The Air National Guard, with Georgia taking the lead, strengthened its ranks in April as compared to March, though it remains slightly below its overall recruiting goal for the year. The Army National Guard also was short of its recruiting goals, but each National Guard force retained its experienced Soldiers and Airmen at a high level. 

The Air National Guard, across the nation, finished April with 106,063 Airmen assigned as compared to 106,020 in March. It's the first month-to-month increase since the federal fiscal year began Oct. 1, 2004. The April figure is 99.4 percent of the Air Guard's overall strength goal of 106,700 for the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30 of this year. 

Nationally, he Army National Guard finished April with 331,019 soldiers in its ranks, or 94.5 percent of its fiscal year goal of 350,000. The April numbers put the service at 97 percent of the 342,180 Soldiers it had hoped to have by the end of March. Still, April was the second-best recruiting month of the current year, coming behind March, and better than the number of new recruits who joined in April 2004. 

"The decreasing number of Army National Guard Soldiers mobilized may have contributed to this success," said Brig. Gen. Frank J. Grass, the Army Guard's deputy director. "We've recently peaked after 18 months at 90,000 to 100,000 Soldiers mobilized, to just more than 76,400 today. 

"We expect our requirements will decrease as the active-duty force builds more deployable brigades and the Iraqi security forces are able to assume greater levels of responsibility," Grass added. "That, of course, will reduce the need for Army National Guard combat units."

Army Guard mobilizations peaked in January 2005 with 104,806 Soldiers mobilized. As of May 9 that number stood at 76,472.

"The Georgia Army National Guard leads the nation's trend for improved success in recruiting," said Lt. Col. Pete VanAmburgh, who commands Georgia's Recruiting and Retention Battalion at Joint Forces Headquarters in Ellenwood. 

"With overall accessions of new Soldiers exceeding previous years' totals, and a second-place ranking in the nation for recruiter productivity, our recruiters are leading the way for the Army Guard's improved recruiting trend, " he said.

Georgia's Recruiting & Retention Battalion did not exhibit the slowdown in recruiting seen by many of the services, VanAmburgh said. Instead, the organization has grown and become more productive even while others have slipped, he explained. VanAmburgh reported that his people live by the creed "Strength & Honor," and they stay focused on finding the best and brightest in the state who are willing to commit to service in the Guard.

"We've built a strong team of professional noncommissioned officers, all of whom use the best recruiting practices and organizational theories available," VanAmburgh said. "None of us settle for anything but the best from ourselves." 

As of May 26, the Georgia Army National Guard has enlisted more than 1,000 Soldiers during this fiscal year and will exceed all mission requirements from National Guard Bureau. 
For the year, the Air National Guard has recruited 4,817 new Airmen or 80.2 percent of its year-to-date goal of 6,004. The Army National Guard has recruited 26,181 new soldiers or 76.6 percent of its 34,167 goal. 

"We're optimistic that our strength will continue to grow," said Lt. Gen. Daniel James III, Air National Guard director. "New directions for recruiting and increases in the incentives will help us accomplish that."

While recruiting figures have slowed, the number of Soldiers and Airmen electing to stay in the Guard remains high. 

"Retention looks good," said Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum, National Guard Bureau chief. "Soldiers and Airmen, who already know the pride and benefits of serving, because they've experienced it, continue to come back."

As of the end of April, 18,796 Army National Guard Soldiers had decided to re-enlist. That's 565 more than expected for the period, or 103.1 percent of the Guard's goal. So far this fiscal year, the Air National Guard has separated only 6,230 Airmen, 948 fewer than expected. 

The Army National Guard goal of 5,034 was off by just 47 Soldiers, while the Air National Guard exceeded its goal by retaining more than 1,068 members.