CF recruiting going well/70,000 members by 2010

One sure hopes all this keeps rolling along.

The military's top human resources manager says the Canadian Forces will hit its recruiting targets, despite a high number of medical discharges.

The military will have 70,000 full-time members by 2010, Rear-Admiral Tyrone Pile, chief of military personnel, told the Senate veterans affairs committee on Wednesday.

"We are going to meet our growth targets and we're on track at the moment,'' said Pile.

Last year more than 25,000 recruiting applications were filled out and the military enrolled over 10,500 men and women into full- and part-time service.

The full-time figure of over 5,800 recruits is in line with the Defence Department's plan to enlist a total of 13,000 new regular soldiers, sailors and aircrew. In addition, the Forces wants to add 10,000 members to reserve units...

On Monday, the head of the army, Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie, said the military is going to have to rely more on civilian contractors and ex-Forces members to train new recruits because many senior non-commissioned officers are busy serving in Afghanistan...