It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Staff Sgt. Richard Guzman is on the front lines of one of the U.S. Army's toughest battles in years, and he's not in Iraq.
He's an Army recruiter trying to coax young men and women into volunteering to serve at a time when U.S. ground forces are engaged in a war halfway around the world.
"To me, recruiting used to be easy. Right now, you really have to hunt for those ones who really want to" serve, said Guzman, who recruits in New York City's Harlem section.
Nearly two years into an Iraq war that has left more than 1,500 U.S. troops dead and another 11,200 wounded, recruiters like Guzman are having to work hard as the Army strives to sign up 80,000 recruits this year to replace soldiers leaving the service.
The Army in February, for the first time in nearly five years, failed to achieve its monthly recruiting goal. It is in danger of missing its annual recruiting target for the first time since 1999.
"The military can hold things together on a relatively short-term basis through some fairly extreme measures like 'stop-loss' and making much greater use of Reserve and Guard units to fill the requirements in Iraq," Pena said.
"But you cannot do this indefinitely. At some point, you break the force. And the question is: how close are we to that breaking point?"
Originally posted by TooManySecrets
I doubt we will be running out of troops anytime soon, considering we have the 2nd largest army in the world, with over 2 million inlisted.
China taking the lead since they have a population of about a billion people.
Originally posted by jrod
Maybe if they didnt test recruits for marijuana in their system many more people willing to go would qualify.