About a month ago, the media were abuzz with stories about how the Army had missed its recruiting goal for the first time since 1999. Missing from most of these stories was the fact that the Army had increased its 2005 recruiting goal to 80,000 from 72,000 in 2004 (the final recruiting numbers for 2005 reached about 73,000). The stories only focused on the shortfall, without putting the numbers into the context of DOD's effort to grow the Army.
Now the Army putting out its recruiting numbers for October of 2005 — the first numbers of the new fiscal year — which show that the Army has exceeded its recruiting goals for the month. But suddenly, the press is very concerned about the fact that the Army lowered its goal for October as compared to October of last year.
Funny how that works, eh?
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