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... The milestone comes as the service continues to grapple with a historic recruitment crisis, the worst since the Vietnam War, underscoring the uphill battle to convince young Americans to don the uniform.

The promising year in recruiting also gives the incoming Trump administration enormous momentum as recruiting woes have been among the top issues at the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill.

President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, has pledged to make recruitment a top priority, often citing cultural and political grievances as the root of the military's recent difficulties, but with no evidence to support those claims.

Instead, the Army's struggles have mostly been attributed to young Americans not qualifying for service, either failing to meet body fat or academic standards. In 2022, the Army stood up the Future Soldier Preparatory Courses, training camps for applicants to get up to snuff with those standards.

Nearly one-quarter of the 55,000 soldiers recruited last year went through one of those courses and would have otherwise not been able to serve. That allowed the Army to meet its recruiting goals in 2024 after missing its enlistment goals since 2022. ...