In fact, the very opposite is true. When the personality which relishes the chance to serve their country, who enjoys the physical and dangerous demands of soldiering, who wants to prove to themselves and other that they have what it takes to face extreme danger and challenge hears the sound of the guns, they are anxious to get into the thick of it.

I have a good friend who is a long time army Reservist, a mechanic specialist, and he was furious when his outfit was sent to Alaska to relieve another regular unit instead of being sent to GW1.

His son joined the army after high school, went to Ranger school, and was recently sent to Iraq. Dad was so proud of him, and the son so proud of his accomplishment, they were both two feet off the ground.

Of course we worry and pray. But the fact is that he would not want anything else than to be a soldier and have his father's respect. That so few of the chattering classes know such men and women is their loss, and explains their lack of any insight into what makes stories like this one about high recruitment levels happen.

Thus proving miricles do happen, once in a while.
I'll be interested in seeing the spin in the story, however.

BTW... Tall Dave is a master

Doubling signing bonuses and re-enlistment bonuses (up to $90,000 for active duty enlisters, depending on the job) has a very real appeal to folks who have, possibly, been unemployed for extended periods or have little economic opportunity other than the military.

That's an intellectually dishonest statement. An overwhelming majority of the bonuses paid are far below that amount. The reason the amount is so high, is because it applies to highly paid, in demand technicians- the kind that do not join the military because of very lucrative private careers.

First, the military has a fairly large purse, and has been using that purse to lure new recruits and reenlisters. Doubling signing bonuses and re-enlistment bonuses (up to $90,000 for active duty enlisters, depending on the job) has a very real appeal to folks who have, possibly, been unemployed for extended periods or have little economic opportunity other than the military. School age kids with a sense of "It couldn't happen to me." having a chunk of change that large waved at them is likely to get their attention.

The second element is the fact that maximum recruitment ages have been raised to 42, and the percentage of recruits allowed to score at the absolute bottom in their aptitude tests being doubled (to 4 percent), allowed the services, quite a few in fact, to meet or slightly exceed their recruitment goal. Think about that for a minute, though. 4% of 350,000 (Army Guard) is 14,000 troops whose intellect hovers just above room temperature. I'm not criticizing them for their limitations. I'm critical of the military seeking them out in an effort to shore up their numbers.

It's not entirely about patriotism and "the friends and neighbors effect". As has been the case throughout history, it's also about economic need, modification of the minimal criteria, and reduced expectations.

...is reservists who've come back from Iraq?...

Or, all the above could just be crap and the guys coming back are proud to have some measure of democracy and freedom to a country that had none of either before we got there.

which of course, means that you're gonna be hard pressed to find this little statistic in the mainstream media.

So, the Guard is using soldiers just back from a war zone as their primary marketing tool. And it�s working.

I can think of at least one semi-regular commenter here who's not going to like that. Heh.

It was also something that the last Guard unit I was in was doing in 2000-2002. At one point there was a detail sent out every month during drill weekend to go to different places and events in the area to recruit and these carried over to events during the weeks and on non-drill weekends.