Army gains recruiting ground all around

via the Army Times:

All three Army components exceeded their recruiting goals in December, the Defense Department announced Jan. 10.

The latest numbers mark a successful first quarter of fiscal 2008 for the Army and Army National Guard, while the Army Reserve gained some ground in December after missing its goals the first two months of the fiscal year.

Also on Jan. 10, Army Secretary Pete Geren and Lt. Gen. Clyde Vaughn, director of the Army Guard, gave an update on Active First, one of the Army’s newest recruiting initiatives.

The program, launched Oct. 1, allows young men and women — who might want to give active duty a try without making a full commitment — to sign up for the National Guard and go on active duty for 30, 36 or 48 months before returning to their home station unit of assignment.

These new soldiers are recruited into the Guard, but after advanced individual training they are transferred into the active Army. After their initial term, they can re-enlist or return to their original Guard unit.

The Army projects about 30 percent of those soldiers will stay in the active Army.

So far, 532 soldiers have enlisted through Active First, said Col. Mike Jones, chief of recruiting and retention for the Army Guard. Sixty percent of those soldiers were brought into the Guard through its Recruiting Assistance Program, where soldiers earn up to $2,000 for each friend they bring into the service.

Great news, all of it.

The "Active First" Program seems like one of those "duh" programs, right? Like, "duh, why didn't we think of that sooner?" There are plenty of folks that would like to serve for a few years on Active Duty and then spend a few more years, if not the rest of them until retirement, in the National Guard, so it only makes sense that there is a program that is tailored to that need. Instead of the previous system that went one of two ways: someone enlists for the National Guard then wants to go Active and has to get a release, or someone enlists Active then when they finish their tour enlists again into the National Guard. Now all that is streamlined. Easy.

As for the fact that recruiting is going well, I'm loving it. I think it's a slap in the face of all these anti-war folks when not only is the Army replenishing the ranks, but it's growing at the same time. Phooey on the nay-sayers. Oh, and it doesn't seem that the reduced DEP-pool is going to matter much, but then, chickens haven't hatched yet, so we'll see.

Good luck all you Army, Army Reserve and Army National Guard recruiters. I'm glad that I don't do what you do (anymore), but I'm thankful that you guys are putting up with all that PMS nitpicking to keep our components ARMY STRONG!


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