Army sees all time best recruiting results.

Whether its the economy, people feeling a renewed spirit of service or whatever, congrats to the Army in turning in the best year of recruiting the all-volunteer military has ever had - and to do it while we're fighting two extended wars is even more remarkable. Nice goin'.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/13/AR2009101303539.html

 

All those commercials during college football and basketball games must really be paying dividends.

 

I think it's the sponsorship of the NASCAR team.

 

My friend's son graduated high school last spring and enlisted in the Marines. He's not shipping out for basic training till next year because they have so many recruits.

 

My brother joined the Army in November or December, I believe. Reported to Basic Training in mid January. Now stationed in El Paso, Texas. Going to be deployed no later than August 2010. He'll be done in January 2012, but there's a 99 percent chance he's going to re-up for three more years.

Despite the fact that there are two wars brewing, he knows it was the best thing for him, and he hasn't had a moment's regret.

 

That's good to hear. As DanO pointed to out, to do that during a two-front war is really impressive. I think the economy is probably the biggest factor, but frankly, it doesn't matter. Good people are being employed and if they are grunts, they're probably learning valuable skills that might land them a job outside the military should they decide to re-enter civilian life.

Hopefully they all get through their deployments safely.

 

If I could do it all over again, I would have joined the military after college. The friends and relatives I have who are in it, love it and there's a lot to be said for that kind of job security and benefits.

 

Back in HS, a friend and I went down to the Marines recruiting office, took the tests, blah, blah, blah. They told us when we'd be shipped out to Basic Training. I thought about it and decided against it. Prolly a good decision. Actually, I'm not even sure what the hell I was thinking. I'm the last person who should join any kind of military operation, let alone the bad-ass Marines.

Then again, I never thought my little brother would ever join the Army, and here he is....

 

Got to be the job situation. I remarked to someone just the other day that, "damn, these privates are getting older and older."

When I went through basic in 1996, I can only remember one or two guys over 20 or 21 ... and they had both completed their educations before coming in. Now, it's nothing to see a 30-year old private. In fact, it's common.

The unintended consequence is we're getting a much more mature soldier, rather than an 18-year old who's going to stay in trouble and do stupid shit that takes up a bunch of my time. On the other hand, they're usually not in good shape, like the younger guys are, and you have to spend a little more time with them to get them in fighting shape.

My only complaint is, where the fuck are they? Everyone I know is short on everything ... medics, mechanics, commo guys, flight ops guys. Everything but lieutenants. God damn, we've got lieutenants (myself included) fucking stumbling all over one another for flight time.

Anyway, yeah, the economy is turning folks to a pretty sure paycheck -- even though it may not be the best paycheck on the planet.

 

Be all that you can be. Isn't that still the slogan?