Guard falling short of goal

LOS ANGELES TIMES
WASHINGTON -- With many soldiers who have already served in Iraq reluctant to serve again, the Army National Guard will fall short of its recruiting goals this year for the first time in a decade, senior Guard officials said Thursday.
The Guard had set a goal of 56,000 recruits for the budget year ending Sept. 30, but expects to end up with about 51,000, said Lt. Col. Mike Jones, deputy division chief of National Guard recruiting and retention.
"If you're an active-duty soldier and you've just deployed for 18 months and your tour is up and you're desiring to resume a civilian career and then you see that the National Guard unit you are joining would be on the list to go, obviously you are weighing that into your decision," Jones said.
The shortfall is significant because it is the first time since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that any of the uniformed services have said they will fail to meet their annual recruiting goals.
Experts have been warning of a dip in the number of people willing to serve in the military since the war on terrorism began.
The Guard is struggling to recruit people in large part because active-duty soldiers are aware that an increasing number of Guard units are being sent to Iraq and Afghanistan, so they no longer see the Guard as a safe option to total retirement from the military.
In addition, the active-duty Army, itself strapped for troops, is preventing soldiers already in units in war zones or preparing to deploy there from leaving the service, even if their terms of service expire. And the Army is offering cash incentives to others who might have joined the National Guard to re-enlist.