Tux of Borg Posted June 9, 2005 Share Posted June 9, 2005 http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/08/politics/08recruit.html? The army's goal is to enlist 80,000 new recruits by Sept 30. Right now they have about 39,000 to go. I'm not surprised that they're coming up short. However, putting 1,000 more recruiters on the street isn't going to change things. Even after reducing its recruiting target for May, the Army missed it by about 25 percent, Army officials said on Tuesday. The shortfall would have been even bigger had the Army stuck to its original goal for the month. So after lowering the bar and moving the goalposts to about the 20 yard line, Recruiting Command still managed to miss the goal. This sucks. On Friday, the Army is expected to announce that it met only 75 percent of its recruiting goal for May, the fourth consecutive monthly shortfall in the number of new recruits sent to basic training. Just over 5,000 new recruits entered boot camp in May. But the news could have appeared worse. Early last month, the Army, with no public notice, lowered its long-stated May goal to 6,700 recruits from 8,050. Compared with the original target, the Army achieved only 62.6 percent of its goal for the month. Army officials defended the shift on Tuesday, saying it was not uncommon to change monthly goals at midyear. They said that the latest change reflected the reality that the Army was not going to meet its May goal, and that it made more sense to shift some of that quota to the summer months, traditionally a better season for recruiters to attract new high school graduates. "We typically reallocate monthly goals during the course of the year," said Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, an Army spokesman, who said that the Army still expected to meet its overall annual goal of shipping 80,000 new recruits to boot camp. "The summer is relatively easier for recruiting." [...] The Army has tried to reverse the trend by adding 1,000 recruiters since last September, starting a new advertising campaign, offering selected enlistment bonuses of more than $20,000 and pairing returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan with recruiters to attract soldiers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alaska Darin Posted June 9, 2005 Share Posted June 9, 2005 The Army needs to take a LONG look at itself and figure some things out. None of the Espirit de Corp of the Marines coupled with a terrible record of taking care of its people. The service needs an enema. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoachChuckDickerson Posted June 9, 2005 Share Posted June 9, 2005 http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/08/politics/08recruit.html? But the news could have appeared worse. Early last month, the Army, with no public notice, lowered its long-stated May goal to 6,700 recruits from 8,050. Compared with the original target, the Army achieved only 62.6 percent of its goal for the month. Are they referring to this as the "No Recuit Left Behind" policy yet? Sounds awful familiar..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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