"This is the first time in history that the nation has tested the all-volunteer force during a prolonged war," Lieutenant General Franklin Hagenbeck, the army's deputy chief of staff for personnel, told lawmakers.

Keeping up the army's strength "may be our most serious strategic challenge."

Hagenbeck's comments to the personnel subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee came amid growing concerns that the army is overstretched and the current recruiting slump is just the beginning of a trend that could hurt US military operations worldwide for years.

"You don't need to be a rocket scientist to know where this is leading," said Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the subcommittee chairman.

Today's army of about one million troops is one-third smaller than the force that helped end the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait in 1991 in the Gulf war. Meanwhile, current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have become the longest involving US troops since the creation of an all-volunteer army in 1973, forcing the largest mobilization of part-time reserve and National Guard soldiers since World War II.

Army officials said that is one reason they failed to meet recruiting goals for February and March, and expect to miss April's goal as well. But they insist the manpower slump is temporary, and expect to recover by the end of fiscal year 2005 on September 30.

The army plans to add 965 recruiters by September and has raised to 20,000 dollars the amount of cash bonuses it offers new recruits in hard-to-fill military jobs and increased to 70,000 dollars the maximum college scholarship benefit.

Army officials also raised the maximum enlistment age for reserve and National Guard soldiers to 39 from 34, hoping to draw from a larger pool of recruits, and have begun a campaign to highlight the benefits of military service to skeptical parents, teachers and other authority figures.

Pentagon officials have also asked lawmakers to approve a 3.1 percent military pay raise, increase re-enlistment bonuses to a maximum of 90,000 dollars and extend more active-duty benefits to reservists.

However, many lawmakers, experts and military interest groups insist more must be done to keep the army strong enough to face both current and future threats.

"I think the problem we face is more of a chronic problem tied to the war on terror," Graham said.

"The stress on the reserve and guard is the difference between the Cold War and the war on terror and we need to adapt. I do honestly believe that we need to beef up in every way.

"I think this is a more dangerous world than all of us completely understand."

Lawmakers have discussed making permanent a temporary addition of 30,000 soldiers to help cope with deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, financed by a supplemental appropriation.

Adding those soldiers would cost an additional 3.6 billion dollars per year, however. Pentagon officials fear the additional cost would mean cuts in other areas of the budget, such as spending for new weapons.

"It will take a national effort. It's more than just an army problem," Hagenbeck said.

The Military Coalition, a collection of groups representing both current and former service members, has lobbied for additional troops, saying the current situation is likely to get much worse unless there are more soldiers available for deployment.

"The coalition believes strongly that this difficult problem can and must be addressed as an urgent national priority, with increases in recruiting budgets as necessary," coalition co-chairman Steven Strobridge said.

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