Army to expand recruiting program as enlistment goal falls short

WASHINGTON (WWNY) - Coming up short on its recruiting goals, the Army plans to increase its marketing investment, and expand a new program for struggling recruits.

Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said Monday the new program is showing promise. What it does is provide 90 days of fitness or academic instruction to low-performing recruits to help them get to the point where they can meet the military’s standards.

The pilot program is at one installation now and could be expanded to three other Army training installations in the future.

“This may fundamentally change the way we do recruiting. What I mean by that is we are getting men and women to come who may not have the best fitness scores but we are finding out a lot about their commitment and whether they want to serve or not and we think that’s very valuable because we can do this right up front before we invest a lot of resources,” said Gen. James McConville, chief of staff of the Army.

During a trip to see the program at Fort Jackson, S.C., in August, McConville had said that the program could get set up at three other Army posts in the country.

On Monday, McConville and Wormuth said there is still no decision on expanding it to three other locations in the country. Wormuth said it will depend on the results over the next month or two.

For the fiscal year that just ended on September 30, the Army enlisted 75 percent of its goal. That’s 15,000 soldiers short of the 60,000 target.

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