| April 16, 2005: The U.S. Army, halfway through the current fiscal year, is short 3,973 new recruits (out of 80,000 it wants to attract for the year.) All of the shortfalls occurred in the last two months (February and March.) The army is authorized an active duty strength of 512,000. In the short term, it can overcome recruiting shortfalls with higher reenlistment bonuses (which induce more troops to stay in), and calling up more troops from the inactive reserves. The major cause of the recruiting shortfalls have been an improved economy, because the army basically competes with the civilian economy. That's been the pattern for the thirty years the all-volunteer force has been in operation. Anti-war activism and fear of serving in a wartime environment had had a much smaller impact on recruiting. This is because the anti-war activism has largely been directed at schools and communities that traditionally do not contribute many recruits. The fear of injury in wartime is greatly diminished by the fact that casualties in the current war are much lower than in previous wars. For young men inclined to join up for combat jobs, that has proved to be something of a come on. Your chances of getting killed or injured in Iraq are on a par with those encountered in many of the extreme sports that are growing in popularity. Moreover, many recruits for combat jobs are driven by patriotism. In fact, it is the non-combat jobs that recruiters are having a harder time filling. |