I'm pleased to hear that military re-enlistment rates are up substantially, and the services have exceeded their goals in that regard.
I've also read, but can't find any links so far, that first-time enlistments have been up significantly since 9/11, and also exceeding recruiter goals. I've read that prior to 2001, for the last decade at least, most of the major services had trouble meeting either first-time enlistment or re-enlistment goals, except for the Marines. (Anyone got a link on that?) Anyway, now they're all exceeding their goals.
Which is heartening to me in more than one way. It tells me that the folks in uniform believe in what we're doing, and so do young people. It also tells me that my fears of demoralization by so much irresponsible, unfairly slanted reporting may have been baseless, since apparently our folks in uniform are determined to stay the course.
It makes me proud to be an American.
Dean,
The reenlistment rates might be a bit skewed by the fact that the Army instituted a "stop-loss" policy that has been in effect for many occupational specialities since 2001. What stop-loss means is that the Army can involuntarily extend the enlistment period for soldiers. So, if a soldier does his four years and is ready to get out of the Army and go to college, the Army will not let him/her go if they serve in a stop-loss MOS (military occupational specialty). Many soldiers I supervised fell under this situation as did most military intelligence jobs and elected to reenlist so that if they were forced to stay in the military for a few more years, they might as well get the 10-20 grand bonus that came with voluntarily extending as opposed to zero dollars for involuntary extension.
Nonetheless, I think the majority of soldiers reenlist because they get a great deal of satisfaction in performing their jobs in defense of our country. But above all that, most soldiers feel that they are part of a cohesive team and simply don't want it to end.
Personally, I just reelisted in August and will continue to serve until they drag me away kicking and screaming.
Thanks for that, Tim.
Tim,
Thats an excellent observation - in the end, it shows the troops are rational human beings; had we been at war in May of 1987, I would not have taken my discharge - and in order to avoid involuntary extension, I would have early re-enlisted in order to grab that hefty bonus (I think Uncle Sam was offering me $10,000 to reup).
For what it's worth, from Strategy Page:
http://www.strategypage.com/dls/articles/2003112.asp
"Despite the large number of reservists and National Guard troops mobilized for Afghanistan and Iraq, troops are staying in uniform. The Army National Guard, which has had the largest proportion of troops called up, has so far only lost ten percent of troops to attrition (not re-enlisting) among units returning from overseas. The normal rate of attrition, for all National Guard units, is 17 percent. What is probably keeping the re-enlistment rate up is efforts by the army to get reservists off active duty, and making plans to limit the active duty time in the future. Last week, for example, the number of reservists on active duty fell another 1,289, to 157,605. But that number is going up in the next few months, as units are called up for training, and movement to Iraq to replace reservists coming home. Meanwhile, the number of new recruits for the active army, and the army reserve and National Guard, continue match needs. For the fourth year in a row, the army met its annual goal for new recruits. In the past year, 74,132 men and women enlisted (against a goal of 73,800.) The army reserve for 27,365 (against a goal of 26,400.)"
Not to put a damper on your enthusiam, but as a retired officer, I would recommend that before you get too excited about reenlistments of junior personnel, you should keep a close eye on officer retention (no bonuses) and senior NCO retention (bonuses gone). This will tell the tale.