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| Army meets recruiting goal for 7th mo in a row; year will be hard |
| 2006-01-11 |
| Army Meets Recruiting Goal Associated Press | January 11, 2006 WASHINGTON - The Army exceeded its monthly recruiting goal in December but must still pick up the pace to meet its target of 80,000 for the budget year ending Sept. 30. December was the seventh consecutive month that the Army met its goal. Army officials have said they expect this to be an extremely difficult year for recruiting, in part because of the Iraq war. Last year, the service fell 6,600 troops short of its goal of 80,000. So far, in the first three months of this budget year, the Army has recruited just 11,500 soldiers and will need to do better in coming months to meet the target for the year. Part of the problem with the first quarter is that the December goal is just a fraction of the other monthly targets. It only required the Army to recruit 700 soldiers last month, compared to the November target of 5,600. According to Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, the December goal is low because no recruits are sent to basic training during that month. So only soldiers who have previously served in the Army - and don't have to go to boot camp - are recruited in December. A year ago, the goal for December was just 400. The Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps also exceeded their monthly recruiting goals - which were all two to three times the Army's number. All four military services also met or exceeded their reenlistment goals for the month. According to the Pentagon, the Army recruited 741 soldiers in December, 6 percent more than its goal. The Navy recruited 2,022, just 1 percent more than its goal; the Air Force recruited 2,209, also 1 percent more than its goal; and the Marine Corps recruited 1,717, 6 percent more than its goal. Four of the military reserves met or exceeded their recruitment goals. The Navy Reserve and the Air National Guard have been routinely falling short of their targets in recent months. |
| Posted by:lotp |
| #2 There are the kids coming up, too. I know of one high school girl signed up for Marine ROTC, a lad officering in Junior ROTC, and young man down the street who is at Annapolis. All three are committed to future service in the military, yet would not be counted as recruits now. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-01-11 17:54 |
| #1 Just remember in FY 2004 the Army was authorized 482,000 personnel [less activated Reserve and NG]. FY 2005 the authorization was increased by 20,000 to 502,000. They finished FY 2005 with 492,000. Less than authorized in FY 2005, but 10,000 more than they had in FY 2004. To handle 20,000 more probably would have required a significant increase in the training base which would have drawn more personnel out of operations and other support only to be ramped back down again after meeting the new level jerking everyone around. By spreading the increase over a couple of years, they avoid doing that. The senior leadership also is shy of increasing the active base dramatically because they know that the pols will only cut their authorizations as soon as things start to stabilize again [nothing has changed in that behavior in two hundred years]. Goal numbers shift all during the year, depending on both the enlistments from the prior months and the number of reenlistments from the active force. Its a zero sum game. Remember there is an authorization ceiling. More reenlistments means that fewer enlistments are needed. If there is good solid reenlistments with the trained force, the number required for enlistment will be lowered. If previous enlistment goals are short, the following enlistment goals will be raised and less likely of being attained. The number to watch is year end strength. In this case relative to the 492,000 the Army ended FY 2005 with. |
| Posted by: Speretle Thitle4440 2006-01-11 12:49 |