WASHINGTON (Army News Service, April 8, 2005) -- Although the Army has not yet decided what to do about Individual Ready Reserve Soldiers who refuse service, their numbers are "miniscule," Lt. Gen. F.L. Hagenbeck, Army G-1 (Personnel), said April 7.

"We have the authority to recall 6,500 from IRR," Hagenbeck said during a media roundtable discussion. "So far we recalled 3,900. Fifty percent of those have reported and are marching out. We've had some requests for deferments. The number who have said they won't serve is miniscule."

Brig. Gen. Sean Byrne, director of military personnel management, who also attended the round table, said the Army is attempting to make major changes in the IRR to eliminate "ghost Soldiers" from the IRR.

"The plan for that is currently in the staffing stage. We're working to identify the people, validate that they have an obligation and determine who has a team obligation. We have a large number of people working on that," Byrne said.

Figures from Army G-1 indicate that 3,992 mobilizations have been approved so far. Of those,1,728 Individual Ready Reserve Soldiers have not requested a delay or exemption form service; 2,264 have requested delay or exemption and 1,914 of those requests have been approved. There were 81 requests that were not approved.

Although he acknowledged that monthly recruiting numbers are down, Hagenbeck said those shortfalls are not expected to keep the Army from reaching its annual recruiting goal of 80,000 new Soldiers.

"We will not sacrifice quality for quantity," he said. "It's not just a snapshot in time we're looking at, but at the total picture and the total timeframe."

Hagenbeck said the active-duty Army has no plan to increase the maximum age at which it will recruit Soldiers to 39 as has been done in the reserve component.

He added that not everyone who is in the pool from which the Army recruits is eligible for service.

"If you look at the pool of potential recruits, especially those who are 17 to 21 years old, in that prime market, over 70 percent of those young Americans are not qualified to join the Army," he said. "About 41 percent are not qualified for educational reasons, and the medical or morally disqualified is 23 percent."

Byrne said "medically and morally disqualified" are frequently people with prior civilian convictions.

"We're getting about the same number of young Americans who knock on our door," Hagenbeck said. "What I'm hearing from the recruiters is that the same numbers come in but there are many more 'influencers,' -- parents, teachers, coaches - who are saying 'The Army's not a bad choice, but let's wait and see how this Iraqi business works out."

Hagenbeck said that although the numbers have not yet been acquired to prove it, anecdotal evidence seems to show that recruitment recovered slightly after the successful Iraqi elections.

Hagenbeck also addressed Stop-Loss and its impact on recruitment.

"Stop-Loss will shrink over time," Hagenbeck said. "It was developed as a means of unit lifecycle management. We think there will be little need for Stop-Loss after four years, but that there will always be a need for it in specialized cases."

Byrne pointed out that, in some cases where the Army expected a need for Stop-Loss, increased retention efforts have forestalled the need.

Hagenbeck said Stop-Loss was designed to keep units together for a minimum of 36 months.

"We want to build these teams so that they're not meeting and shaking hands on the battlefield," he said.