(Radio Iowa) The Adjutant General of the Iowa National Guard says their current numbers are strong — but they are facing the challenges that every other organization is facing when it come to filling their needs. Major General Ben Corell says they will fall a little short of the recruiting mark he set.

Corell sums it up this way.

He says they need around one-thousand new recruits every year to fill the openings caused by attrition.

General Corell says his recruiting team is competing more now with all the other businesses looking for men and women.

Corell says more businesses have turned to one of the key incentives the Iowa Guard has used for years.

There’s been some criticism about younger kids just out of high school not being interested in serving. Corell says that always seems to be a something that’s said about young people — including when he graduated high school in the 70s.

And he says there are times when they are called to federal duty in the U-S or overseas. Corell says he still sees the Iowa and Midwest values of service that he was raised with in the eyes of new recruits.