How do you address any challenges with getting young soldiers involved and having pride in your unit?

The Marines do a great job instilling their common History. It's the common root of esprit de corps. Ever taken the entire company/ PLT or Det on a Staff ride? Assigning some tour SME duty to research etc could be a good thing. Ever try MOPP4 softball?? Not sure current requirements but back in my LT days when the Cold War hadn't ended yet. My Battery had 7 innings of MOPP4 softball. It sure was a trip trying to hit the ball or even catch it then run in the boots and charcoal pants. Be sure it's slow pitch!

I remember back in 1998 when my career initially started there was a lot of talk about history. Sadly that has gone to the wayside in favor of all of the "don't commit X crime that you've been taught was bad for your entire life" annual training requirements..

In my experience most morale issues are caused by middle to lower management putting unneeded stress on tasks that are "emergencies". These are the leaders that should enable the commander by accomplishing tasks that assist the commander's intent. When these leaders fail to plan or coordinate more than a few days ahead it's an "emergency". It's possible your unit is experiencing so many "emergencies," your soldiers have no desire to be around the unit more than they have to. Make your middle and lower management suck up extra work on their own until they can resource their soldiers' time so there are little or no last minute no fail missions.