In Boston yesterday for a recruitment ceremony and to announce a youth partnership with the Boston Fire Department, Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Richard Cody said he expects Army recruiters to meet their quotas despite bitter combat in Iraq.

"It speaks to this generation that everyone was concerned about," said Cody, a Vermont native. "These young people have the calling. When you ask them why they joined, they say their country is at war. When I asked 10 years ago why they joined, they said, `I want the benefits. I want the college credits.' "

With an active duty force of nearly 500,000, the Army met its recruiting goal of 77,500 last year, and Cody expects this year's goal of 80,000 to be achieved. While National Guard units have had trouble attracting recruits because of long Guard deployments overseas, Cody said recruiters will turn their focus away from people leaving active duty because many of them are being retained.

"The National Guard retained well, but recruiting fell off because a lot of their recruiting came from the active Army force," he said. "Because we retained so many (active duty soldiers), there was a dip (in National Guard recruiting.)"

Cody said that despite tough combat in Iraq, the morale remains high and he believes the Iraqi insurgents will eventually be crushed.

"The part that is still out is how well the Iraqi people will rally around being a free, democratic Iraq," he said. "That's what a counterinsurgency target is. They target the Iraqi population. I think the Iraqi people will see these insurgents care not about them. I think over time they will realize that."

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