Quote of note:

While it is unclear precisely why enrollments have dropped, Army officials and defense experts say the decline probably mirrors the problems the Army has had recruiting generally, as some potential recruits fear they will be sent into a war zone after earning their second-lieutenant bar at graduation. Some ROTC programs, such as the one at the University of New Hampshire, have seen more than 80 percent of their graduates fight in Afghanistan or Iraq over the past few years, and the Army's increasing need for young, capable officers has been drawing more ROTC graduates into the fighting ranks.

Enrollment in Army ROTC Down in Past 2 School Years
More Officers Now Being Commissioned From Earlier Pool, But Problem Looms

By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 24, 2005; Page A03

Nationwide enrollment in the Army's Reserve Officers' Training Corps has slipped more than 16 percent over the past two school years, leaving the program, which trains and commissions more than six of every 10 new Army officers each year, with its fewest participants in nearly a decade.

The decline includes a drop of 10 percent from the 2003-04 school year to the term ending this spring. According to the Army's Cadet Command at Fort Monroe, Va., which supervises ROTC, 26,566 students are enrolled in the program now, down from 29,618 last year and 31,765 in 2002-03, the first full school year after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Pre-Sept. 11 enrollments were also higher than they are now.

At the same time, the number of officers commissioned through the program has been increasing, as students who joined ROTC three and four years ago rise to their senior year. But that increase has occurred as the Army has ridden the bubble of larger incoming classes from the beginning of the decade. Army and ROTC officials are concerned that flagging enrollments could soon strain the program's ability to meet its annual quotas for commissioned officers.