Mandatory budget cuts caused the Army to shed more than 100,000 troops from 2010 to 2016. The Army was not only recruiting fewer soldiers, but was forcing troops out. Fulfilling a campaign promise to stop the drawdown, he signed a bill that expanded the Army to 476,000. That still left a much larger-than-normal task for Army recruiters amid a roaring economy. First Class Michael T. Peppers, the commander of a strip mall recruiting station next to a Subway and a Tasty Tacos in Urbandale, Iowa.

Source: New York Times September 21, 2018 23:37 UTC