The U.S. Army hit its 2025 recruiting goals four months ahead of schedule, the branch’s secretary announced Tuesday.
The news was revealed in a Wall Street Journal op-ed authored by Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who described the branch meeting its 2025 fiscal year goal of 61,000 new recruits as “personal.” The achievement marks the first time in more than a decade that the service “met its recruiting goal in the first week of June,” according to the left-wing Stars and Stripes, citing a Driscoll spokesman.
“From the White House and Congress to the Pentagon, our soldiers are a priority. This is only the beginning. As more Americans learn about the Army’s mission and legacy, I hope more will choose to serve,” Driscoll wrote. “The Army shaped me into the man I am today—and I know it will shape them, too.”
As indicated by Driscoll, the Army and the military writ large regularly struggled to meet their recruiting targets under the Biden administration.
Under the stewardship of then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the Pentagon made advancing racist DEI ideology a top priority. Military specialists and veterans have long argued that implementation of such radical policies hampers the force’s overall cohesion and readiness.
[READ: White Men Don’t Want To Join An Army That Tells Them They Aren’t Wanted]
Since returning to office, President Donald Trump, alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, has focused on revitalizing a strong “warrior ethos” at the Defense Department. This has included actions to gut DEI and trans insanity from the service, restore key sex and fitness standards, reenlist troops booted over the Biden-era Covid shot mandate, and more.
“[F]rom day one at the Department of Defense, our overriding objectives have been clear: restore the warrior ethos, rebuild our military and reestablish deterrence,” Hegseth said in a speech last month. “Everything starts and ends with warriors, from training to the battlefield. We are leaving wokeness and weakness behind. No more pronouns. No more climate change obsession. No more emergency vaccine mandates. No more dudes in dresses, we’re done with that sh-t.”
In a Tuesday tweet, the defense secretary called the Army hitting its 2025 recruiting targets “outstanding,” while Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell teased, “The best is yet to come!”
Other branches of the armed forces also appear to be on track to hit their FY2025 recruiting goals, according to past statements by military officials.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood