Military LIES about meeting recruiting goals just after Shrub's

[BR_Parkway]

speech:

June 8, 2005
After Lowering Goal, Army Falls Short on May Recruits
By ERIC SCHMITT

WASHINGTON, June 7 - Even after reducing its recruiting target for May, the Army missed it by about 25 percent, Army officials said on Tuesday. The shortfall would have been even bigger had the Army stuck to its original goal for the month.

On Friday, the Army is expected to announce that it met only 75 percent of its recruiting goal for May, the fourth consecutive monthly shortfall in the number of new recruits sent to basic training. Just over 5,000 new recruits entered boot camp in May.

But the news could have appeared worse. Early last month, the Army, with no public notice, lowered its long-stated May goal to 6,700 recruits from 8,050. Compared with the original target, the Army achieved only 62.6 percent of its goal for the month.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/08/politics/08recruit.html?ei=5090&en=f79f57d55b8ded83&ex=1275883200&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=print

But now they claim they exceeded their goal:

June 29, 2005
Army Recruiting Improves in June
By ERIC SCHMITT

WASHINGTON, June 29 - For the first time since January, the Army met its monthly recruiting goal in June, but still faces what some senior Army officials say is a nearly insurmountable shortfall to meet the service's annual quota.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard B. Myers, told a town-hall meeting at the Pentagon today that the Army had exceeded its June quota, but gave no details. Senior Army officials said in interviews earlier in the day that the Army had exceeded the goal of 5,650 recruits by about 500 people. The Army Reserve also made its first monthly quota since last December, the official said.

But that still leaves the active-duty Army about 7,800 recruits behind schedule to send 80,000 enlistees to boot camp with only three months to go in the recruiting year, which ends on Sept. 30. The Army has not missed its annual enlistment quota since 1999, when a strong economy made recruiters' lives miserable.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/29/national/29cnd-recruit.html?pagewanted=print

But to compound the lie even further, back on June 9th:

"One number matters: 80,000," Hilferty said. "The Army's fiscal 2005 goal was, is and remains 80,000 recruits."

Others, speaking privately, said the official optimism is sagging rapidly. They note that with only four months left in the budget year, the Army is at barely 50 percent of its goal. Recruiters would have to land more than 9,760 young men and women a month, on average, to reach the 80,000 target by the end of September.

In other words, they would have to far exceed their official targets, which range from 5,650 to 9,250 a month.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/06/09/national/printable700721.shtml

Which means that they lowered the May number from 8,050 to 6,700 and only got a little over 5,000. Since they truly needed 9,760 in June and only signed up 5,650, they fell short by 4,110 (42%)- meaning during July they will need to recruit 13,870 just to get back on track.

Please point them to the Young Yellow Republican's Convention in Las Vegas starting Wednesday next week - http://www.yrnc2005.com/index.cfm

Once again, we can't believe any single thing this mis-adminstration tells us.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. ah good catch

they have been doing this for three years now with all services... so it does not shock me they went ahem, public with this

Short story... before hubby retired we lived in Hawaii, and our neighboor was a recruiter. One day we got a talking... well here is how they did it. He had, for rought numbers, a goal of 100 recurits a month, when he got 96 well gee golly it became 96. It is now clear in the wash, as ships are deploying short and the sailor is the cheapest component.

[FreedomAngel82]

2. Very very interesting

I thought the Pentagon wasn't going to release recruitment numbers?

[Kolesar]

3. Yes, I recall they announced a change to their counting methods...

...a few weeks ago. Sums would not be announced by the individual services, they would be done "by the Pentagon". I have a hunch that this June attainment is a lie.

[pocket]

4. "military lies"

in a related story, water is wet.

[Yavin4]

5. Stop Picking on The Young Republicans. They Have Done Their Service.

They bought a Toby Keith CD. What more sacrifices do you want them to make?

[Ian_rd]

6. From Homeland Security ...

BR_Parkway,

I'm afraid retrieving information from the memory hole and comparing it to the latest Ministry of Truth press releases is not only a symptom of America Hatred, but is a treasonable offense. I encourage you to turn yourself in at once!

---

There's nothing that irks the Bush Administration more than an American citizen with a memory and the willingness to do a little homework. Well done.

[BR_Parkway]

21. Thanks and welcome to DU. Now that it made the front page, I feel like I

should probably get my affairs in order. A friend of mine who is here on a work visa asked me to stop emailing her political stuff. Not that she disagrees in the least, but she doesn't want to get targeted somehow. What has this country become?

[Nordmadr]

7. Also keep in mind that June is one of the prime months for

recruitment. It is when high school seniors are graduating and typically entering boot camp, July as well. If you do not see a large uptick in numbers for these two months, forget about reaching any kind of goal. You will also note that the goal for May had been 8,050, arbitrarily lowered to 6,700. Why? Not because they suddenly realized they didn't need more people. The ONLY reason was to make the numbers not look so bad. So they realize that in the slower month of May they were only able to get 5,000, so why not simply put the June numbers a little higher than that, and presto, goal achieved. It is strictly publicity, and tremendously dishonest at that. If the original goal for May was over 8,000, then June should have been higher than that. They get 6,150 in June and think they should throw themselves a ticker tape parade even though the number of 5,650 is perilously low. The reality is that these numbers are anemic and they are falling farther behind. Up is down and black is white.

Olaf

[alfredo]

26. They lowballed their projection so they can claim an improvement.

I wonder how many were accelerated enlistments.

[Straight Shooter]

8. I want to know who is giving them the orders to manipulate numbers.

Someone is exerting a tremendous amount of pressure.

Like everything else, it doesn't matter what is actually happening, all that matters is what people can be persuaded to believe is happening. What makes me angriest about this is that the American people are failing to recognize that the lower the recruitment numbers, the higher the danger to our troops being caught in an endless cycle of deployments to Iraq. Someone in the military corridors of power needs to have an epiphany and start telling the truth, that we cannot treat our soldiers as if they were androids.

[DeepModem Mom]

9. Funny -- I almost posted the goal story in LBN, but knew it was suspect --

and probably not worth posting here -- so I didn't.

[paineinthearse]

10. Did you expect the truth?

Change the goal to match the actual numbers, easy.

Just like remotely dialing into a Diebold tabulator to change election results.

Did you expect the truth?

[BR_Parkway]

13. I should be able to expect the truth, after all, they're supposed to

be representing me, one of the American public.

Did I actually expect it? Sadly, no.

[paineinthearse]

11. Letter to my rep, who serves on the HASC

My representative, Marty Meehan, sits on the House Armed Services Committee.

Just sent him this message:

(Staffer),

Please bring this DU thread - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3988077&mesg_id=3988077 - and the 3 articles (NYT & CBS news) to Marty's attention.

I ask him as a member of the HASC committee to write a letter to the chair requesting an investigation into the changing goals and the the moving target.

(me)
(position in the party).

[Auntie Bush]

12. Meyers is a Liar!

[TechBear_Seattle]

14. In business, this is called "restating earnings"

Sometimes, restating earnings is neutral. After all, honest accounting mistakes do happen, and it is ethical to release corrected figures once the mistake has been discovered and corrected.

Usually, a company will restate it's earnings by, as did the Army, changing goals after the fact. This might be done to retain or improve consumer confidence in the company or to retain or improve the value of the company's stock. In this kind of situation, restating earnings is not only ethically wrong, it is criminal. CEOs, CFOs and other corporate officers have gone to jail for doing what the Army has done.

[newyawker99]

17. Hi TechBear_Seattle!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[HamstersFromHell]

25. So, Arthur Andersen and Co. are now keeping count for the Army?

I woulda never suspected. :sarcasm:

[Supersedeas]

15. great work BR_P

[mom cat]

16. Fuzzy, fuzzy ,fuzzy........ it must be that new math!

[KnaveRupe]

18. dubya sez:

Hey, what do you expect?

'rithmetickin' is hard work.

[katinmn]

19. Wolfie on CNN breathlessly reported the "good news" last night.

I knew it was a lie because the Pentagon delayed releasing the numbers because they were bad. They needed to recalibrate the facts.

Once again, corporate media is an accessory.

[Joey Liberal]

20. Our military has become the GOP Gestapo

Fucking Bush and his stooges have corrupted our military.

[uppityperson]

22. Chocolate rations were increased again.

War is Peace

[oasis]

23. Brittney Spears, Ron Silver, Wayne Newton and other celebs who support

Bush's war should do recruitment ads for the armed services.

If they really believe the bullshit they are telling the public. "The President is doing a great job" and "He's our leader, we should trust him".

Do your part, Kood Aid drinking Hollywoodites.

[Tommymac]

24. No, they should not do ads...

They should enlist.

[oasis]

27. They won't dare do either. They can see the wheels coming off because of

Rummy's folly.

[enough]

28. Excellent work, BR_Parkway! (nt)

[yy4me]

29. Spam blocker or not...

I have the Army in my Den. Daily, as I close out my Internet session, hitting me square in the face is a large Army ad "Are you between the ages of 17 & 38? Do you want to have some fun. Picture of Jeep and 2 soldiers. Bottom of ad, "Want to see your name in headlines?" (What headlines?)My spam blocker doesn't seen to catch this and I will not "click here" How do I get rid of this thing? I don't want their offensive recruitment ads in my house. PS, Thought they met their goals. Who pays for this, anyway? I bet its us!

[erpowers]

30. Any Liberals?

Are any liberal picking up on this and pointing this out?