Army re-enlistment ahead of schedule, was: Re: [extropy-chat] give a small window into the military mind

[Alfio Puglisi]

On Wed, 6 Jul 2005, Mike Lorrey wrote:

>First point:
>This is an interesting dichotomy: the soldiers who are actually on the
>ground and putting their lives at risk (and know what is really going
>on in Iraq and Afghanistan) are re-enlisting far above levels the Army
>was projecting, while recruitment of civilians (who only see what the
>media tells them) is not likely to meet goals.
>
>So, this seems to imply that the media is giving a biased and overly
>negative view of what is really going on at the battlefront (plus
>civilians are subject to a lot more negative propaganda they are more
>likely to give credence to than a war veteran would).

There may be other factors at work: $$ benefits for listing/re-enlisting,
having no fallback plan for de-listing, and so on.

I think a real comparison should be done not with the Army goals of
re-enlisting, but with previously rates of re-enlisting soldiers in war
and peace times, e.g. how many re-enlisting soldiers per 100,000. Army
recruitment goals can change over time depending on current pressures,
while the attractivenes of an Army re-enslisting depends on what's the
deal really is.


Alfio