Fort Wood to add two training companies; more recruits to arrive

Buoyed by an increase in recruiting, the U.S. Army will expand its basic combat training in what its leaders hope reflects a turning point as it prepares to meet the challenges of future wars.

Two companies are coming to Fort Leonard Wood, the sprawling installation located near northwest Texas County. It has a major influence in the region’s economy.

The added training will begin in October and comes as the Army tries to reverse years of dismal recruiting when it failed to meet its enlistment goals. New units in Oklahoma and Fort Leonard Wood will train as many as 4,000 recruits every year.

Army leaders are optimistic they will hit their target of 55,000 recruits this year and say the influx of new soldiers forced them to increase the number of training sites.

“I am happy to say last year’s recruiting transformation efforts have us on track to make this year’s recruiting mission, with thousands awaiting basic training” in the next year,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said. Adding the two new locations, she said, is a way to get the soldiers trained and into units quickly, “with further expansion likely next spring if our recruiting numbers keep improving.”

The expanded training is part of a broader effort to restructure the Army so it is better able to fight against a sophisticated adversary such as Russia or China. The U.S. military spent much of the past two decades battling insurgent groups in Iraq and Afghanistan rather than fighting a broader war with another high-tech, more capable nation.

Brig. Gen. Jenn Walkawicz, head of operations for the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command, said there will be two new training companies at Fort Sill in Oklahoma and two at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri.

She added that Fort Sill and Fort Leonard Wood have the infrastructure, the barracks and the room to accommodate the new units and could take more if needed. The costs of the program are limited because the Army already had the equipment and rooms required, but there will be maintenance, food, staffing and other costs. Army officials did not provide a total price.

The move to add units is the latest change in what has been a tumultuous time for the Army. Coming out of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, when the service grew dramatically to fill the nation’s combat needs, the U.S. military began to see recruiting dip.

Unemployment has been low, corporate jobs pay well and offer good benefits, and, according to estimates, just 23% of people age 17 to 24 are physically, mentally and morally qualified to serve without receiving some type of waiver. Moral behavior issues include drug use, gang ties or a criminal record.

Those problems were only amplified as the coronavirus pandemic took hold, preventing recruiters from meeting with students in person at schools, fairs and other public events.

In 2022, the Army fell 15,000 short of its enlistment goal of 60,000, and the other services had to dig deep into their pools of delayed entry candidates to meet their recruiting numbers. Then in 2023, the Army, Navy and Air Force all missed their recruitment targets. The Marine Corps and the tiny Space Force have consistently hit their goals.

Partly in response to the recruiting shortfalls, Army leaders slashed the size of the force by about 24,000, or almost 5%. They said many of the cuts were in already vacant jobs.

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