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Most youth ineligible for Army, survey says

Fort Lauderdale, Fla. — Close to three-quarters of American youth are ineligible to serve in the Army and patriotism among the country’s recruitable population has been sliding since 2002.

That was the assessment of a series of recent surveys conducted in fiscal 2006 and early fiscal 2007 by the Army’s Center for Accessions Research and presented Thursday by Gen. William S. Wallace, commanding general of Training and Doctrine Command.

“It’s an Army problem, but it’s also a national problem,” said Wallace, who presented a slice of the report at the winter meeting of the Association of the United States Army.

TraDoc is the major command that oversees Accessions Command and the subordinate U.S. Army Recruiting Command. Recruiting is seen as a looming and growing challenge as the Army begins to expand by 65,000 more soldiers.

According to Wallace, only 27 percent of youth between the ages of 17 and 24 are eligible for recruiting.

The remaining 73 percent, he said, “are morally, intellectually or physically” unfit for service. “It’s the lowest it’s been in more than 10 years.”

College, he said, is now the preferred post-high school activity and youths surveyed said they perceived the Army as “ordinary.”

According to Wallace, those surveyed considered the Marine Corps “elite but dangerous.” They considered the Navy “somewhat elite but safer” and the Air Force was considered “elite and highly technical.”

One of the Army’s challenges, he said, was to be able to “break through the media clutter.”

Referring to the Army’s four-month-old “Army strong” recruiting ad campaign, Wallace said the study showed that 80 percent of youths don’t watch commercials, 80 percent do some sort of text messaging, and 85 percent have access to the Internet.

In spite of the challenges, he said, the Army recruited 80,635 soldiers into the active component in fiscal 2006 and the year-to-date figures indicate the Army is at 107.8 percent of its goal with a total of 2,055 soldiers.

The Reserve component, however, is behind at only 90 percent, or 804 soldiers short of where it wants to be for this date.

Still, he said, “we expect to meet our U.S. Army Reserve goals” although it will be gradual.