US Army Meets Recruiting Goal Early
The US Army has reached its 2006 recruiting goal a fews days ahead of schedule. 80,000 new recruits joined the service in the past year. A combination of new incentives and more aggressive recruiting are being credited with the success.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Army is ending its best recruiting year since 1997 and expecting similar success in 2007, despite the weight of grim war news from Iraq, Army Secretary Francis Harvey said Thursday.
In an Associated Press interview, Harvey said the Army will enlist its 80,000th soldier on Friday, reaching its goal for the year with eight days to spare. That is a considerable turnaround from last year when the Army missed its target for the first time since 1999 and by the widest margin in more than two decades.
At the start of this recruiting year, which began Oct. 1, 2005, many questioned whether the Army would reach 80,000, given the many alternative career options available to young people and the growing unpopularity of the Iraq war. But a package of new financial incentives, new recruiting approaches and a bigger recruiting corps did the trick.
Harvey said the Army would stick with the formula it used over the past 12 months, while adding a few new wrinkles for recruiters.
He described himself as “moderately optimistic'' about reaching the 80,000 goal again next year. It is too early to know the final number for the current recruiting year, which ends Sept. 30, but Harvey said it would be the highest in nine years. Last year the Army fell short of its goal by the widest margin since 1979.
Harvey was flying to New York to personally enlist on Friday the 80,000th recruit - Shirley Salvi, 23, a Rutgers University graduate who will report to Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., to become an Army linguist or intelligence analyst.
There are still people willing to serve this country despite the relentless negativity of an increasingly hostile media. That's good to know, isn't it?
Other Links to this Post
-
Blue Star Chronicles — September 24, 2006 @ 3:30 pm
By Kathy, September 23, 2006 @ 1:33 pm
There are still people willing to serve this country despite the relentless negativity of an increasingly hostile media. That’s good to know, isn’t it?
Interesting spin, Gaius, but you don’t provide any details about that “combination of new incentives and more aggressive recruiting.”
– Raising the sign-up bonus for new recruits to $40,000.
– Increasing the maximum sign-up age from 35 to 42.
– Allowing people with previously disqualifying criminal records to sign up.
– Accepting recruits who score at the low end on aptitude tests.
And although the Army does not officially permit it, some recruiters have encouraged potential recruits to cheat on drug tests and forge high school graduation records to qualify for admission to the Army.
Be fair, okay? You can say that these new recruits want to be in the military because they think they’re serving their country, but you could also say it’s more a matter of being *willing* to join the military despite their qualms because the “aggressive new recruiting techniques” are targeting marginally qualified people for whom the Army is an alternative to prison or working at the local car wash. if support for the war hadn’t plunged, army recruiters would not have to resort to such extreme measures to get people to sign up.
By Gaius, September 23, 2006 @ 1:46 pm
The same thing happens in every war, Kathy.