Army Recruiting Continues To Lag

Service Falls About 25 Percent Short Of May Target

(AP) 
In other words, they would have to far exceed their official targets, which range from 5,650 to 9,250 a month.

With the summer recruiting season in mind, the Army has added hundreds of extra recruiters, raised the enlistment bonus for four-year commitments to $20,000, and targeted more advertising at parents. Hilferty says the extra recruiters are being counted on to produce big results between now and September.

"They're better now than they were last month," he said. "Experience counts."

Goure said the prospect of reaching 80,000 is grim.

"I don't see them making it," he said.

If the slump ended next year the impact might not be great. But if it continues, as many expect, the consequences could be large.

The problem, if it lasts, would be particularly acute for the Army because it is in the midst of a major expansion of its ranks — from about 482,000 soldiers in the active force to 512,000 — in order to complete a top-to-bottom redesign of its 10 combat divisions. That redesign is central to the Army's "transformation" plan to become more agile and mobile — and to have more units available for duty in Iraq.

The Marine Corps also has missed monthly recruiting targets lately, but only by small margins. The Air Force and the Navy, in contrast, are easily meeting their goals, in part because they play much smaller and less publicized roles in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Navy is actually trying to shed thousands from its ranks.

Beyond the statistical comparisons, the military as a whole may be entering a period in which new approaches are needed to fill its ranks.

Charles Moskos, a sociology professor and expert on military personnel issues at Northwestern University, has said the Army's recruiting woes are likely to persist until the children of upper-class America begin to enlist more readily. He also sees a possibility of the services relying more on non-Americans to sign up.

Moskos said in an interview Wednesday that of the 750 males in his graduating class at Princeton University in 1956, more than 400 went on to serve in the military. Of the 1,100 males and females in last year's Princeton class, eight joined.

"That's the difference," he said.