WASHINGTON (AP) — The Army expects to meet its enlistment goals for 2025, marking a dramatic turnaround for a service that has struggled for several years to bring in enough young people and has undergone a major overhaul of its recruiting programs.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said the Army is on pace to bring in 61,000 young people by the end of the fiscal year in September and will have more than 20,000 additional young people signed up in the delayed entry program for 2026. It’s the second straight year of meeting the goals.

“What’s really remarkable is the first quarter contracts that we have signed are the highest rate in the last 10 years,” Wormuth said. “We are going like gangbusters, which is terrific.”

Wormuth, who took over the Army four years ago as restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic were devastating recruitment across the military, also flatly rejected suggestions that the Army is “woke.”

Critics have used the term to describe what they call an over-emphasis on diversity and equity programs. Some Republicans have blamed “wokeness” for the recruiting struggles, a claim repeated by President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, during his confirmation hearing this week.

Wormuth dismissed the claims.

“Concerns about the Army being, quote, woke, have not been a significant issue in our recruiting crisis,” she said. “They weren’t at the beginning of the crisis. They weren’t in the middle of the crisis. They aren’t now. The data does not show that young Americans don’t want to join the Army because they think the army is woke — however they define that.”

Hegseth has vowed to remove “woke” programs and officers from the military. And during his hearing Tuesday, he told senators that troops will rejoice as the Trump administration takes office and makes those changes.

“We’ve already seen it in recruiting numbers,” he said. “There’s already been a surge since President Trump won the election.”

In fact, according to Army data, recruiting numbers have been increasing steadily over the past year, with the highest total in August 2024 — before the November election. Army officials closely track recruiting numbers.

Instead, a significant driver of the recruiting success was the Army’s decision to launch the Future Soldier Prep Course, at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, in August 2022.