The Pentagon now hopes that next month's high school graduations will help it catch up to its recruiting goals.

In the Army, for example, the recruiting goal at the start of the fiscal year 1989 was 135,000 new enlistments.

All the armed services say they will meet or exceed their recruiting goals for the fiscal year ending on Sept. 30.

The Army announced in October that it had fallen short of its 2005 recruiting goals.

"Nationally," he contended, "the bureau has met 61 percent of its 1990 recruiting goal."

Last year, for the first time since the draft ended in 1973, the Navy fell 7,000 short of its annual recruiting goal.

Each of the services met or exceeded its recruiting goals in 2003, and the numbers have increased across the board so far this year.

If the trend is not reversed, officials said today, the Air Force could miss its annual recruiting goal for the first time since 1979.

The Army met its recruiting goal in the 2006 year, which ended at midnight on Sept. 30.

The active-duty branches of the armed services all met their recruiting goals last year.