As the Army appears to be turning the corner in its years-long recruiting challenges, two new boot camp sites will start creating even more soldiers this fall.
Basic combat training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, will each add two companies of recruits to their training cycles starting in October, officials said.
The service conducts basic combat training at those two locations and at Fort Jackson, South Carolina.
Fort Jackson hosts 43 basic combat training companies, while Fort Sill and Fort Leonard Wood host 19 and 13 companies, respectively, according to Army data.
The four new companies will add an estimated 3,830 soldiers a year to the approximately 117,000 recruits the service trains annually, Maj. Chris Robinson, spokesman for the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command, or TRADOC, told Army Times.
“I am happy to say last year’s recruiting transformation efforts have us on track to make this year’s recruiting mission, with thousands awaiting basic training” in the next year, The Associated Press quoted Army Secretary Christine Wormuth as saying.
Wormuth said adding new companies at the two locations is a way to get the soldiers trained and into units quickly, and more expansion could come next year if recruiting numbers keep getting better.
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Fort Sill and Fort Leonard Wood have the infrastructure, the barracks and space to accommodate the new units and could take more if needed, according to Brig. Gen. Jenn Walkawicz, head of operations at TRADOC.
The costs of the program are limited because the Army already had the equipment and rooms required, but there will be maintenance, food, staffing and other costs, she said.
Army officials did not provide a total price for the expansion
The Army currently runs 75 basic combat training companies. The addition will increase that to 79. The maximum number of recruits that can be assigned to a training company is 240 per cycle, Robinson said. The Army runs an estimated four cycles per company annually.
This means a single training company can produce up to 960 soldiers each year.
Soldiers who go through basic combat training then do follow on, job-specific training called Advanced Individual Training, or AIT.
Fort Moore, Georgia is the home of One Station Unit Training, or OSUT, for Army infantry, armor and related ground combat forces. The OSUT model combines basic combat training with AIT and is not included in the figures provided on standalone basic combat training sites.
There are more than 100 training companies in the OSUT model at Fort Moore, according to Army data.
A big driver of the added numbers has been more soldiers making it through basic training, in large part due to the Future Soldier Prep Course at Fort Jackson, South Carolina.
The program kicked off in August 2022 as a new approach to support enlistees. The prep course gives lower-performing recruits up to three months academic or fitness instruction to help them meet military standards and move on to basic training.
Officials have cited the program as a key reason Army leaders expect they will reverse several years of recruiting shortfalls in the coming months.
Last fiscal year, the Army only managed to sign up slightly more than 50,000 new recruits, short of their own goal of 65,000. Since then the service began an overhaul of its recruiting structure and staffing. That included the creation of a new “talent acquisition technician” job specialty also called 420T, drawn from the warrant officer ranks. Those individuals will work with field recruiters and recruiting commands to better identify and attract talent to the service.
The service has 15 training companies assigned to the prep course. Army leaders have expanded the prep course, which is expected to bring in nearly 20,000 recruits this budget year.
The Associated Press contributed to this article
Todd South has written about crime, courts, government and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written project on witness intimidation. Todd is a Marine veteran of the Iraq War.
