http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/28323The One and Only Reason There Are Not MORE U.S. Troops in Iraq
Submitted by davidswanson on Fri, 2007-11-02 03:01. Nonviolent Resistance
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"It's going to be another tough recruiting year," the four-star general said.
Making it even tougher is the decline in what the Army calls its delayed entry pool, which is the group of enlistees who have signed contracts to join the Army but want to wait before shipping off to basic training. Normally the Army tries to start its recruiting year with a delayed entry pool equal to about 25 percent of its full-year goal, which in this case would equate to 20,000 recruits.
Instead, the Army began with 7,392 recruits, or about 9 percent of its full-year goal.
Last year at this time the Army was beginning its recruiting year with 12,062, or about 15 percent.
Wallace attributed the decline in the number of pre-signed recruits to the Army's decision last summer to begin offering a "quick ship" bonus of $20,000 to recruits willing to leave for basic training by the end of September. For some recruits that bonus is the equivalent of a year's pay.
The bonus program, which began July 25, was part of a last-minute push by the Army to meet its year-end recruiting goal, after having fallen short on recruiting numbers in May and June. It had the effect of getting many of the recruits who signed up after July 25 into basic training sooner than they would have otherwise, thus reducing the number with entry dates after Oct. 1.
"That is of concern for us because the delayed entry program gives us guaranteed enlistees to meter out across the year," Wallace said. Without that cushion to begin the recruiting year, recruiters are going to have to sign up enough people to meet the existing goal as well as replenish the pool for next year.
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