US Army 5000 short of lower enlisted infantry

Enlistments are down. Particularly for the infantry. However, re-enlistments are up especially for those deployed to Afghanistan.

The Army was short more than 5,000 junior enlisted infantrymen, with the military occupational specialty manned at roughly 79 percent of its goal earlier this quarter. In numbers obtained by Army Times, the service’s authorized strength for E-1 through E-4 active-duty infantrymen, coded as 11B, stood at 24,893. But the service only had 19,820 junior enlisted infantrymen, according to official fourth quarter numbers dated July 10.



Indirect fire infantrymen, coded as 11C, were doing a fair bit better, with 2,706 E-1 through E-4 soldiers manning the career field out of the 3,050 troops for which the Army is authorized.



In order to close the gap, the service began offering massive enlistment bonuses topping out at $40,000 for new recruits and up to $41,000 for soldiers who reclassify, said Lt. Col. Mary Ricks, an official with Army Human Resources Command.



The goal is to increase the 11B and 11C MOS strengths to 100 percent by spring of 2020, and the service said it has already made progress to that end.