Recession helps boost recruiting numbers

RICHMOND, Va., March 15 (UPI) -- The U.S. Army has exceeded its recruiting goals for five consecutive months amid a sluggish job market, officials said.

The Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch reported Sunday that the Army has had its best string of recruiting months since 2003.

Douglas Smith, a spokesman for the Army Recruiting Command at Fort Knox, Ky., said that this year, for the first time since the Iraq invasion of March 2003, at least 90 percent of the Army's recruits will have high school diplomas.

The Army sets out to recruit roughly 80,000 men and women annually, the newspaper said.

As for the Marine Corp., the recession is credited for helping bump the size of the force from 197,000 to more than 202,000, despite heavy casualties in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The newspaper said the Navy and Air Force, which have smaller roles than the Army and Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan, have consistently met their recruiting goals.