By The Associated Press, 31 January 2006
WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 (AP) — National Guard officials said Monday that recruiting had accelerated so much in recent months that they expected to expand the Guard even as the Bush administration proposes to shrink it.
The National Guard Bureau, the Pentagon office that administers the Guard, issued a statement outlining a turnaround in recruiting and predicting that it would continue to rise this year. In the last quarter of 2005, the Guard signed up 13,466 recruits, above its goal of 12,605. It was the first time since 1993 that the Guard exceeded its goal in that period.
In his 2007 budget, to be sent to Congress on Feb. 6, President Bush would pay for a Guard of 333,000 soldiers; its Congressionally authorized limit is 350,000. Administration officials say that is not a cut, because the Guard now has 333,000 soldiers.
On Monday, the Guard said it was "aggressively working" to reach 350,000 troops by the end of the current budget year on Sept. 30.
Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey had said that if the Guard was able to grow beyond 333,000, the Army would shift money from elsewhere in its budget to pay for the extra soldiers.
Mark Allen, a National Guard Bureau spokesman, attributed the recruiting improvement to a new advertising campaign, a large increase in financial incentives and a near doubling of the number of recruiters, to 5,100 from 2,700.
The Guard, like other branches of the military, had been struggling for recruits earlier in the year. In the 2005 budget year that ended Sept. 30, the Army National Guard fell 20 percent short of its recruiting goal. The active-duty Army fell 8 percent short, and the Army Reserve missed its goal by 16 percent.
The administration's plan to pay for a smaller Guard has stirred opposition in Congress and among groups like the National Guard Association of the United States, which represents current and former Army Guard and Air Guard officers.
John Goheen, a spokesman for the association, said Monday that his group agreed with the National Guard Bureau that recent gains in recruiting might enable the Guard to increase beyond its current troop strength of 333,000.
Mr. Goheen said his group opposed Mr. Bush's proposal and disputed the administration's claim that it did not amount to shrinking the Guard.
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Citation: "Turnaround in Recruiting Puts Guard on Path for Expansion," The Associated Press, 31 January 2006.
Original URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/31/politics/31guard.html
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