Recruiting goals for first month of fiscal '08 met by services

ARLINGTON, Va. — All active-duty military services were able to meet their recruiting goals for the first month of fiscal 2008, according to numbers released Tuesday by the Pentagon.

The Army sent 4,564 new recruits to boot camp in October, the start of the federal government’s fiscal year, compared to its goal of 4,500 recruits.

The Air Force, which is continuing to downsize, had a goal of bringing 2,656 new airmen into the force. It met that goal by exactly that number, according to the Pentagon statistics.

And the Navy, which is also downsizing, intended to ship 2,388 new sailors to boot camp in October, and also made that goal exactly.

The Marines, meanwhile, wanted 2,720 new recruits in October; they got a total of 2,788.

Of all the services, the active- duty Army is facing the most difficult recruiting task in fiscal 2008: not only are the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continuing to affect the recruiting climate, but the service is also growing.

And in October Defense Secretary Robert Gates gave the Army permission to compress its plan to grow the size of the service even further, from five years into three years.