The Army can ease its recruiting difficulties by actively targeting individuals who withdrew from college, according to a new Land Warfare paper published by the Association of the U.S. Army.
The Army is refining its talent management processes to keep pace with the demands of large-scale combat operations, the service’s top personnel officer said.
“Our Army is lethal, cohesive and ready. We are proud, but we are not satisfied,” said Lt. Gen. Brian Eifler, Army deputy chief of staff for personnel, G-1. “The goal is to improve, streamline and renovate how we do things in the [human resources] community to be faster and more efficient. Our readiness for large-scale combat operations depends on it.”
A new Army National Guard marketing campaign challenges young people to see themselves as becoming “uncommon” through part-time service in uniform.
Titled “Uncommon is Calling,” the campaign features five short black-and-white films starring Army National Guard soldiers working in simulated emergency scenarios that depict the types of missions Guard troops are called upon to do, according to an Army news release.
The Army is more than halfway to meeting this year’s recruiting mission and faces the possibility of exceeding its funded end strength projections, Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James Mingus said.
“We’ve seen momentum unlike we have seen in probably a decade,” Mingus said March 12 in testimony before the Senate Armed Services subcommittee on readiness and management support. He explained that the Army is 50% ahead of where it was last year, having recruited 44,358 of its goal of 61,000 new soldiers.
Buoyed by a resurgence in enlistments after two tough recruiting years, the Army is expanding the number of units that can train new recruits.
Ten additional training units will be established by April and split between basic training sites at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and Fort Sill, Oklahoma, according to Hunter Rhoades, a spokesman for the Army’s Center for Initial Military Training.
The Army is standing up two regional recruiting commands to oversee the five recruiting brigades responsible for enlisting new recruits.
Slated to be fully operational by summer 2025, the new command headquarters—the first of their kind—will be in Atlanta and Los Angeles. Each will have about 30 personnel commanded by a deputy commanding general of U.S. Army Recruiting Command, according to an Army news release.
Assessment and selection for special operations soldiers has lagged the past two years as the Army struggled to meet its recruiting numbers, said Gen. Bryan Fenton, commanding general of U.S. Special Operations Command.
Still, he expressed optimism that the Army’s effort to overcome the national military recruiting challenge bodes well for special operations.
The obesity rate in the U.S. continues to increase, and the military sees similar trends. As a result of the obesity epidemic, U.S.
The Pentagon has lifted its restrictions on more than 50 medical conditions that used to disqualify a potential recruit from joining the military.
The effort has helped thousands of previously disqualified young people join the military as the services, including the Army, contend with a tough recruiting environment.
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.
