Hopefully not a Dupe.

Saw this coming long ago.

By ROBERT BURNS AP Military Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The Army National Guard will fall short of its recruiting goal this year, in part because fewer active-duty soldiers are opting to switch to part-time service, the Guard's top general said Thursday. It will be the first time since 1994 that the Guard has missed its sign-up goal. Army Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, said in an interview at his Pentagon office that the shortfall for the budget year ending Sept. 30 is likely to be about 5,000 soldiers. That is a little more than 1 percent of the total Army Guard force of 350,000. ``This is something that can't be ignored. I've got to watch it every day,'' he said. ``But it's not something that I would say indicates that we're breaking. I think it indicates that the recruiting climate has gotten tougher, and that means we need to adjust to a tougher market.'' The Guard had set a goal of 56,000 recruits for the year but is likely to end up with about 51,000, he said. As a result, Blum said he will increase the number of recruiters and put more effort into targeting young people in high school and college who have not previously served in the military. The other key aspect of maintaining Guard strength is what the military calls retention - the number of Guard members who re-enlist. Blum said the Army Guard is meeting its retention goal this year and finding that re-enlistments are higher in units that deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan than those that did not. He said he believes this reflects the sense of pride and commitment that develops in Guard units when they are deployed abroad and put in harm's way, as they are in Iraq and Afghanistan. At least 114 Army National Guard soldiers have been killed in Iraq since the war began in March 2003. Blum said he sees two main reasons why the Guard is attracting fewer soldiers from the active-duty force - a pool of recruits that in some states accounts for half of the total new Guard members in a given year. One reason is that the active-duty Army is prohibiting soldiers in units that are in Iraq or Afghanistan, or are preparing to deploy there, from leaving the service, even if their enlistment term is up. Thus the number who might consider moving into the Guard has shrunk temporarily. The other reason, Blum said, is that active-duty soldiers are aware that a growing number of Guard units are being sent to Irce that you're going to deploy that quickly again,'' Blum said, ``then you probably are going to make a clean break for a while and not join the Guard or Reserve, and so we are suffering.:

Not to mention that shit that the Guard pulled a couple of months ago when they were telling IRR troops that they HAD to enlist in the Guard or face deployment to Iraq as an IRR troop. I think that pissed a lot of people off.

Quoted: Not to mention that shit that the Guard pulled a couple of months ago when they were telling IRR troops that they HAD to enlist in the Guard or face deployment to Iraq as an IRR troop. I think that pissed a lot of people off.

yep I got a email from a guard recruiter about that crap

Quoted: Quoted: Not to mention that shit that the Guard pulled a couple of months ago when they were telling IRR troops that they HAD to enlist in the Guard or face deployment to Iraq as an IRR troop. I think that pissed a lot of people off. yep I got a email from a guard recruiter about that crap

Did you drive down to his office and kick his worthless ass?

Yup.  I also saw this coming about 10 years ago during the post gulf war draw down.  The DoD made it clear then that they were going to have to rely more and more on the guard and reserve in the future.  We we warned that the old cold war mentality of using the guard and reserve as a last resort was out the window and that they would be shouldering more of the weight in the future.

This should not be a surprise to anyone.