I happened to have heard a talk by a prominent DL educator in EY this weekend. He reported that 30 years ago, half of young people from Dati backgrounds were no longer religious after army service with the exception of those who went to the hesder yeshivot. Some DL leaders realized that this was not acceptable and they started to create special programs to prepare young Datim for army service. This was done without the support of the leading rabbis, but the DL community has never insisted on Daas Torah.
And it worked. Most Dati young people are still religious at the end of their army service. And may stay in the army and make it a career — to the point that some of the seculars are worrying about a religious takeover of the army!
Hopefully the Charedi leaders — and it will take the leaders to get involved — will see this example and follow it. And hopefully the IDF will create more units like Nachal Charedi that will be more comfortable for young people from religious backgrounds.
I also hope that the IDF and the Charedim will both pay more attention to the rulings of the IDF rabbis. There are in fact many kulot that people in the military need to use (similar to doctors), and if you are in the army you should follow the halachic authority of the army. The IDF rabbis are all Orthodox and some have been great talmidei chachamim. And the IDF should accept that if it is to win acceptance among charedim it has to stop forcing unnecessary halachic violations when there is no life or death situation (when of course halachic violations can become mitzvot).