Marines meet 2026 recruiting goal, Corps announces

The Marine Corps enlisted 31,250 new recruits in fiscal year 2026, meeting its annual recruiting goal, the Corps announced Thursday.

The Corps also added 1,672 new officers and 3,503 prior-service members to the Marine Reserve forces in fiscal 2026, which ended Wednesday, according to a service news release.

“Our success this year is a testament to the disciplined execution of our elite recruiting force on the streets of America,” said Maj. Gen. Walker Field, commander of Marine Corps Recruiting Command, in a statement. “Likewise, it is emblematic of the legion of young Americans who are choosing, of their own volition, to serve this great nation of ours.”

The Corps added 714 more Marines than it did in the previous year, when it also met the recruiting target.

The Pentagon’s other military services also met their recruiting goals in fiscal 2026.

Recruiting has improved in the last three years after the services struggled to add new recruits for several previous years. While some of the other services missed their recruiting goals in recent years until a rebound in 2024, the Marine Corps has met its goals each year since 1994.

The Marine Corps described fiscal year 2026 recruiting conditions as “the most favorable” it has seen in years with “a high volume of interested applicants” and “historically strong retention rates across the Corps.”

The service credited its recruiters with getting a strong head start for fiscal year 2027, which began Thursday. The service has already contracted enough recruits to ship to basic training in fiscal 2027 to meet about half of its annual recruiting goal, the Marines said.

“Our [recruiting] Marines have performed superbly, and they represent our Corps with pride and honor,” said Sgt. Maj. Jesse J. Dorsey, Marine Corps Recruiting Command’s senior enlisted leader, in a statement.