The Army met its recruiting mission through “historic changes” implemented by senior leaders and by dedicated recruiters who seized the momentum, the commanding general of Army Recruiting Command said.

“We’ve witnessed historic changes that generated incredible positive momentum for us in the Army,” Maj. Gen. Johnny Davis said in remarks at a DoD news conference.

Using several new approaches and initiatives aimed at addressing a stubborn recruiting environment that was affecting all the services, the Army began seeing positive results in early 2024 after “about a year of putting many of these initiatives together, and it hasn’t slowed down,” Davis said.

While touting the Army’s success at meeting the fiscal 2024 mission of recruiting 55,000 new soldiers and placing 11,000 more into the delayed entry pool, Davis cautioned that “we are not out of the woods yet, but we remain steadfast to mission success this year and beyond.”

Chief among the initiatives, Davis credited the Army’s investment in recruiters and their families and the whole-of-Army investment in the recruiting effort.

This includes a new assessment and selection process that identifies soldiers best suited to be recruiters and the addition of two weeks to the curriculum at the Army’s Recruiting and Retention College. The Army also is focusing on recruiters’ families by preparing them for life away from major military installations, Davis said.

Davis also highlighted recruiter incentive pay, which promotes sergeants who graduate from the Army recruiting course, and the soldier referral program, which provides incentives to troops who refer a successful recruit. In less than two years of the program, he said, “we’ve already received more than 77,000 referrals from soldiers resulting in 5,000 contracts and many more in the pipeline.”

To address the medical backlog at the point of recruit intake, the Army surged over 60 medical providers at 33 Military Entrance Processing Stations across the country, Davis said, increasing enlistments for the Army, Army Reserve and sister services. Providers completed 6,000 more physicals compared with last year, he said.

Davis also pointed to the success of the three-week Future Soldier Preparatory Course, which helps new recruits meet the Army’s rigorous academic and physical standards; the return of the “Be All You Can Be” campaign and other marketing efforts; the expansion of prospecting to include potential recruits in the labor and higher education markets; digital job boards; the rollout of the Go Recruit mobile app; and the start of a Recruit 360 pilot, which uses artificial intelligence to help identify the best talent.

None of it would be possible without the Army’s dedicated recruiters, Davis said. “There are no words to express how proud I am of the hardworking recruiters who crushed it in every community,” Davis said, adding that the Army’s fiscal 2025 goal is 61,000 recruits and 10,000 contracts for the delayed entry pool.

“Our recruiters are already kicking it in high gear … and they’re doing very well right now,” Davis said.