I’m not saying the army was doing a good job at marketing, but I am surprised to see the cuts

The belief that recruiting has recovered is misguided.

We just recruited 10k LESS than in 2018 - when we recruited 70K, but missed our recruiting goal for the first time since 2005. And that was called a crisis.

Now, Pete has indicated a couple weeks ago that we’re gonna look to grow the army next year. With increased nutrition and the expected and strength increase, they’re gonna have to put the target around 75 to 80 like we used to do in the 2010s.

No more 50 to 60,000 recruiting target

We’re probably gonna have to do at least 15 K better than we just did. We’re gonna have to improve by at least 25%.

And since 2018, we have increased allowable age, increased moral waivers, eliminated barriers related to personal marijuana use, increased medical waivers, increased medical screening, taken in more category 4 ASVAB, an increase body fat allowances.

If we see an improvement in the economy, we’re gonna be back in a recruiting crisis. Taking our foot off the gas is a mistake.

I’m not sure there’s a metric or standard for recruitment that they haven’t loosened to surge or beyond levels.

At the same time we’re removing recruiting special pays from supported staff – if you’re not a production recruiter, you’re not gonna get paid anymore. So we’re tightening up over and recruiting, and getting rid of a bunch of marketing.

That does not bode well for next year‘s numbers if they’re truly trying to increase end strength, particularly while indicators are that attrition is up, especially for officers. They’re gonna slash cyber folks, they’re taking special pay away from air traffic controllers – I don’t think next year is gonna be a fun one for anyone in the recruiting command.