US Marine Corps recruits do crunches at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, February 19, 2016.Lance Cpl. Angelica Annastas US military recruiting faces major headwinds as troops leave service and a tight job market lures away potential recruits. The services are using record-level enlistment and retention bonuses to attract and keep troops, and those bonuses continue to increase. Hints that the armed services might soon face a problem keeping their ranks full began quietly, with officials spending the last decade warning that a dwindling slice of the American public could serve.Only about one-quarter of young Americans are even eligible for service these days, a shrinking pool limited by an increasing number of potential recruits who are overweight or are screened out due to minor criminal infractions, including the use of recreational drugs such as marijuana.But what had been a slow-moving trend is reaching crisis levels, as a highly competitive job market converges with a mass of troops leaving as the coronavirus pandemic subsides, alarming military planners.Read Next: Medical Forces Could Be Shorthanded During War Due to Planned Cuts, Milley Says"Not two years into a pandemic, and we have warning lights flashing," Maj.