The Real Reason the U.S. Army’s Recruiting Numbers Are Surging

National Security Journal ^ | 10/17/2025 | Robert Farley

[whyilovetexas111]

The Army designed the Future Soldier Preparatory Course (FSPC) to close two gaps. The first is between the number of soldiers the Army wants and the number it has been able to recruit in recent years.

The second gap was between the aspirations of men and women who wanted to join the Army and the basic physical, intellectual, and legal standards the Army requires of new recruits.

Based in Fort Jackson, South Carolina, the FSPC puts would-be recruits through what amounts to preparatory basic training, designed to generate physical fitness (usually measured in terms of weight, waistline, and basic exercise proficiencies) and improve test scores.

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TOPICS: Government; History; Military/Veterans; Politics
KEYWORDS: defense; military; usarmy; war; whyiloveblogpimps111

[whyilovetexas111]

GO ARMY!

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

BEAT NAVY!

Ok, it is still a bit early in the year for it but it just fit.

[RightOnTheBorder]

Ohhhhh, so it wasn’t that they worried about being sent to die in some s-hole by a man in a dress, all for the Big Guy’s 10%. The massive recruitment surge under Trump has nothing to do with Trump’s leadership, you see, it’s just the aspiring soldiers needed a job corps program.

[enumerated]

Here’s my answer since I didn’t find one in the article:

A Commander In Chief who puts America First.

[PROCON]

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has argued that an end to “wokeness” and a wave of patriotism spurred by the election of President Trump to a second term is driving recruiting success in the US armed forces.

My neighbor's son-in-law is an E-7 Army recruiter and he concurs.

Also having one set of physical standards for both sexes and phasing females out of the combat arms is another overall morale booster for recruitment. (Hell, being in the field artillery was hard enough on ME!)

[Night Hides Not]

About this time 49 years ago, I was at Jump School at Fort Benning. There were a few women in my class, and they were treated very differently. While the Black Hats (instructors) were dropping butterbars like me 50+ times a day, the women were treated with kid gloves.

Didn’t bother me, it was part of the game. I was in the best shape of my life when I pinned those wings on. I’m just saying there were different standards there.

[TheThirdRuffian]

Loading M107/795s all day for days in Afghanistan/Iraq made me miss bailing hay.

Very happy to moved on to rockets.

[Does so]

Recruitment for ICE also surging...

[T-Bird45]

This journal article appears to conflate two entirely different programs. The Army plainly states the current program is more about addressing physical fitness issues with the additional layer of overcoming woefully inadequate educational achievement by the schools being more concerned with other things like sex/gender, etc. Project 100000 was strictly focused on producing cannon-fodder from the mentally challenged IQ levels.

In the 1970s, some Army recruiters were “coaching” the mentally-unqualified on how to make it past the ASVAB so they could make their numbers. I ended up with one of these cases in my unit. I felt sad for the guy for being used that way and being put out of the service. I wonder to this day how things turned out for him.

[jagusafr]

the physical, legal, and intellectual standards used for a recruiting baseline excluded some three-quarters of eligible young Americans.

So it didn’t include eligible young Americans, they were ineligible because they didn’t meet the standards.

[piasa]

Nobody was worried about being sent to the in any sh##ole, anywhere, not even under Biden.

There wasn’t even the barest hint of any draft, nor any indication that Biden was willing to use military forces to accomplish anything except perhaps to develop a tranny pom-pom squad.

Not sure where you even came up with the idea that anyone was afraid of actually having to fight anywhere under Biden, unless you have been reading nonsense from that twit Justin Raimondo.

Americans will willingly fight anywhere and any time under the right leadership, leaders that aren’t afraid to fight without UN consent, and who will actually allow the troops to fight without their hands tied.

Our problem is that our leaders are usually jellyfish.

[BlueLancer]

Ha-ha ... with Navy at 4-0 and Army at 1-3, Army better get their ducks in a row quickly to even dare to show their faces on the field. And, yes, I know that you can throw away the win/loss comparison for the Army/Navy Game ... it's in a league of its own when it come to the Game Day.

[HIDEK6]

Baling hay.

[RightOnTheBorder]

Nobody was worried about being sent to the in any sh##ole, anywhere, not even under Biden.

Apparently you were not concerned but I wouldn’t bet my kid’s life on it, especially given how badly Ukraine was being handled. It is perfectly logical that young men, and their parents, would see Biden as a feckless leader willing to throw lives away for personal or party gain.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Got to support my home team. :)