The U.S. Army's 2008 recruiting year started off strong over the past four months. As of Dec. 28, 2007, the U.S. Army recruited 10,136 Soldiers for the Active Army and 6,514 Soldiers for the Army Reserve. (Active Army recruiting goal for Fiscal Year 2008 is 80,000 Soldiers and 26,500 for the U.S. Army Reserve.) The great news story is that more than 107,000 young men and women chose to enlist in the Army and Army Reserve in Fiscal Year 2007, during a protracted conflict. The young Americans who enlist from all areas and incomes across this nation know and understand they are joining a warrior culture and willingly accept the inherent risks of national military service. A strong belief in the value of selfless service is what keeps people enlisting and re-enlisting in the Army. Enlistment education quality remains high: last year more than 3,200 new recruits enlisted with their Bachelor's degrees, 250 recruits had their Master's degrees and 20 enlisted after having earned their Doctoral degrees.

Our numbers don't match the National Priorities Project's findings. Their recent report says the number of high school graduates among new Army recruits fell from 83.5 percent in 2005 to 70.7 percent last year. For Fiscal Year 2007, in fact 79 percent of regular Army recruits had a high school diploma and in Fiscal Year 2005 87 percent of regular Army recruits had a high school diploma. (The U.S. Army Recruiting Command shows 81.2 percent of regular Army recruits had a high school diploma in Fiscal Year 2006.)

Keen web researchers will recall the U.S. Army and Defense Department already discussed the Fiscal Year 2007 number of recruits with school diplomas last Oct. 10. See transcript at the following DoD web site: <link>

During that Pentagon press conference, Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness David S.C. Chu said Oct. 10, 2007: "I want to speak to those quality standards very briefly. We set three key quality standards in the Department of Defense and have since the mid-1990s. These standards come out of 30-plus years of experience with what works in the volunteer force. We aim to have 90 percent of the new enlistees -- meaning those without prior service, the new enlistees in the Department of Defense -- have a high school diploma as a measure of whether they will succeed in our enterprise. We aim to have 60 percent or more score above average on the Armed Forces Qualification Test, the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery. That's our version of the SAT, you might say. And we aim to have less than 4 percent score in Mental Category IV -- that's between the 10th and the 30th percentile -- on that same examination. In other words, we aim for the military to draw an above-average slice of America into its enlisted ranks, that's setting aside the officers, for whom we set even higher standards and who comprise about one-eighth of our total strength. And we made those standards in all force areas, with one exception. The Army, the active Army, did not meet the high school diploma standard. It recruited, in terms of non-prior service enlistees, 79 percent with high school diplomas. That's approximately the national average, and obviously we'd like to do just a bit better. But we're proud of the record overall. And it means the department as a whole met that record."

Retention of these Soldiers also exceeds all expectations, particularly when you consider the volunteer Army and our Nation face a historic challenge during this six-year period of protracted war. Last Fiscal Year, 2007, the active U.S. Army exceeded its retention goals with 112 percent of projected numbers raising their hands to stay with their units; with 119 percent of expected numbers for Reserve Soldiers re-enlisting and 100 percent of desired goal for the National Guard Soldiers proudly staying with their fellow Soldiers.

Public support for our Soldiers remains strong across this proud nation. More Americans should consider stepping forward to answer this call to duty and serve, and support a youth's decision to join our Army. To find out more, visit http://www.goarmy.com//

Thank you.

Did you just post a recruiting pitch on the Fray?

If I understand internet vernacular correctly, I believe a response of ROFLMAO is in order.

Hmmmm. Just for the record, is this post an official product of the Office of the Chief of Public Affairs of the U.S. Army?

I don't know if that would give the post more or less credibility.

One thing that is ignored by this post (which appears to be a 'cut and paste' of an Army flak sheet) is the rapidly escalating cost of trying to maintain standards for recruitment/retention. The costs of recruiting (measured as dollars per recruit) have reportedly been rising rapidly. Pay raises, bonuses, "quality of life" enhancements, etc. are driving military budgetary projections through the roof. The military is "maintaining standards" the way government often does --- it is throwing money at the problem. In the long run, however, it is ballooning manpower costs.

And that doesn't count the "smoke and mirrors" of shifting missions off to contractors. The military has to recruit even less people -- but the total budget still jumps. Could the military meet its recruiting goals if it had to come up with another 100,000 soldiers? Probably not, but as long as the military doles out cost+ contracts paying civilians big money to do jobs that a few years ago were done by soldiers, there will be less pressure on recruiting. A lot more pressure on the taxpayer, however.

At the current rate, "An Army of One" may be all we can afford in the all too near future.

Nice reply but did you get General Patreaus' approval on this before you posted it or do you outrank him?

Personally I think we need to reinstate the draft because I don't trust an all volunteer Army to remain loyal to the Constitution versus some Cult of Personality President or General. I'd prefer a majority presence of soldiers who intend to perform their service honorably and return to civilian life to level the power-playing field, so to speak.

Sound paranoid? Take a look around the world and study history if you think I'm paranoid.

If you cherry pick the facts and present them in some twisted fashion.

But sophistic arguments does not make for reality, you know, that thing that has a well known liberal bias.

More Kool-Aid anyone?

Who is Paul Boyce?

hooahh