The Nation - News from Dec. 24, 1986

The military services met their recruiting goals for the seventh consecutive year in fiscal 1986, reinforcing the Pentagon’s view that there is no need to reinstitute a draft, a top official said. The Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force also continued during the last year to attract near-record numbers of recruits with high school diplomas and to maintain high reenlistment levels, said Chapman B. Cox, assistant defense secretary for force management. Of the 315,300 first-time recruits, 289,000, or almost 92%, had graduated from high school, he said.