Don't be fooled into thinking all these are new recruits. My son serves in the US Army, and he re-enlists every 18-24 months for 4-6 years at a time. With each "re-enlistment", the remaining time on his contract is "forgiven" and the new contract takes its place. He is planning to put in 20 years anyway.

Every reinlistment gets him a little bonus and choice of bases, and the Army gets to boost their enlistment statistics.

Your son falls into the statistics relative to "retention", not recruitment. And, why does he re-enlist every 18-24 months for 4-6 years? It makes no sense to me....unless he is eligible for re-enlistment bonuses and they have continued to rise.