US military recruitment surges
WASHINGTON: The good news: military recruiters have surpassed their goals this year. The bad news: The economic downturn has a lot to do with it.
The US military met all its goals for the first time since creating an all-volunteer force in 1973, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
High unemployment, which just hit a 26-year-high of 9.8 percent, helped recruiting as well as a multi-billion dollar effort to attract volunteers to serve in uniform, officials said.
"We're pleased to report that, for the first time since the advent of the all-volunteer force, all of the military components, active and reserve, met their number as well as their quality goals," Bill Carr, Deputy Undersecretary for Defense for Military Personnel Policy, told reporters.
Carr also credited enlistment bonuses for the military's success, saying 40% of recruits received an average bonus of $14,000, up from $12,000 in 2008.
Carr said the services are drawing a better-educated group of young people. A 10 percent increase in the national unemployment rate generally translates into a four to six percent "improvement in high-quality Army enlistments."
He attributed the success in part to higher military pay, benefits and to money that the Defense Department spends on finding recruits.
This is significant as the military, especially the Army, had come under criticism in recent years for accepting recruits with criminal records or lower levels of education.
Another interesting factoid is that the South remains the premier recruiting region, part of a long-running trend, Carr said. "We find now, as we've found in years past, that the military is more likely to draw better from the South and less well from the Northeast," he said.
Significantly, waivers for misconduct for Army recruits were down 37 percent, Army Gen. Donald Campbell told the same news conference.
The recruiting success comes at a time when the military is stretched fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with some soldiers serving in four or five successive combat tours.
These wars are considered an unprecedented test of the military's resilience. Its ability to bring fresh recruits into the force is crucial not only to increasing the overall size of the Army and Marine Corps, but ensure that additional units are available to rotate into war zones. Some Army units sent overseas recently have been deployed at less than full strength.
A total of about 189,000 troops are currently stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and President Barack Obama considers sending another 40,000 US troops to Afghanistan next year.
Another significant motive, observers say, is that young men are more encouraged to enlist, now that the war in Iraq is taking far fewer American lives.
The Defense Department brought in 168,900 active-duty troops, or 103% of the goal for the fiscal year, officials said. It reached 104% of the goal for recruitment of National Guard and reserve forces.
WASHINGTON: The good news: military recruiters have surpassed their goals this year. The bad news: The economic downturn has a lot to do with it.
The US military met all its goals for the first time since creating an all-volunteer force in 1973, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
High unemployment, which just hit a 26-year-high of 9.8 percent, helped recruiting as well as a multi-billion dollar effort to attract volunteers to serve in uniform, officials said.
"We're pleased to report that, for the first time since the advent of the all-volunteer force, all of the military components, active and reserve, met their number as well as their quality goals," Bill Carr, Deputy Undersecretary for Defense for Military Personnel Policy, told reporters.
Carr also credited enlistment bonuses for the military's success, saying 40% of recruits received an average bonus of $14,000, up from $12,000 in 2008.
Carr said the services are drawing a better-educated group of young people. A 10 percent increase in the national unemployment rate generally translates into a four to six percent "improvement in high-quality Army enlistments."
He attributed the success in part to higher military pay, benefits and to money that the Defense Department spends on finding recruits.
This is significant as the military, especially the Army, had come under criticism in recent years for accepting recruits with criminal records or lower levels of education.
Another interesting factoid is that the South remains the premier recruiting region, part of a long-running trend, Carr said. "We find now, as we've found in years past, that the military is more likely to draw better from the South and less well from the Northeast," he said.
Significantly, waivers for misconduct for Army recruits were down 37 percent, Army Gen. Donald Campbell told the same news conference.
The recruiting success comes at a time when the military is stretched fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with some soldiers serving in four or five successive combat tours.
These wars are considered an unprecedented test of the military's resilience. Its ability to bring fresh recruits into the force is crucial not only to increasing the overall size of the Army and Marine Corps, but ensure that additional units are available to rotate into war zones. Some Army units sent overseas recently have been deployed at less than full strength.
A total of about 189,000 troops are currently stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and President Barack Obama considers sending another 40,000 US troops to Afghanistan next year.
Another significant motive, observers say, is that young men are more encouraged to enlist, now that the war in Iraq is taking far fewer American lives.
The Defense Department brought in 168,900 active-duty troops, or 103% of the goal for the fiscal year, officials said. It reached 104% of the goal for recruitment of National Guard and reserve forces.
