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New Army program seeks recruits

The U.S. Army is launching a new program that it hopes will bring 3,000 more recruits a year into its ranks.

With ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army is eager to find young people who want to enlist. But recruiters say that only 28 percent of individuals between the ages of 17 and 25 are qualified for military service. They contend some candidates cannot meet the physical standards, while others lack the necessary high school diploma.

So at Fort Jackson, South Carolina – the Army's largest basic training post – 117 students are enrolled in the Army's first prep school. Patrick Jones is with the Army Public Affairs office there.

"Basically, it's a four-week course to address the education portion that [was] lacking for some of these people," Jones explains. "t's a year-long pilot program, and at the end of that year they'll determine whether or not it's something we need to keep up with and possibly expand to other installations."

Jones says the students experience both the classroom and their first taste of military life. "They do academic studies combined with some of the more basic drill and ceremony, military courtesies, and physical training," he adds. "At the end of the four weeks, they will have taken the test and, if they get their GED, then they in fact go on to the basic combat training."

If candidates fail to pass the test, Jones notes they are given a second chance to take it. If they fail again, he says they are released back into civilian life. Three people, according to Jones, were already sent through the prep school in a test program and are doing very well in the Army.