The military has met most of its recruiting goals for the 2006 fiscal year, thanks in part to incentive programs and effective media campaigns. But a drop in the number of Sailors leaving active duty for the Navy Reserve has resulted in that command falling 1,500 people short of its goal of 11,180.

All the active services -- Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines -- met or exceeded their 2006 goals, as did the Marine Corps and Air Force reserves. The Army Guard achieved 99 percent, the Air Guard 97 percent and the Navy Reserve just 87 percent. Overall, the services brought in a combined total of more than 317,000 recruits.

"The Army is recruiting an all-volunteer force during a protracted war," says Army spokesperson Major Cheryl Phillips. Despite this, "in 2006, we achieved our highest Regular Army recruiting totals in nine years: 100.8 percent," or 80,635, Phillips adds, attributing this success to "the hard work of dedicated recruiters, increased incentives and bonuses."

Incentives for the active Army now include enlistment bonuses of up to $40,000 plus increased tuition assistance.

In recent months the Army has launched a media campaign built around its new recruiting slogan, "Army Strong," which replaces the controversial "Army of One."

The Navy has rolled out a new media campaign too, this one targeting tech-savvy kids via email, according to Commander Glen Kammerer from Navy Recruiting Command. "Those emails [in reply] come back to our call center, where our cyberspace recruiters will do some blueprinting to make sure the applicant truly has interest and meets basic qualifications. Then they'll put them right in touch with a local recruiter. That seems to be working very well."

While both the active and reserve Navy have met their goals for new recruits, the Reserve, which traditionally receives large numbers of former active-duty Sailors, has failed to lure enough Sailors from the busy active force -- a problem that has also plagued the Army Reserve in recent years. "If they want to deploy, they're staying on active duty," Kammerer says. "They're not getting off active duty [to join the reserve]."

The Navy, too, has boosted bonuses to attract recruits, especially in career fields vital to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "Special warfare, special ops, special boats, explosive ordnance disposal, Navy divers ... those bonuses all went up considerably," Kammerer reports. "The SEALs went up the highest." To that list he also adds Seabees, corpsmen and intelligence and cryptography ratings.

Are you thinking about joining the military or would you like more information about joining?
http://www.military.com/Recruiting/Home/0,13387,,00.htm

Take the practice ASVAB?
http://www.military.com/ASVAB