Army Will Let Recruits Sign Up for Short Hitch

The Army will allow recruits to sign up for 15 months of active-duty service, rather than the typical four-year enlistment, as it struggles to lure new soldiers, a general said Thursday.

Maj. Gen. Michael Rochelle, chief of the U.S. Army Recruiting Command, also said this was “the toughest recruiting climate ever faced by the all-volunteer Army,” with the Iraq war causing concern among potential recruits and their families and the economy offering job prospects.

America abolished the draft in 1973 during the tumult of the Vietnam War era and has since relied on a military made up exclusively of volunteers.

Rochelle said some young people might want to serve the country but did not want to dedicate the amount of time required by the normal four-year active-duty enlistment.

They will be offered the option of serving 15 months on active duty after completing their training, and then two years in the Army Reserve or National Guard. The soldiers then would spend nearly seven years in the Individual Ready Reserve. The Reserves, the National Guard and members of the Ready Reserve have all been called up to serve in Iraq.

Rochelle said he was “cautiously optimistic” the active-duty Army, now 16% behind its year-to-date goal, would reach its goal of 80,000 recruits in fiscal 2005, which ends Sept. 30. It has missed its recruiting targets the last three months, falling short by 42% in April.

He sounded less optimistic about the Army Reserve, currently 21% behind its year-to-date goal, saying achieving its annual goal was “not completely foreclosed.”