Posted on 03/03/2005 10:31:20 AM PST by Righty_McRight
WASHINGTON - In what could be a troubling sign for the military, the active-duty Army missed its February recruiting goal by more than 27%. It was the first time in almost five years that the Army has failed to meet a monthly target.
The Army signed up 5,114 recruits in February, 1,936 fewer than its goal of 7,050. The last time the Army missed a monthly target was in May 2000.
The February shortfall is especially worrisome because it comes as the Army is trying to lure recruits with the largest enlistment bonuses it has ever offered: up to $20,000 to some recruits willing to sign on for four years. The Pentagon (news - web sites) has also been adding thousands of recruiters for the Army and other branches.
Doug Smith, a spokesman for U.S. Army Recruiting Command at Fort Knox in Kentucky, attributed the shortfall in part to competition from the improving economy and parents' fears that their children could be injured or killed in Iraq (news - web sites). As of Wednesday, nearly 1,500 U.S. servicemembers had died in Iraq since the invasion in March 2003.
Smith also said the Army has used up many of its "delayed entry" recruits - people who agree to sign up, but whose enlistment is delayed until later for their convenience or the Army's. Last year, the Army rushed several thousand recruits in the delayed entry program into basic training to meet its 2004 recruiting target. Normally, those recruits would have been available this year to boost recruiting numbers.
"It's just going to be a rough year," Smith said.
The Marine Corps missed its monthly target in January for the first time in nearly 10 years, but it met its February goal.
David Segal, a military sociologist at the University of Maryland who monitors personnel trends, said the Army's February numbers reflect the extraordinary demands on the nation's ground forces and the uneasiness many Americans feel about the war in Iraq.
"We all knew this was coming if you looked at what is happening in the Army Guard and Army Reserve," Segal said, pointing to recruiting problems in those two part-time military forces. "The question was not whether it would happen to the Army, but when."
The active-duty Army needs to recruit 80,000 new soldiers this year - 3,000 more than last year - to replenish its ranks. Segal said he does not think the Army will achieve that goal.
Guard and reserve recruiting has lagged. Through January, four months into a recruiting year that runs from October 2004 through September 2005, the Army Guard was almost 24% behind its recruiting target. Figures were unavailable for February. The Army Reserve was about 10% below its recruiting target through February.
The Army National Guard and the Army Reserve are part-time forces made up of soldiers who train typically one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer in peacetime. That has changed dramatically, however. Guard and reserve troops now make up about 40% of the full-time U.S. troops in Iraq.
February's results are the first sign that recruiting problems plaguing the Guard and reserve are spreading to the active force.
Loren Thompson, a military analyst with the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va., said several Army generals told him last year that recruiting was likely to "fall off a cliff" in 2005. "I think this spells a major recruiting shortfall for the Army," he said.
We could just continue to send more and more jobs overseas, keep raising college tuitions, and then eventually, the only way someone could earn money, would be to enlist!!
The draft is one of those horrible ideas that just never seems to die -- people never get tired of talking about it, except in the Pentagon where's it's a completely dead issue.
How else do you get people, when they are not volunteering?
It's a good point. Those kids should know the opportunities have never been better than they are now.
I think the Army is missing its biggest draw. Simply say, "We need you. Your country needs you." I think it would fill the spots. Have commercials showing the documented bravery of our soldiers. Tell the truth, "We're at war, and we our killing those who mean us and our families harm. But we need volunteers to fight."
I thought I heard that re-enlistments were up so much that the drive for new recruits hasn't been very intense.
We have a steady stream of army recruits coming over our southern border. Lets start teaching them english and how to aim.
You meant raise the age restriction.
By Jon R. Anderson, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Wednesday, March 2, 2005
ARLINGTON, Va. — The Marine Corps is considering bumping up the maximum bonuses it offers its enlisted troops by $5,000, according to Marine Corps officials.
Under the Corps’ proposed plan, the max bonuses for Marines would go up to $35,000 for those in Zone A and $40,000 for those in Zone B and C, each up $5,000.
Zone A covers those Marines signing their first contract following their initial enlistment.
Zone B includes those with 6 to 10 years of active service, while Zone C covers Marines with 10 to 14 years of active service.
Know why I didn't join the Army? The recruiter. I wanted to have time to think the decision over (as it *is* kind of a big decision, and as a college senior it was hardly my only option), but I was getting calls from him every day, every other day, and eventually I got tired of the hard-sell stuff. Plus, the guy sent my b*llsh*t dectector spinning. It got so bad I could barely trust a word he said.
My grandfather, after coming home from WW2, served as a recruiter for a time, and he came to realize the recruiting system was completely out of whack. With the stress recruiters are under, it's no wonder they never make their quotas.
20 years is enough-
Weigh the opportunities in one hand. And then factor in the chances of getting blown up by an IED in your Humvee in the other. You can pretty much figure out why they are not breaking the doors down getting into the Army and Marine recruiters doors.
Maximum service is 30 years for enlisted and there are limits for how long you can stay depending on paygrade.
Most of the guys staying twenty years have kids in high school and have already moved families around ten times or more like gypsies. Sometimes they get to the point that they have weigh family stability versus staying for another hitch. It can be alot of stress on a family.
Some of these jobs are a young man's game too!
What I meant was if the manditory retirement age is at 65 and they accept up to age 45, a person could retire in 20 years at age 65, and have a pension. I know quite a few "geezers" (over age 35) who could run circles around most 18 year olds.
Then you do without. A nation not able to defend itself does not deserve to survive. No one offered me $20,000 to go out and enlist in the MArines. Although I no longer remember clearly I bet I earned less than $250 a month when I went off to Paris Island.
Further I'd rather face an enemy with 10,000 men who wanted to fight than a million that didn't. Go find a book about Guadalcanal. Those guys wanted to fight. They had no business winning... and they won.
There's nothing more dangerous than a proud, free man that won't be beaten.
I don't know. There are lots of kids with spirit and patriotism who want to get into the Army or Marines now. Yeah, the numbers are down a bit. But for this war, I'd rather have the highest quality, even if the numbers slip a bit.
That's too bad, it can be a good start for someone who doesn't want to go to college right away.
Maybe this is why I keep having the same bad dream that the Army tries to make me go back to active duty after being out of the Guard for 10 years. I was yelling, "but I'm 44 and I've got a bad back!".
These state organizations vary widely in quality and mission. For about 9 years, I got to serve in the state defense force that is probably the best in the country, by far, the Indiana Guard Reserve (IGR).
To see if your state has a organization (or to see if there's one in a nearby state) just click here for the State Guard Association.
I suspect that this is a trend (but hope not). September 11th started a fire then it cooled. The Iraq invasion got it going again but now that's cooled. The war is not looming large on too many teen-aged radar screens.
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