After a rocky start to the volunteer military in the late 1970s, since 1980 the United States military services have met or exceeded their recruiting and retention goals in most years and have done so at reasonable cost. The ongoing conflict in Iraq is the U.S. military's first protracted conflict since the inception of the volunteer force and raises questions about its impacts on recruiting, retention, and cost. This article briefly examines the effects of the war on recruiting, retention, and cost and studies ways of expanding the size of the active Army force, including a return to conscription.
Military Services Fitness Database: Development of a Computerized Physical Fitness and Weight Management Database for the U.S. Army