Prometheus 6

In an interview on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered," Lute said the military is competing for a "very narrow slice" of high school graduates and that the draft is one of several options to prevent the military from breaking.

"Today, the current means of the all-volunteer force is serving us exceptionally well," Lute said. "It would be a major policy shift, not actually a military but a political policy shift, to move to some other course."

So far though, they're sticking with the traditional American motivation: cash money.

New to the Army recruiters' tool kit is a "quick-ship" cash bonus of $20,000 that goes to recruits who are willing to go to basic training by the end of September....Other bonuses have been raised, including a maximum $20,000 cash bonus to recruits who want to sign up for a two-year enlistment, a bonus that has been raised twice this year, from an original bonus of $6,000 before May....Douglas Smith, a spokesman for the Army's Recruiting Command, said yesterday that the Army is also pushing more recruiters into the field to augment the 8,300 currently working full time. Army officials have asked former recruiters now in different roles to take temporary assignments in their old jobs and are offering them $2,000 bonuses for each soldier they enlist.

And tell your kids

The Army also is asking nearly 5,000 newly trained soldiers to return to their communities to talk up their first months in the service and dispel myths about basic training, and is offering them cash bonuses if they succeed in bringing in new recruits.

"We want them to go and talk amongst their friends about how the training went," Smith said. "That way we're getting a motivated, fresh, young soldier out there talking up the Army."

...don't listen to anyone until they've had at least one deployment. 

Army Recruiting Rebounds in July To Exceed Goals
War Czar Says Draft Still an Option
By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 11, 2007; A03

The U.S. Army announced yesterday that it exceeded its July goal for active-duty recruiting after two months of falling short, the same day the White House war czar said in a radio interview that he believes it makes sense militarily to consider a draft as an option for relieving war-related stresses on U.S. forces.

Though Bush administration officials and U.S. military leaders have long shunned the notion of reinstating a draft, Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute, Bush's top military adviser on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, said yesterday that the draft has "always been an option on the table" and that it "makes sense to certainly consider it."

In an interview on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered," Lute said the military is competing for a "very narrow slice" of high school graduates and that the draft is one of several options to prevent the military from breaking.

"Today, the current means of the all-volunteer force is serving us exceptionally well," Lute said. "It would be a major policy shift, not actually a military but a political policy shift, to move to some other course."

National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Lute's comments were consistent with President Bush's stated policy in regard to any potential use of the draft. "The president believes an all-volunteer military serves the country well, and there is no discussion of returning to a draft," Johndroe said.

The comments followed a U.S. Army announcement that it had surpassed its recruiting target for July by about 2 percent, pulling nearly 10,000 new soldiers into the service last month despite what Army officials describe as one of the most difficult recruiting environments in history.

The successful month came after the Army missed its goals for both May and June by a combined total of more than 1,750, a downturn that appeared to threaten the Army's effort to recruit 80,000 new soldiers this year. But the July turnaround, which the Army announced yesterday, is an indication that its new recruiting initiatives could help the service meet high summer goals before the end of the fiscal year.