Army expects to meet recruiting goal

WASHINGTON -- The Army will meet its goal of recruiting 80,000 new active-duty soldiers this fiscal year but will fall short in the percentage of high school graduates as the education level of enlistees dips below the norm of the past decade, according to senior Pentagon officials.

The Army's apparent success in meeting the military's biggest recruiting mission marks a significant rebound from last year, when the Iraq war, low unemployment, and a shortage of recruiters contributed to the service's failure to make its active-duty target for the first time since 1999.

Pentagon officials attributed the gains primarily to a beefed-up active-duty recruiting force, which grew from 5,100 at the beginning of 2005 to 6,600 this year.

``The most fundamental reason for success was the increase in recruiters in the field," said Curtis L. Gilroy, director of accession policy at the Pentagon.

In addition, Congress authorized a doubling of the maximum enlistment bonus from $20,000 to $40,000. Congress also instituted special recruiting incentives, such as extra pay of up to $500 a month for recruiters who exceed their goals and a $1,000 bonus for soldiers for each person they refer to recruiters who completes boot camp.

The influx of new soldiers bodes well for the all-volunteer military engaged in its first sustained combat, boosting the Army's active-duty manpower by roughly 10,000 troops at a time when the nation's main ground force is bearing the brunt of the fighting and casualties in Iraq.

By the end of August, the Army had recruited nearly 73,000 soldiers -- or 104 percent of the fiscal year-to-date goal for active duty -- chalking up an unusually high summer target of more than 10,000 recruits a month.