The Army exceeded its recruiting goal for fiscal year 2009 and is entering the new year with more than 43 percent of its mission in its delayed entry pool, officials announced Wednesday.  (Note:  The delayed entry pool is made up of individuals who have signed a contract but are delayed in leaving for basic training.  This usually consists of high school seniors or individuals awaiting specialized training.)

The service recruited 70,045 new soldiers in fiscal 2009, which ended Sept. 30. That’s 108 percent of its goal of 65,000.

The Army National Guard reported 56,071 new soldiers, more than 100 percent of its goal of 56,000, and the Army Reserve recruited 23,684 new soldiers, 105 percent of its annual goal of 22,500.

Fiscal 2009 was the first time all components across the Defense Department met their number and quality goals since the military became an all-volunteer force in 1973, Bill Carr, deputy under secretary of defense for military personnel policy, said during a briefing Wednesday at the Pentagon.

For the Army, officials said 1.5 percent of recruits in 2009 scored in Category IV of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, compared with 3.6 percent in 2008. These recruits are those who score in the 15th to 30th percentile on the ASVAB. In addition, about 220 of the 70,045 recruits received conduct waivers for serious misconduct, compared with more than 300 the year before. (Note:  Ths means the quality of the Soldiers increased from FY08 to FY09).

In fiscal 2010, the active Army aims to recruit 74,500 new soldiers. As of Wednesday, the Army had more than 32,300 people in its delayed entry pool — people who have enlisted but have not shipped to basic training. That number is more than 43 percent of the annual recruiting goal, the highest it has been since 2004.