WASHINGTON - Re-enlistments for the Army in fiscal 2005 were the highest
they've been in five years, nearly enough to make up for a shortfall of
about 7,000 new recruits last year, Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey said
Wednesday.
More than 69,500 soldiers re-enlisted in the 12 months ending in
September, Harvey said. But last year also was the Army's worst for
recruiting since 1999, the last time it failed to meet its annual goal. A
study produced for the service in 2004 indicated that a high chance of
being sent to Iraq or Afghanistan was keeping many young people away who
might have signed up.
Harvey said he believed new recruiting and referral bonuses and other
perks will help. "We've now made our recruiting objectives for the
last seven months, and the future looks promising," he
said.
New measures signed into law earlier this month include a $40,000
enlistment bonus, a $1,000 referral fee for soldiers who encourage new
recruits to join, and down payment assistance for soldiers who are
first-time home buyers.
The Army has already recruited 25 percent more new troops this year than
at the same point in fiscal 2005, Harvey said.
The recruiting shortfall in 2005 is one of several factors that have
caused some analysts and retired military officials to worry that the
Army may again be "broken," a reference to the late 1970s
post-Vietnam era when the service experienced an exodus of seasoned
enlisted men and officers and was chronically short of recruits and new
equipment. The critics worry that the Army may be about to repeat that
experience partly because of the strains produced by the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
Harvey said re-enlistment by troops in Iraq "was the best
measure" of the Army's health. For example, he said, the 3rd
Infantry Division, now in Iraq, recently exceeded its re-enlistment goal
by 36 percent.
"Morale is high. The soldiers in theater know they're making a
difference, and the soldiers in theater are proud to be part of this
effort," he said.
David Segal, director of the Center for Research on Military
Organization, said many young soldiers joined the Army after the Sept.
11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and many re-enlist because "they want
to stay until the job is done."
Another reason to re-enlist, Segal said, is the bonus, which is tax-free
for troops in the war zone.
New recruits also will be attracted by today's record enlistment bonuses
and other perks, but at a cost, he said.
"In a sense, they're mortgaging the future," he said. "We
now have the largest deficit we've had in our history. A lot of money
like bonuses doesn't get paid out right away, and soldiers get it when
they finish their term of enlistment. So, down the road, it's all going
to come out of the federal treasury."
"We've gone back to the era when the choice was between guns and
butter, and we're trying to have both," he said.
The Army needs to sign up about 80,000 new recruits each year to maintain
its current strength of 492,000 active-duty personnel. Last year, the
service fell short of that goal by roughly 6,600 new troops, according to
the Congressional Budget Office.
To stay on track for this year, the Army needed to sign up 11,000
recruits by mid-January, but recruiters had already signed up 11,522 new
troops by the end of December, said S. Douglas Smith, a spokesman for
Army Recruiting Command.
Last year the Army doubled the number of its recruiters and began to
offer $5,000 to everyone who joined. It also offered a new 15-month
enlistment, compared to the standard three to four years.
In September, the Army announced it would allow more high school dropouts
and those who scored badly on aptitude tests to join. In October, the
Army revealed that 12 percent of the recruits signed up that month were
Category 4, the group whose test scores are the lowest the Army will
accept.
Smith said enlistment criteria call for at least 90 percent of all new
recruits to be high school graduates, and no more than 4 percent of
recruits in 2006 would be Category 4.
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© 2006, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services. |
