Grinston tries to counter those reasons.

“You’re three times more likely to die in a work-related accident than in the military,” Grinston told Dunbar High students during his presentation.

Dunbar student Antonio Graham said he won’t enroll because he doesn’t want to leave home.

“The only reason I didn’t join the military is because I don’t want to have a big estrangement issue with my mother,” Graham told CBS News. “I really love my mom.”

However, student Antilly Roberts said she liked what she heard.

“‘Be all that you can be.’ I really agree with that slogan, I do,” Roberts said.

Roberts was one of 20 recruiting leads the Army said it received during a recruiting session at Dunbar High. According to the Army, 20 leads typically produce two actual recruits. The army said it needed 65,000.