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Waitaminute. If the services are meeting their recruitment goals, why are they also demanding involuntary extension of service? Just a few weeks ago, there was a story about a unit that was on it's way home; then, with 24 hours notice, they were told that they would not be deactivated, but would be sent back to Iraq. If the military has enough people, then why do things like that?

There's a conflict between:

(1) what the bureau of personnel DOES (keep people for involuntarily tour extensions)

And:

(2) what the DOD SAYS (recruitment goals are being met).

The most likely explanation for this conflict is that the DOD is being less than forthcoming. My best guess is that the recruitment "goals" are generated only after recruitment numbers (or good estimates thereof) are in, and that those "goals" are picked to make the actual recruitment numbers look good. If that's true, then the "fact" that recruitment goals are being met may not be a useful piece of data.

Recruiting numbers are posted well in advance for all to see. If fudging was being done on recruit and then make the numbers, rest assured that would be NYTimes headlines. I was a Navy Recruiter so I do have some experience in this matter. I was a recruiter when the draft was nixed.

As far as extensions, that is an extension of the tour. That has nothing at all to do with recruiting. Tour extensions happen all the time. Many times I experienced an extension of a six month deployment to nine month deployment. It just happens. Oh, by the way, we still had a draft at that time.