In 2022, as years of shortfall in recruiting numbers compounded into a crisis, the Army test-launched the Future Soldier prep course, a boot camp-style program to quickly pull up recruits who don’t meet academic or physical standards. That year, the Army’s recruiting class had been 25% shy of its goal of 60,000 new soldiers.

Three years later, with the Army’s recruitment crisis in the rearview mirror, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and others say young people are clamoring to serve under President Donald Trump. The fledgling Future Soldier prep course started during Joe Biden’s presidency and has played a central role in reversing the recruiting slump.