Thursday, July 21, 2005

Where U.S. Army recruiting runs strongest

This caught my eye this morning: It seems that the South leads the way in Army recruiting. Two paragraphs that really got my attention:

Far more new soldiers come from the South, however. The South still shoulders a disproportionate recruiting burden compared with the rest of the country; its recruits make up nearly 40 percent of the Army soldiers who have enlisted since the beginning of the fiscal year in October.

For the Army, at least, the Iraq war appears to have had little effect on recruiting in red states versus blue states. Recruiting is down by virtually the same amount in both areas - at 73 percent of 2000 levels in red states and 72 percent in blue states. Red states, however, have produced 63 percent of the recruits enrolled since October, though they make up barely more than half the total US population.

The article is also a pleasant expose of an Army recruiter, a Sgt. 1st Class David Lacks, who truly loves what he does: "I can take a kid who has nothing and give him direction."

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