Monday, December 12, 2005

Don't They Know We Lost the War?

DoD Announces Recruiting and Retention Numbers for November

The Department of Defense announced today its recruiting and retention statistics for the active and reserve components for the month of November.


Active duty recruiting. All services exceeded their recruiting goals in November.

....................................................Accessions..............Goal..............Percent
Army................................................5,856................. 5,600................. 105
Navy.................................................2,742..................2,694...................102
Marine Corps.......................................2,127.................2,026...................105
Air Force............................................2,407.................2,390....................101

Active duty retention. The Army re-enlisted 10,677 soldiers toward a year-to-date mission of 11,556 (92 percent). The Marine Corps and Air Force enjoy excellent re-enlistment rates through November. The Navy barely missed its mid-career goal due to a shortage of specialized skills, and it is making program adjustments to achieve its end-of-year mission.

Reserve forces recruiting. Three of the six reserve components met or exceeded their recruiting goals this month.

......................................Accessions......Goal.......Percent
Army National Guard...............4,960..........4,510.........110
Army Reserve..........................2,131...........2,212..........96
Navy Reserve...............................711.............821...........87
Marine Corps Reserve...................484.............. 482.......100
Air National Guard.......................561...............794...........71
Air Force Reserve........................495................493........100

Reserve retention. For November, Army National Guard retention was 103 percent of the cumulative goal of 4,841, and Air National Guard retention was 101 percent of its cumulative goal of 1,636. Both Guard components are currently at 95 and 99 percent of their end strength, respectively. Losses in all reserve components for October were within acceptable limits. Indications are that trend has continued into November.

I suppose the next thing will be some ridiculous claim about the economy doing well, or employment being at its highest historic level or fuel prices having dropped substantially from seasonal highs.

3 comments:

ex-democrat said...

sometimes hard numbers can be SO inconvenient.

btw, rick, would it be wildly speculative to suggest that the reason the ANG number is the lowest is because the MSM has decreed it unworthy via the rathergate memo story?

Rick Ballard said...

Ex-dem,

Retirement of top recruiters is probably more likely. Recruiters are the sales team for each service. They are actually bonused on exceeding goals. If a few top notch recruiters retire at the same time you would have a recruitment blip similiar to that which occurs in a commercial business when a rainmake leaves.

Might be the MSM but I'd have to see a trend line in order to promote the idea. I'll take a look at some older numbers.

Unknown said...

Rick:

Well gee, the Air Guard is just a hangout for frat boys anyway.

It is soooo hard to get into, need special treatment just to sign up.

I remember when the all volunteer military started some people said it would not work, but they have been proved wrong.