Army faces recruit deficit, may miss '15 goal

Tom Vanden Brook | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The Army is nearly 14% short of the recruits it will need to fill its ranks, marking the first time in six years — and only the third in the last 20 — that it may fall short of its recruiting goal for the year.

The Army's top officer for recruiting, Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Snow, acknowledged in an interview with USA TODAY on Thursday the difficulties in attracting young men and women to the active-duty Army in an improving economy and the greater effort his recruiters are taking to find new soldiers.

"It is a challenging mission, and we're not going to get around that," Snow said. "And there are indications that the economy is going to continue to improve. "

Snow, who took command this summer, expressed confidence that recruiters would hit the goal of 59,000 new recruits when the fiscal year ends Sept. 30.

The shortfall in recruiting comes as the Army is planning to pare 40,000 soldiers from its ranks over the next few years. Despite that reduction to 450,000 men and women, the Army still needs about 60,000 young recruits a year to fill out its combat and support units.

And recruiters are working harder just to get potential soldiers to meet with them.

For the first 10 months of fiscal year 2015, recruiters made more than 415,000 appointments with young men and women interested in the Army. Those resulted in just over 50,000 signing up to serve. For the same period in 2014, they made 371,000 appointments and had signed up 52,000 soldiers.

"We made more appointments," Snow said. "We conducted more appointments. Yet there were fewer contracts achieved."

Meanwhile, the Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy all have made 100% of their recruiting goals through May, according to the Defense Department.

During the height of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the services struggled to make their annual goals. Standards for recruits were lowered, and greater signing bonuses were handed out. In 2006, for example, it spent $1 billion on bonuses to recruit and retain soldiers.

Bonuses and educational incentives, however, have decreased in recent years, Snow said. The Army paid out $117 million in 2014 compared with $235 million in 2013.

Moreover, the quality of recruits has remained high, Snow said. There has been a decrease in the percentage of recruits who have received waivers for failing to meet educational or other standards.

In 2005, the Pentagon relaxed standards for recruits who fared poorly on standard military exams. Those who scored in the lower third of the test, so-called Category Four recruits — had been limited to 2% of recruits. The relaxed standard allowed 4% of those recruits, and even that was exceeded at times. Less than 1% of recruits this year belong in Category Four, Snow said.

"On quality we're doing very well this year," he said.

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