The state's Air National Guard also reported a shortfall, and similar shortages have been reported among National Guard units throughout the United States.

"It's the first time we've missed our goal in at least 10 years," said Lt. Col. Pete Brooks of the S.C. National Guard. "Our goal was to have 9,200 soldiers on board. We ended up with about 9,100."

Brooks attributed the shortfall to the war in Iraq and the improving economy, but the reasons could run deeper than that.

The active-duty Army and the Army Reserve actually exceeded their recruiting goals nationwide, suggesting the various military components are competing for the same people.

"We brought in about 1,300 new people this year," Brooks said, "or about 100 shy of what we wanted."

Deployments to Iraq are a likely reason for the drop in the number of recruits.

Of the 9,100 Army Guardsmen who wear the state's Palmetto tree emblem, roughly 2,000 are deployed somewhere, Brooks said. Included are 1,800 who are in Iraq or nearby countries, and the number is rising.

Last month, 650 members of South Carolina's 1st Battalion, 178th Field Artillery, left Fort Dix, N.J., for what could become a yearlong deployment to Iraq and Kuwait.

It marked the S.C. National Guard's largest single deployment since the war in Iraq began 18 months ago.

In the meantime, another unit, the 1st Battalion, 151st Aviation, will soon leave its training base at Fort Bragg, N.C., for the Persian Gulf. That means about 200 more South Carolinians will be deployed, Brooks said.

None who are away from home now are expected to return before the end of 2004.

At the same time, the state's Air National Guard reported an end-of-the-year shortfall of about 80 people, according to Lt. Col. Les Carroll, an Air Guard spokesman.

"A combination of more losses and fewer recruits put us below our desired strength of about 1,250," Carroll said, but reasons for the shortfall were hard to pinpoint.

Only 36 Air Guard members were on active duty as of Thursday and barely a dozen were overseas.

The shortfalls, according to another spokesman, mean the National Guard will have to add benefits and recruit harder.

"We're adding 1,400 new recruiters to the 2,700 we have now," said Lt. Col. Mike Jones with the National Guard Bureau. "And we're encouraging our recruiters to work more closely with the school districts and adding more money for college."

Also, "we're offering an $8,000 enlistment bonus for recruits who agree to enter in the top 10 (military jobs), including transportation, maintenance, and military police. That's where our greatest need lies."

Click here to return to story:
http://www.charleston.net/stories/100104/loc_01recruiting.shtml