WASHINGTON, July 10 (UPI) -- The Army has met its active-duty recruiting goal for June for the thirteenth month in a row, according to the service.
In June the active duty Army recruited 8,756 soldiers, 102 percent of the monthly goal of 8,600. So far this fiscal year, which ends September 30, the Army has recruited 51,612 soldiers, almost 2,000 more than it hoped to at this point.
The Army has its work cut out for it though in July, August and September -- traditionally its largest recruiting months because of high school graduations -- to meet its year-end total of 80,000 new recruits.
"I think it's the effort being applied by the military services ... and the additional resources they've applied to this," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.
Despite back-to back combat deployments, the Army is also retaining soldiers at high rate: some two-thirds of all soldiers eligible to re-enlist have done so, according to Army data which includes active and reserves.
The Army used the good news to tout the quality of its recruits: According to Army data 90 percent of the recruits have high school diplomas compared to 70 percent of the same age population in the civilian sector.
The active duty Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force all met their recruiting goals in June as well, according to the Pentagon.
Of the reserve component, only the Navy reserve fell short of its recruiting goal. It attracted 970 sailors, 51 fewer than its goal.
