How should our recruiting command approach the future?

The Army should be going back to pre OIF/OEF standards.
Hopefully we will be getting a better quality soldier over the quantity we
needed for the war.

Chief, I'm tracking you here entirely. The Coast Guard is facing the same emphasis on reshaping the workforce. Recruiters are meeting quarterly goals in the first three weeks of the first month. The educational background of those enlisted is better than those in years past. Recruit companies once contained 90-100 SRs now have half that many and the TRACEN is turning out a third fewer classes. My concern becomes when we see SAs/SNs leaving boot camp or even initial term PO3s who are "too educated' to scrape, prime and paint. There is an super advantage to having a better educated leaner more focused workforce, but when the college educated Bull Seaman tells the chief that polishing the brass on the quarter deck is beneath him, then we have a problem.

We want these people but recruiters need to be proactive about managing the expectations of those new ascensions. There is too much research that supports the idea that there is a generation of people out there who have more education than any similar group in history, but have the notion that they will be in charge on the first day at work. Good question! Something we're going to face for the foreseeable future.