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Army Meets July Active Duty Goal
New monthly recruiting figures released by the Pentagon Wednesday show the Army exceeded its recruiting goal for active duty in July, but continued to fall short of its recruitment goal for the U.S. Army Reserve. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said figures being released Wednesday show that the Army Reserves met 82 percent of its 2,585 July goal by recruiting 2,131 volunteers for the Reserve. The National Guard recruited at 80 percent, or 4,712, of its 5,920 goal. Year to date, the Army is at 89 percent of its active duty recruiting goal of 80,000, Whitman said. The rest of the branches â Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force â also either met their recruitment goals for July or were very close. Those three branches, except the Air National Guard, are on track to meet their annual goals. The Pentagon continues to attribute the shortfall in the Reserves to a challenging recruitment environment triggered by a strong economy and concerns among parents that young people will be sent to Iraq. The Army, in particular, has offered a series of bonuses, incentives and enlistment options to help boost recruitment and retention.Hardly the recruiting "crisis" we hear about constantly on the Congressional floor. Recruiting numbers are down for the Reserves because so many units have been pulled up to active duty; people don't want to sign up for a part time job only to be forced into full-time. The key is that active duty recruiting is only minimally behind their goals, so that means there is still alot of war support IMO. Posted by: Chris W. 2005-08-11 |
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