Military meets most recruiting goals in August

While the Army National Guard and Air National Guard failed to meet their recruiting goals in August, the regular services managed to pull it off after failures earlier in the year.
Of course, it took a $20,000 bonus to do this. One wonders if these recruits are motivated by Bush's rhetoric or by the desire to get their families out debt or pay medical bills.

Either way, the recruiter's task is getting tougher. The numbers for both mothers and fathers encouraging their children to go into the military is sharply declining, and young people themselves decreasingly see a future in the military.

Even with the new bribe programme, the Army surpassed its goals by only 528 recruits. The Marines got only 372 more than the goal. The Navy and Air Force just squeaked by with their target numbers.

We simply are not seeing large numbers lining up for the Decider's vision. With some elements of the Reserves missing their goals, it would seem that those already in are opting out of further devotion to Bush's endless war strategy.

full story from Washington Post

The Army had been regularly meeting its monthly recruiting goals until the service missed its active-duty targets in May and June, prompting new initiatives aimed at boosting Army enlistments amid one of the most difficult recruiting environments in the history of the all-volunteer Army. Because the Army has stringent qualification standards and must compete in the open market for soldiers, the effort encounters difficulties during good economic times and during protracted wars, when potential recruits realize they could be deployed to a fight.
Particularly troubling to the Army is the declining perceptions of the "influencers" -- such as parents, coaches and teachers -- who are increasingly discouraging young people from joining the military as a career. Bostick said the willingness of mothers to send their children to the Army has dropped from 40 percent in March 2004 to 25 percent now, according to Army data, while the willingness of fathers has dropped from 50 percent to 33 percent over the same period.
The Army continues to try to reach influencers while also making aggressive efforts to reach out to young people directly. Bostick said he considers the Army not just an all-volunteer Army but nearly an all-recruited Army.
"Not many folks are just walking into the recruiting station saying this is what they want to do," Bostick said. Later, he added: "This is not just a challenge for the Army; it's a challenge for the nation."
Also worrisome for the Army is the dropping desire of young adults to serve in the military. Bostick said that 20 years ago, approximately 25 percent of people ages 17 to 24 showed a desire to serve in the military, a figure that has dropped to 15.7 percent today.

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Army's Recruiting Goal Lags For Second Month in a Row

By Josh White

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, July 10, 2007; Page A07

The U.S. Army fell short of its active-duty recruiting goal for June by about 15 percent, defense officials said yesterday. It is the second consecutive month the service's enlistment effort has faltered amid the American public's growing discontent over the war in Iraq.

Army officials confirmed yesterday that the service missed its June target -- the first time its recruiters have missed their monthly mark twice in a row since they were hit hard in 2005 -- but declined to discuss specific numbers before a scheduled release today. Three defense officials said the Army fell short by about 1,400 soldiers, well shy of its goal of 8,400 for June.

Because recruiters consistently exceeded their targets throughout the first half of fiscal 2007, the Army still remains above its year-to-date goal by about 700 recruits.

July, August and September are traditionally the best months for military recruiters, and this year the Army hopes to take in more than a third of its expected 80,000 new recruits in that period. According to Army recruiting statistics, the service aims for 28,850 new soldiers between now and the end of the fiscal year in September -- an average of more than 9,600 each month.

"To date, we're still ahead for the year," said Col. Dan Baggio, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon. "Obviously, we're concerned, but we're not panicking. We are ahead for the year, and we're just going to have to work hard to make our numbers."

The Army has met its recruiting numbers in the past two years by mobilizing a larger force of recruiters, offering higher incentives to join and broadening its potential pool by offering waivers -- for physical conditions and violating the law -- to people who normally would not qualify.

Mirroring concerns in 2005, when the Army fell thousands short of its monthly goals during much of the year, defense officials said that a good economy and lack of encouragement for military service from parents, coaches and other "influencers" have caused the recruiting slump. The Iraq war's sharp decline in popularity has also made recruiting far more difficult, as many recruits almost certainly will deploy to the battlefield.

"If you don't think that's affecting the influencers, then you have your head under a rock," said one Pentagon official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the June numbers have not yet been released.

Pentagon officials acknowledge that the coming months will be challenging because the potential recruit market is difficult and they did not anticipate the Army's total slipping as much as it did in June.

Service officials, however, are encouraged by steady retention rates in the active-duty Army and the Army Reserve and point to successes earlier in the year as evidence that the numbers can recover this summer. The Army recruited 9,309 new soldiers in January, nearly 1,000 more than its goal.

Edwin Dorn, a former undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness who is now with the University of Texas, said the Army has always had more trouble recruiting than other services, and he noted that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan make it far harder.

"To me, the big surprise is that Army recruiting has remained as healthy as it has been, given the growing unpopularity of the Iraq war," Dorn said. "The mystery is not why they are falling short; to me, it's how they have succeeded as well."

Staff writer Ann Scot

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From the 7 p.m. ET hour of the July 30 edition of CNN's The Situation Room:

WOLF BLITZER (host): The U.S. Army is stretched thin and facing new recruiting problems, but it may have come up with a solution. Let's go to our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr -- Barbara.

STARR: Wolf, the Army's been having trouble signing up new recruits. So, it's got a new idea: a $20,000 bonus if you sign up and you agree to ship out for training within 30 days. It applies not to just new recruits, but soldiers who may have gotten out of the Army and want to come back in.

The Army's been trying this out at some recruiting stations in Ohio. It's worked so well that within the next few days, they're going to announce that the program has gone nationwide. And being the military, they have a name for it all. That $20,000 bonus, it's called the "quick shipper" bonus. Thirty days to training, and then most likely on to Iraq or Afghanistan -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Barbara Starr, reporting for us from the Pentagon. Thank you, Barbara.