Army misses recruiting goals

WASHINGTON — The Army failed to meet its recruiting goals for the fourth consecutive month in May, the Department of Defense announced Friday.

The Marines, Air Force and Navy fulfilled their monthly quotas for active duty recruits, as did the Air Force Reserve. However, the Army, Navy and Marine Corps Reserves and the Army and Air National Guards all fell short of meeting their goals for new personnel amid daily reports of combat casualties in Iraq.

In order to meet manpower needs, the Army may double its top cash bonus for new recruits to $40,000, USA Today reported Thursday.

However, Pentagon officials said they have no plans to abandon their commitment to the all-volunteer military service.

"There is zero chance that the department is going to a draft," declared Bill Carr, acting deputy undersecretary for military personnel policy.

"Conscription is fatal to our performance," Carr told the Armed Forces Press Service and Pentagon Channel on Friday.

The difficulty in attracting soldiers is an indication of the unpopularity of President Bush's foreign policy and particularly the war in Iraq, said Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., who tried unsuccessfully last session to get Congress to reinstate the draft.

"No one believes Iraq is a danger to the United States," he said in a telephone interview, adding the military services are having to resort to bonuses rather than relying on patriotism to get recruits.

So far in this fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, the Army has signed up 40,964 new recruits. Its goal for this period was 49,285 and it is hoping for 80,000 recruits by Sept. 30.

"We're not satisfied, of course," said Douglas Smith, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Recruiting Command. "But we're cautiously optimistic that we can make up the numbers with a summer surge" as new high school graduates hit the streets.

In May, the Army missed its goal of 6,700 recruits by 1,661 — signing 75 percent of its quota. The Army National Guard got 71 percent of its goal of 5,791, and the Army Reserve got 82 percent of its goal of 2,759.

The Marines exceeded their goals for active duty recruits in May — signing 1,904 recruits when the target was 1,843. However, the Marine Corps Reserve signed only 994 recruits — 88 percent of its goal of 1,038.

The Army and Marines have done most of the fighting — and dying — in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and have had a harder time with recruiting than have the Navy and Air Force.

For May, the Navy signed 100 percent of its quota of 1,939 and the Air Force enlisted 1,049 recruits — 12 more than its target.

The figures released Friday show that all the armed services met their retention goals for May and are projected to meet their re-enlistment targets for the fiscal year.

"Retention has overachieved, and that has helped the underachievement in some parts of the recruiting effort," Carr said.