"Military meets recruiting goals...first time since the end of the draft more than 25 years ago"

[ProSense]

Military meets recruiting goals

from NBC's Courtney Kube

For the first time since the end of the draft more than 25 years ago, the U.S. military met its yearly recruiting and retention goals, as well as their overall quality goals. All four services met or exceeded their recruiting goals for Fiscal Year 09.

The Army exceeded its goal of 65,000 recruits joining, reaching 70,045 accessions--a retention level of 108%. The Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force also slightly exceeded their recruiting goals, each equaling about a 100% retention.

[Engineer4Obama]

1. Hate to suggest this

but its possible that the economic situation had something to do with this.

[LiberalFighter]

4. It definitely had something to do with.

I know of at least one person who tried and tried looking for a civilian job but wasn't much out there. He ended up joining the military.

[ProSense]

5. Possibly, but there is also this:

yearly recruiting and retention goals, as well as their overall quality goals

And they didn't make the goal last year.

[Lars39]

6. Economic draft. :^(

[ThomCat]

11. Yes, the longer their are no jobs, the more young people are FORCED

to enlist to find jobs, job training and health care benefits. :(

An Economic Draft is exactly what this is.

[girl gone mad]

14. One of my neighbors joined the Air Force..

because he couldn't find work. He had been keeping me updated on his job search over the months.

[SharonAnn]

15. I know the economy contributed to this. Our granddaughter's fiance joined

the army after more than a year of trying to find a decent job.

He's a graduate of a 2 year technical college, excellent grades, terrific mechanical skills. No jobs at more than close to minimum wage.

[Captain Hilts]

16. There is an economic draft and the number of folks the USN and AF take in has been cut dramatically

so folks have to join the Army or Marines.

[Blue_Tires]

22. i know a relative who is giving it serious thought

he's a roofer and a painter and does other house repair, but business for him has disappeared overnight...he's about 30 years old and he has a wife with three small kids, and he's thinking about waltzing into a hail of bullets and roadside bombs so his family can eat and get benefits...

[Mojambo]

2. A job with healthcare is desirable. n/t

[Oregone]

3. More fodder can never be a bad thing...

unless you are the fodder.

[lunatica]

7. Believe it or not I saw this coming when jobs were first outsourced

I knew that Bush and Cheney and PNAC wanted to have the worlds biggest military in history because their plan was to become an Empire. They stated in PNAC that they wanted to be the only Super Power on the planet and that they would have to use military might to achieve it. They called the 21st Century the New American Century.

So it's logical that in order to build the largest military in history, large enough to keep any other country from becoming strong they would need to have people join the military. And the way you do that is you make the military the only job in town. They've been planning this for as long as they've been planning everything else. Since the Reagan years.

The rest of us can go work in factories making armaments. We were to be the first Empire where being a citizen of the Empire was worse than being the enemy because we were to be the slave labor force. Maybe we still might be.

[Thothmes]

12. If they wanted the biggest military in history

they cut the size of the Navy in half over the last nine year. Doesnt jib with your theory. Both the Russian and Chinese armies are considerably larger then the U.S. Army. The Russian airforce is the same size as the our air force. You had better take a look at the figures again. To have the largest military in history we would have to build the size of the Navy to well over 2000 ships, our army would have to have over 100 divisions.
They never tried to attain those goal.

[neverforget]

20. During WW2, we had 12 million men under arms. We're not even close

to that.

[thunder rising]

8. Starve them and they will come ... sad fucking way to accomplish the goal (and they proud of it)

[ProSense]

10. The recession began more than two years ago. The military did not make

goal in the previous year. So there is that.

[Joe the Liberal]

9. In this shitty economy I'm not surprised.....

and it's not hard to see how they have met all their recruiting goals. The military provides, training, steady pay check, health care, a job, and sometimes travel, not to mention they will hire you if you meet the qualifications. Hell I'm thinking of joining myself, no one has called back from the places I've applied to and I'm getting pretty tired of looking.

[curlyred]

13. recruiting goals have been consistently adjusted downward

for a number of years.
That said, I think the economy and lack of healthcare plays a huge part in enlistment rates.

[Captain Hilts]

17. The USN was ordered to cut 60,000 in 3 years. The AF had to do something similar.

The National Guard advertises healthcare for you and your family in its recruiting ads.

[FrenchieCat]

18. Just like the rest of the world, Americans feel safer joining the Armed Forces.....

Because they realize that this President will not start a war just because he can.

I'm sure that economics has something to do with it, but considering that recruiting goals
have not been reached until this year, I'm venturing that this also has something to do
with it.....

But of course, we can always blame the economy.

[cags]

19. My daughter joined the Navy this year. They are turning some people away

[Vidar]

21. Poverty will do that.

[TwilightGardener]

23. Not surprised. At least one war is winding down, the other hasn't

been significantly escalated (yet), Obama certainly isn't likely to start any new ones...and the job market's tight. Hell, my husband joined the AF when he couldn't find a decent job after college graduation--we thought, sure, what the hell, why not? It'll be an adventure. 17 years and 7 moves later, we're glad he did it--never had to worry about health care (I just had major surgery, all of it covered), never had to worry about layoffs, and looking forward to a monthly pension check. The family separation during deployments is the hardest aspect to deal with--definitely the biggest drawback.