...[the Army] is at the same time seeking to lower discharge rates artificially and thereby to reduce the pressure to sign up new enlistees. ...

According to Flyer, the Army has found several ways to keep those discharge rates artificially low. Basic training... has been made less difficult. “You'll get guys who have never run a mile,” an Army spokesman told USA Today.... “Rather than throw them out, we said, ‘Let's change the training so we don't injure them.’”

...last year, Army HQ sent a letter to all commanders stating that the discharge rate was too high...Between 2005 and 2006, the Army's discharge rate for troops in their first six months of training plummeted—from 18 percent to 8 percent.

...

Flyer predicts the Army will meet its manpower needs by signing up even more people who never completed high school but got a G.E.D. ..In contrast to high school graduates, who are aggressively courted, most G.E.D.-ers are walk-ins.”

My daughter has a friend she graduated from high school with who quit college to re-up for all the bonus's he has received. He thinks that money will last him a lifetime.