Army surpassing year's retention goal by 15%

Two of every three eligible soldiers continue to re-enlist, putting the Army, which has endured most of the fighting in Iraq, ahead of its annual goal.

The Army was 15% ahead of its re-enlistment goal of 34,668 for the first six months of fiscal year 2006, which ended March 31. More than 39,900 soldiers had re-enlisted, according to figures scheduled to be released today by the Army.

What fantastic news.

The story goes on with more statistics, some of which don't quite add up:

Strong retention has helped the Army offset recruiting that has failed to meet its targets as the war in Iraq has made it harder to attract new soldiers. The Army fell 8% short of its goal of recruiting 80,000 soldiers in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, although it is exceeding its goal this year. Army recruiting figures for the first half of the year are to be released today.

The Army has met or exceeded its goals for retention for the past five years, records show. It was 8% over its goal for 2005, and 7% ahead of its targets for 2004. The number of re-enlistments has exceeded the Army's goal by a larger margin each year since 2001.

I wonder what the explanation for that is - a difference between calendar year and fiscal year, maybe? Or perhaps the 80,000 goal was a much higher goal than usual?

Regardless, this is good news. Go Army!

UPDATE - of course, it turns out the explanation is in the story, and I just missed it. Commenter Scott H points out that the first number is for recruitment, while the second is for retention. The two might overlap, but they are different.