McClatchy: Recruiting gets tougher for Army during wartime

[babylonsister]

Recruiting gets tougher for Army during wartime
By Dave Montgomery | McClatchy Newspapers

* Posted on Thursday, October 4, 2007


WASHINGTON — Wearing dark T-shirts with Army logos, selected representatives of the Army's latest class of recruits stood proudly on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial on Thursday morning, with their own stories about what drew them into the military in a time of war.

Cynthia Pearl Johnson-Scottie, a 31-year-old mother of four from Fort Worth, Texas, said she was enlisting in the Army Reserve to advance her education. Yanitza Lopez-Guerrero of Kissimmee, Fla., whose husband is already in the service, wants to be part of the Army "team." Logan Bilyeu, a shaggy-haired snowboard enthusiast from Oregon, is pursuing a family military tradition dating to World War I.

From the Army's perspective, the outdoor ceremony Thursday constituted a good-news story, marking the service's attainment of its active-duty and reserve recruiting goals for the 2007 fiscal year, which ended Sunday. But Army leaders acknowledged the obstacles that lie ahead as they struggle to maintain an all-volunteer fighting force during an increasingly costly and unpopular war.

"We've been able to meet our goal, but it's a challenge,"' Army Secretary Pete Geren said in an interview after the ceremony.

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http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/20241.html

[notadmblnd]

1. Wow! who'd have thunk it?

[babylonsister]

2. I know, big shocker that. Someone needs to tell

that woman who's enlisting that she won't necessarily get edumicated by her government:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1978269&mesg_id=1978269