The Army has exceeded its fiscal 2025 recruiting goal with four months to spare, with 61,000 future soldiers signing up and average per-day enlistments up over last year by more than 50%, officials announced Tuesday.
The massive surge in recruiting is a major win for the Trump administration, specifically for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has focused heavily on rolling back woke military policies that he said were hurting recruiting and military readiness and otherwise negatively affecting America’s armed forces.
One of the steps he is taking is the identification and administrative separation of transgender troops from the force.
On Tuesday, Mr. Hegseth ordered the Navy to change the name of a ship named after gay rights icon Harvey Milk, though the Pentagon later issued a statement saying no official renamings had been announced.
Exactly what impact any specific policy may have on recruiting is unclear, but officials argue that the Trump administration’s overall approach entices more young men and women to sign up.
“I’m incredibly proud of our U.S. Army recruiters and drill sergeants,” Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll said in a statement. “Their colossal efforts and dedication to duty helped the U.S. Army accomplish our FY25 annual recruiting goal a full four months ahead of schedule.
“I want to thank the commander in chief, President Trump, and Secretary of Defense Hegseth for their decisive leadership and support in equipping, training and supporting these future soldiers as they face a world of global uncertainty and complex threats,” Mr. Driscoll said.
“Putting soldiers first is having a tangible impact and shows that young people across our country want to be part of the most lethal land fighting force the world has ever seen.”
Mr. Hegseth has stressed that strengthening the “warrior” culture inside the military is his top priority. That was reportedly his rationale for ordering the renaming of the USNS Harvey Milk, an oiler that replenishes fuel stocks for other ships.
Multiple news outlets, led by Military.com, reported that Mr. Hegseth had issued a memorandum ordering Navy Secretary John Phelan to have the ship renamed. The new name was not specified.
The renaming is part of “alignment with president and SECDEF objectives and SECNAV priorities of reestablishing the warrior culture,” the memo reportedly reads in part.
It reportedly says the change was scheduled to be announced on June 13, coinciding with LGBTQ Pride Month.
A Pentagon spokesman did not deny the stories but said nothing had been announced.
“Secretary Hegseth is committed to ensuring that the names attached to all DOD installations and assets are reflective of the Commander-in-Chief’s priorities, our nation’s history, and the warrior ethos. Any potential renaming(s) will be announced after internal reviews are complete,” spokesman Sean Parnell said.
Milk was a Navy veteran who resigned his officer position in 1955 after facing questions about his sexuality, his foundation states.
His main claim to fame was becoming the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in the U.S. after winning a 1977 election for a position on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He was assassinated by fellow supervisor Dan White in November 1978.
The USNS Milk belongs to a class of oiler ships that were all to be named for civil rights leaders, per an instruction from Navy Secretary Ray Mabus under President Obama in 2016.
CBS News reported that the military is also considering renaming the Milk’s sister ships, including vessels named after Underground Railroad leader Harriet Tubman, suffragist Lucy Stone, civil rights activist Medgar Evers, U.S. Supreme Court Justices Thurgood Marshall and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Hispanic labor activists Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat representing San Francisco, told CBS News that renaming “the USNS Harvey Milk and other ships in the John Lewis-class is a shameful, vindictive erasure of those who fought to break down barriers for all to chase the American dream.”
Mr. Hegseth doesn’t see things that way.
During a speech last month at the Special Operations Forces Week convention in Tampa, Florida, he made clear that he intends to oversee a cultural shift in the armed forces that supporters say has a direct, positive impact on recruiting.
“We are leaving wokeness and weakness behind. No more pronouns, no more climate change obsession, no more emergency vaccine mandates. No more dudes in dresses. We’re done with that s—-,” Mr. Hegseth said. “We’re focused on lethality, meritocracy, accountability, standards and readiness.”
“Our combat formations don’t need to look like Harvard University,” said the secretary, who ironically has degrees from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and Ivy League rival Princeton University.
“They need to look like killers. Trained, skilled and prepared. Standards need to be high, and they need to be gender neutral,” he said.
The Army’s goal of 61,000 recruits was significantly higher than last year’s target of 55,000. In meeting the goal with months to spare in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, the Army has reversed years of lagging recruiting numbers.
Army officials said the average daily number of recruit contracts signed this year exceeded last year’s levels by as much as 56%.
The Army will commemorate its 250th anniversary on June 14.
• Brad Matthews contributed to this report.
