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US Army ends hard recruiting year, woes persist
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-10-01 17:02
WASHINGTON - The US Army, hard pressed to lure new soldiers amid wariness
about war in Iraq, ended on Friday one of its toughest recruiting years since
the birth of the all-volunteer U.S. military in 1973, and officials said the
next year looked difficult too. Reuters reported.
The Army did not
release official figures for the 2005 fiscal year, which ended on Friday, but
officials said they fell about 7,000 recruits short of the annual goal of 80,000
new soldiers. Army officials previously acknowledged they would miss the
target.
That marked the first time the Army had missed its recruiting goal since
falling short in 1998 and 1999, but this year's shortfall was by a wider margin
than in those years.
In fact, it was the biggest numerical shortfall since 1979, when the Army
fell just over 17,000 short of its goal of 159,200 recruits, according to data
provided by the U.S. Army Recruiting Command.
The roughly 73,000 recruits in fiscal 2005 also fell about 4,000 short of the
number the Army attracted in fiscal 2004.
The situation was even worse in the Army's reserve component, with the
National Guard, made up of part-time soldiers under the command of state
governors, and the Army Reserve, made up of part-time federal troops, falling
short of their annual goals.
Julia Bobick, an Army Recruiting Command spokeswoman, said the Army is
entering fiscal 2006 with positive momentum, having achieved its monthly
recruiting goals in every month since June after a very difficult spring.
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