By the Numbers
November 27th, 2005 - 9:55 pm
Global Security reports that October recruitment numbers look pretty good:
They also note that all services exceeded their retention goals for last month.
Things look almost as good in the Reserves, with the curious exception of the Air National Guard:
I know this data won’t get the same screaming headlines as “Army Fails to Meet Goals,” over a story that admits – in the last graf – that the Army never hits its recruitment goals in the month of August or whatever. And that’s why you read blogs.
Given the way the Democrats ran down service in the Air National Guard during the last election, is it really surprising their recruitment numbers are down?
Military recruiting goals
All except one. Do you think the bashing of the Air National Guard last year might have something to do with the low recruitment numbers?
the NG is broken. The system works very poorly. The NG is losing a fair number of people to active duty and the Reserves.
No no NO!!!! America is evil, and the young men and women of this country don’t want to serve under a terrorist named George W Bush.
In short, this wont be mentioned by our fine MSM.
Amazing to see how popular the Army has become under Bush, totally unlike what it was when I was a doggie in Truman’s miserable Army.
Could be aviation units have a higher deployment tempo than ground units – but I think the whole green machine is spending more time abroad than at home.
And the Military Recruiting Goals are…
You could grow old waiting for the WaPo to mention these numbers unless it finds a datum that it can make sound Controversial (perhaps there will be too many Hispanics or not enough left-handed people or something).
Another black-eye for the whiners and quitters at dem HQ
It’s the economy. Worst since the Hoover administration.
What’s odd about the Air NG numbers is one would expect them to be hit hardest when airlines are doing well and hiring. This is obviously not the case now.
Recruitment is nice, but I keep a sharper eye on retention – once we got ‘em trained and experienced, I wanna keep ‘em. And so we have. My unit is chock full of us Afghan vets, plenty of Iraq vets and a nice sprinkling of Gulf War I guys and gals. We’re fairly tough and experienced – I just hope we can keep that edge for a while.
We have a company of ARNG troops who just returned to US soil after a year in Iraq. Our CG met them at the airfield and several soldiers asked him how quickly they could join our Brigade Combat Team that is currently mobilized and preparing to deploy to Iraq. Don’t look for that story to make it to the front page of any major newspaper.
We’ve deployed soldiers to Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan in the last three years with many of the officers and NCOs deployed for the second time. We’ve deployed over 100% of our division end strength and we exceeded our recruiting and retention numbers for FY05. Those statistics probably won’t make the news either.
Charlie Mike!
“It’s the economy. Worst since the Hoover administration”
Nonsense.
LIES! LIES! The youth of America are rejecting the Chimpy McHitlerburton Zionist Imperialists! Recruiting is falling! White Phosphorous is a Chemical Weapon! Reorters are being targeted! Rove leaked Plame! Plastic trash bags are the moral equivalent of rape rooms! Iraq is just like Viet Nam which was just like Somalia and we cannot win we have to pull out immediately! We supporting our murdering, raping psychotic troops! Now! Now!
The poll numbers said what?
My experience is that it’s much better to be a Marine in a time of war than during peace. I dont know what the corps does now during peacetime – when so few people smoke there’s not many butts to police. I guess there are still plenty of rocks to paint.
You have to remember that the Army doesn’t want bad headlines regarding recruitment either, so they often lower their goals to make it look like everything is good. A better stat would be the historic recruitment goals over the last couple years.
But I always like to see something positive — thanks.
“It’s the economy. Worst since the Hoover administration”
Nonsense.
I have to hope that Paul was making a funny. That, or he caught his skull in the drill press.
Last year’s numbers are available here:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2005/10/mil-051011-dod01.htm
They run fiscal years starting october so it’s october to september for yearly figures. Essentially, the big message is that we’re doing ok. We’re slipping a little on recruitment but seem to be making it up on retention.
That’s not bad for an all volunteer force during a war where the media isn’t exactly cheerleading the home team.
“I have to hope that Paul was making a funny.”
I’ve seen Paul around at other sites and my guess would be that he was “making a funny.” BTW, I thought it was hilarious.