March 18,2008:
As they have for nearly every
month since September 11, 2001, the U.S. military met their recruiting goals in
February. The army brought in 15,472 recruits (60 percent of them for reserve
units.) That's more than all the other services combined, which is somewhat
understandable when you consider that soldiers comprise 36 percent of active
duty personnel, and 65 percent of reservists. The army is also suffering most
of the casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan. Last year over 3,000 soldiers had to
be replaced because of combat deaths, or soldiers retired because of wounds,
sickness or combat fatigue. Similar losses for the other services totaled less
than a thousand troops. All the services have people in the combat zone, but
army and marine personnel are doing most of the dangerous jobs.