With four months to go in the fiscal year, the Army has met its recruiting goal by signing contracts with more than 61,000 new active-duty soldiers, the service announced in a news release.

“I’m incredibly proud of our U.S. Army recruiters and drill sergeants,” Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said in the June 3 release. “Their colossal efforts and dedication to duty helped the U.S. Army accomplish our FY25 annual recruiting goal a full four months ahead of schedule.”

After missing its recruiting goals for two years, the Army in October 2023 began a sweeping overhaul of the recruiting enterprise to overcome a recruiting slump created, in part, by the COVID-19 pandemic but exacerbated by a lower number of young people who were fit or willing to serve.

As part of the effort, the Army updated and expanded its training programs; added two new recruiter MOSs, including a new warrant officer recruiting specialty; expanded the Future Soldier Preparatory Course, which helps potential recruits meet the service’s academic or physical requirements; developed the Go Recruit mobile application; and restructured Recruiting Command by incorporating the Army Enterprise Marketing Office.

In addition to the institutional changes, the Army returned to its iconic “Be All You Can Be” ad campaign, targeted new recruiting markets such as college students and professionals working in the private sector and created an experimental cell that could rapidly test new recruiting strategies.

In fiscal year 2024, the Army exceeded its goal of 55,000 recruits and placed another 11,000 in the delayed entry program, sowing optimism among senior leaders that the initiatives put recruiting back on track.

By March of this year, the Army’s fiscal 2025 goal was already 50% ahead of where it had been the year before, according to March 12 testimony from Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James Mingus before the Senate Armed Services Committee. He cited “momentum unlike we have seen in probably a decade” in recruiting.

This year’s goal of 61,000 new recruits is more than 10% higher than the 55,000 recruits targeted in fiscal 2024, and recent recruiting momentum has seen average contracts per day exceeding last year’s levels by as much as 56% during the same period, according to the June 3 release.

“As the Army approaches its 250th birthday on June 14, 2025, these future Soldiers will carry forward a legacy of honor, courage and service spanning two and a half centuries,” Driscoll said in the release.