All troops must have a high school diploma or an equivalent degree. The military prefers that they have a high school diploma because its studies have shown they are more likely to finish an enlistment term. Still, the Army has paid for some recruits to take GED preparation classes and take the test. 

The Army's goal is 90 percent high school graduates, which it hasn't met since 2004. Each year since, the number of recruits with at least a high school diploma has steadily declined.

Douglas Smith, spokesman for the Army Recruiting Command at Fort Knox, Ky., acknowledged it has been a difficult recruiting environment. He said overall high school graduation rates are declining, which could be a factor. 

I wonder what that means. Is that representative of high schools in all locales, in all income levels or just in some?

It also found that in the 2007 budget year, upper middle- and high-income neighborhoods were underrepresented by an even larger margin than three years earlier. 

The Army has been under growing pressure to strengthen recruiting as part of an ongoing effort to increase its size

I would guess military recruiters will be hanging out a lot more often in High Schools. And the No Child Left Behind rules say they sure can. Thank goodness for the schools that also have people volunteer to talk about non-military options.