Combining the continued threat of the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) and the changing attitudes of the present youth market, can the U.S. Army meet its recruitment goals in the upcoming years? This study examines the validity of the United States Army Recruiting Command's (USAREC) current advertising and recruiting campaign. Paramount to discovery is the efficacy of the message and of recruiter training. If either or both send mixed, unappealing, or confusing signals, recruiting will suffer. Meeting recruitment goals is the primary motivation for any advertising campaign just as it is in the Army; therefore, USAREC must effectively target its advertising and training in order to meet recruiting goals throughout the first decade of the twenty-first century and beyond. To understand the current generation, it is important to know the background of previous generations as each generation is influenced by another. This being said, a review of the last five generational cohorts: G.I., Silent, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y (referred to as Millennials throughout this paper) explains commonalities and differences in generations as they pertain to military or nonmilitary service. This thesis demonstrates that USAREC is leveraging its knowledge of the youth market through advertising and training. Even though recruiting numbers may wane from time to time, the overall messages are parallel to perceived goals, traits, and desires of the Millennial Generation. USAREC correctly adapted its advertising campaigns and must focus recruiter training on learning who the Millennials are.

Approved for public release; Distribution is unlimited. The opinions and conclusions expressed herein are those of the student-authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College or any other governmental agency. (References to these studies should include the foregoing statement.)