By Joseph R. Chenelly
Times staff writer
The Army cut its active duty recruiting goal for May by 1,350 recruits but still missed it by 25 percent.
The Army has stated since last year, and as recently as April 25, that it aimed to ship 8.050 recruits to basic training in May. But, without any public announcement, the service lowered its goal to 6,700.
It shipped a little more than 5,000, according to Army officials.
Recruiters would have achieved less than 63 percent of its goal had it not been lowered. Nonetheless, the active Army has now missed its goals four consecutive months.
Lowering the Army-wide goal did not lower individual recruiters’ goals in May, according to Douglas Smith, a USAREC spokesman.
The Army is still shooting for an annual goal of shipping 80,000 men and women to basic training by the end of fiscal year 2005, Smith said. The fiscal year runs from Oct. 1, 2004, through Sept. 30.
The shortfall in May leaves the active duty short some 10,000 recruits of what it had been aiming for at this period.
While the Army has not formally released the recruiting statistics, letting the numbers out now is a surprise considering the Defense Department announced last week that it wouldn't’t authorize the release of the numbers for any of the services until June 10. Recruiting numbers for the Army Reserve and National Guard have not yet been made available.
http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-900996.php*********************
This story is from the Army Times. Looks like they expected low recruiting numbers for May and lowered their target and they still missed it by 25%. The numbers here mean their really off 37%...does any one else feel a DRAFT????
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