Army

Army Set To Expand Basic Training Amid Flood Of New Recruits

6 February 2025

Recruitment has surged since President Trump’s election in November.

By Tim Pearce  |  The Daily Wire

The U.S. Army is expanding the number of recruits it can send to basic training by opening a slew of new training camps in Missouri and Oklahoma.

Recruitment into the Army has surged this fiscal year, which started in October. By January, the Army had already hit the halfway point toward its recruiting goal for the year. After years of struggling to hit its goals, the branch has seen a recruiting surge in the past few months.

Many of those recruits could end up at new basic training camps being set up across Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and Fort Sill, Oklahoma. The ten additional training units expected to be built can train up to 9,600 recruits at a time, according to Military.com.

“Expanding basic training capacity is a result of successful recruiting efforts and the Future Soldier Preparatory Course,” Lt. Gen. David Francis, commander for the U.S. Army Center for Initial Military Training, said in a statement.

“This is a great problem to have as we continue to train the most capable and lethal soldiers for our Army.”

The Future Soldier Preparatory Course is a program recently launched by the Army to help potential recruits meet the branch’s body weight and academic standards. The program has helped bolster recruiting in recent years.

Recruitment has boomed in the months following President Donald Trump’s election. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on Tuesday that Army recruiting in January hit its highest numbers in 15 years.

“In December 2024, the @USArmy had its best recruiting number in 12 years. In January 2025, the Army hit its best recruiting number in 15 YEARS,” Hegseth posted. “BOTTOM LINE: America’s youth want to serve under the bold & strong ‘America First’ leadership of @realDonaldTrump.”

Former Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said in mid-January, days before Trump took office, that the Army is on track to bring in 81,000 new recruits: 61,000 for 2025 and another 20,000 in a delayed entry program for 2026.

“What’s really remarkable is the first quarter contracts that we have signed are the highest rate in the last 10 years,” Wormuth said. “We are going like gangbusters, which is terrific.”

Wormuth, who served as former President Joe Biden’s Army Secretary, denied that poor recruiting and missed goals in recent years were caused by military leadership and culture becoming “woke.”

Trump disagreed and campaigned on getting “woke” out of the military by scrapping programs connected with DEI and other controversial agendas.

Hegseth has prioritized refocusing the U.S. military on lethality and mission success. He said in his confirmation hearing in the Senate that the military’s focus on other issues has deterred men, especially white men, from signing up.

During his confirmation, Hegseth credited Trump’s election with the surge in recruiting for the military.

“We’ve already seen it in recruiting numbers,” Hegseth said. “There’s already been a surge since President Trump won the election.”

First published on Daily Wire

Some comments from the article:

“Isn’t it interesting that when you stop disparaging Americans and the military, and you actually have a president who supports the military, the recruiting numbers turn around? Is almost as if people didn’t want to serve in the military under a president who hated them and cared more about woke policies than the soldiers. Who could have guessed?”

“By January, the Army had already hit the halfway point toward its recruiting goal for the year.” That’s what young Americans think about your toxic woke DEI programs and “toxic masculinity” hysteria, Democrats. As soon as a REAL man, with a real resume as a warrior, not a Pentagon paper-pushing ex-General took the helm, young men starting flocking back to our military.”

“I served in Afghanistan and then I was still in the military when Biden pulled everyone out. I didn’t reup and got out in 2022. Lots of diversity briefings, the fitness test was changed to be so easy it was a joke, and the whole Afghanistan thing. But now Trump comes in, this could be good.”

“I can start promoting the military as a career option again.”

“Same, friend of mine is PSG of an Aid Station on a southern base, that hopefully will revert to its original name….Troopers reenlisting has skyrocketed….Airborne!”

“Back to merit based policies. I’m all for it!”

“My husband is a combat vet and I have 2 currently serving active duty Army sons. I’m thrilled with our new military leadership!”

“I’m shocked, shocked that drag queen story hour didn’t create this kind of recruiting bonanza!”

“It boils down to the people who volunteer to serve and sacrifice believing that the administration will value them and not treat them as if they are the problem.”

“‘Recruitment into the Army has surged this fiscal year,’ and this is a good thing. I know that some families were wary of their children going into the military while Joe Biden was in office, but President Trump brings enough confidence and just a type of American spirit for young people to start confidently joining the military again. One way to Make America Great Again is to Make the U.S. Military Great Again, and seeing this recruitment surge is a positive.”

“It’s almost as if an anti-American administration and a recruitment strategy focusing on DEI and discouraging masculinity was producing a shortage of recruits. Who could have seen that coming?!”

“‘After years of struggling to hit its goals, the branch has seen a recruiting surge in the past few months.’ How can this be? This is a real head-scratcher! 🤔

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