Enlistment in the military continue at record rates. "Despite a rising tide of combat deaths and the prospect of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan for years to come, Americans continue to volunteer for duty and are re-enlisting at record rates." And, "Even the Army National Guard, which has had 150,000 citizen soldiers mobilized for up to a year, has seen retention rates ’going through the roof,’ said Guard spokesman Maj. Robert Howell."
this from ’the early bird’:
By Dave Moniz, USA Today
WASHINGTON — The number of soldiers staying in the Army is falling just as the demand is increasing in Iraq.
Through March 17, nearly halfway through the fiscal year, the Army fell about 1,000 short of meeting its goal of keeping 25,786 soldiers whose enlistments were ending or who were eligible to retire. That works out to a 96% retention rate
So...why the contradition?
No apparently contradiction -- just a typical ridiculous distortion by a major media outlet. If you read both articles, USA Today specifically cites only active duty Army re-enlistment; the Virginian-Pilot cites practically every other imaginable category except active duty Army. So the bad news is that the Army is at 96% re-enlistment for active duty, while the good news is that every other component of every service including Army National Guard is at or ahead of targets and recent enlistment/re-enlistment levels. The Virginia paper should have included the Army active duty shortfall, small as it was -- but the whole theme of the USA Today piece, including the conveniently gloomy and facile comment by academic at the end, appears fraudulent if one looks at the actual data. Just another day in major media’s Twilight Zone ....
As is often the case, the headline is the most distorted: "Iraq duty deters re-enlistment." Frustrating when you think of the number of people who simply scan the headlines and accept them as fact.
"The Army is at 100.1 percent of its "active duty mission," said spokesman Douglas Smith, reviewing numbers current as of March 29. Smith said 34,593 soldiers had been enlisted for the active Army and 8,331 for the Reserves. The Army has been ahead of its goal every year since 2000 and every month this year, Smith said. "
This is what the link said about the active army maybe tis a case of lies, damn lies and statistics