WASHINGTON, March 13 (UPI) -- U.S. Army recruiters reached their monthly goal in February, the Army Times reported Tuesday.
However, numbers recruited for the U.S. Army Reserve and National Guard were below the projected figures that had been set, the newspaper said. The Army announced the figures Monday, the report said.
"According to February figures released Monday by the Defense Department, the Army's active component met its recruiting goal for the 21st consecutive month, recruiting 6,196 soldiers, 103 percent of its monthly goal of 6,000," the Army Times said.
"That places the active Army at 108 percent of its year-to-date recruiting mission for fiscal 2007, with 28,407 soldiers recruited compared to a mission of 26,350. The fiscal year 2007 goal for the active Army is 80,000, the same as last year's mission," it said.
The newspaper noted a significant fall in recruiting figures for the National Guard. They were down by almost 20 percent, or a fifth, below the projected target figure. However, the Guard's recruitment and retainment figures for 2007 overall were still ahead of its projected goal at 26,703 against a projected goal of 25,470, the report said.
Some 26,833 soldiers had re-enlisted in the Regular Army since Oct. 1, 2006, a figure 6 percent in excess of the projected target goal for that time period, the newspaper said. "The fiscal 2007 goal for active Army retention is 62,200," it said.
The DOD figures also showed strong re-enlistment figures ahead of projected targets for the National Guard and the Army Reserve. Some 15,306 soldiers had re-enlisted in the Guard compared to the projected figure of 13,446, and 8,308 chose to stay with the Reserves compared with the projected goal of 7,397.
