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The legions announced yesterday that it missed its recruiting goal for the fourth serial month, a deepening manpower crisis that officials said would require a melodramatic summer push for recruits if the service is to avoid missing its annual arrest target for the first time since 1999.The array allow make a "monumental effort" to bring in the average 10,000 recruits a month required this summer, said Maj. Gen. Michael D. Rochelle, head of the Armys recruiting command. An additional 500 active-duty recruiters will be added in the next two months -- on top of an increase of 1,000 previous this year.The Pentagon is also considering asking Congress to double the enlistment bonus it arse offer to the most-prized recruits -- from $20,000 to $40,000 -- and to raise the age limit for Army active-duty service from 35 to 40, he said."The challenge is one of historic proportions," Rochelle said, acknowledging that he is not confident(predicate) whether the tradition al summer surge in Army recruits will back away place, or how large it might be.Violent, long deployments to Iraq and a sound crease market at home have combined to reduce what the Army calls the "propensity to enlist" -- the percentage of young Americans willing to consider Army service -- which dropped from 11 percent last year to about 7 percent this year."What I dont know, in all candor, is how the reduced propensity will dampen" the recruiting prospects of summer, Rochelle said in an interview. "I wish the summer end were about twice as long."The Armys recruiting difficulties are only expected to grow. "side by side(p) year promises quite frankly, given the size of our entry pool, to be an until now tougher fight," he said. "God forbid a downward trend" in the willingness to serve, he added.The Army missed its whitethorn active-duty recruiting goal of 6,700 by 1,661 recruits, push the shortfall for fiscal 2005 to 8,321 -- or more tha n a months worth of recruits. The shortfall would have been 37 percent if the Army had not lowered its May goal. Overall, the Army has sent 40,964 enlistees to boot camp, and has four months to nearly double that word form to reach the 80,000 goal for this fiscal year.Army, dark blue and Marine Corps suspend forces also missed their goals for May. Army National Guard enlistments for the month dangle short by 29 percent, Army Reserves by 18 percent, Marine Corps Reserves by 12 percent and Navy Reserves by 4 percent, according to figures released yesterday by the Pentagon.