The Nation - News from Feb. 14, 1989

The Army for the first time in eight years has not been able to sign up as many men and women as it needs, signaling harder times ahead in filling the billets of the nation’s all-volunteer military, the Washington Post reported. Lt. Col. John Cullen, spokesman for the U.S. Army Recruiting Command, said that recruiters fell 471 people short of reaching the Army’s goal of signing up 24,143 volunteers for the last quarter of calendar 1988. He attributed this first shortfall since 1980 to a declining population of young people and to a smaller recruiting budget.