多年来，陆军招募人员一直在向新入伍的高级个人培训毕业生宣传一项特殊福利：在前往第一个驻地之前，他们可以带薪返乡14天，前提是在此期间协助当地招募人员并讲述陆军故事。
For years, Army recruiters have enjoyed flagging a special perk for new Advanced Individual Training graduates: an opportunity to return to their hometowns for 14 days with pay prior to their first duty station, with the understanding they’ll help local recruiters during that time and tell the Army story.
但根据美国陆军招募司令部负责人的说法，新兵们难以履行他们那边的协议。
But according to the head of U.S. Army Recruiting Command, the new soldiers struggled to hold up their end of the deal.
美国陆军招募司令部司令约翰尼·戴维斯中将在陆军协会主办的论坛上确认，该部门历经数十年的“乡镇招募援助计划”已被暂停。
The service’s decades-old Hometown Recruiter Assistance Program has been suspended, Lt. Gen. Johnny Davis confirmed at a forum hosted by the Association of the United States Army.
他表示，该计划目前正在“审视”中，以探讨可能的下一步措施，但也指出，一些内在问题正阻碍该服务获得应有的回报。
And while he said it’s being “looked at” for possible next steps, he also described the built-in problems keeping the service from getting its money’s worth.
“我可以告诉你，当该计划启动并真正交付给陆军多年前并得以执行时，我们确实获得了一些不错的投资回报——大约，你知道的，一到两个百分点，”戴维斯在论坛上回答提问时说。
“I would tell you, when the program was initiated and really delivered to the Army years ago and executed, that we had some good return on investment — about, you know, one or two percent,” Davis said in response to a question at the forum.
“但归根结底，多年来我们了解到，有2万、3万名年轻的佼佼者在返乡途中表现不错；他们得以回家，”他补充道。“但他们并没有像我们希望的那样，与招募人员进行足够的合作。”戴维斯表示，领导层理解其中的人性因素——即新毕业生渴望重新与家人朋友建立联系，这实际上相当于额外的无薪假期。但他补充说，陆军必须考虑该安排所带来的实际收益。
“But, bottom line, what we’ve learned over the years is that 20, 30,000 young superstars, when they were headed back home, were good; they got to go home,” he added. “But they weren’t really working with the recruiters as much as we wanted them to.”Davis said leaders understood the “human element” of what was happening, in that new graduates were eager to reconnect with family and friends in what amounted to additional uncharged leave. But, he added, the Army had to consider what it was getting out of the arrangement.
同样，他表示，陆军过去曾允许国民警卫队和预备役士兵在被称为“圣诞大返乡”的假期期间，以无薪假的形式返乡，前提是他们在此期间以大使身份支持陆军招募工作。
Likewise, he said, the Army has in the past allowed National Guard and Reserve soldiers to return home for non-charged leave during the holiday break known as the Christmas Exodus on the understanding that they would support Army recruiting as ambassadors during that time.
“在那个圣诞假期期间，招募站里有很多招募人员在和他们一起工作吗？”戴维斯说。“没有。”“所以我们真的在认真思考：这是否是投资回报，以及它对陆军来说是否值得成本？或者我们能否把这些资金用于其他方式，来帮助我们的男女兵？”戴维斯说，领导层现在正“在寻找其他方式”，以帮助士兵获得备受青睐的 hometown 休假，而不依赖于 hometown 招募人员计划。
“During that Christmas holiday, was there a lot of recruiters in the recruiting stations working with them? No,” Davis said. “So we’re really thinking through: is this return on investment, and is it worth the cost to the Army? Or can we take those funds and spend them in other ways to help our men and women.”Davis said leaders were now “looking at other ways” to help soldiers get coveted hometown leave apart from the hometown recruiting program.
陆军招募社交媒体页面早在一月份就开始讨论暂停 hometown 招募人员援助计划（HRAP），尽管陆军直到现在才公开回应这一举措。
Army recruiting social media pages began discussing the suspension of the Hometown Recruiter Assistance Program in January, though the service has not publicly addressed the move until now.
HRAP 起源于 20 世纪 80 年代。在其最新形式中，士兵必须经过连队指挥官的选拔和批准才能参与该计划。
HRAP dates to the 1980s. In its most recent form, soldiers had to be selected and approved for the program by a company commander.
在 2022 年陆军的一则新闻稿中，密苏里州一个招募中心站的指挥官、陆军下士科尔顿·邓巴（Staff Sgt. Colton Dunbar）表示，该计划的成功取决于“士兵是如何被利用的”。
In a 2022 Army news release, a recruiting center station commander in Missouri, Staff Sgt. Colton Dunbar, said the success of the program came down to “how the soldiers are leveraged.”
“我们尽量在他们在这里期间发挥他们的最大作用，通过带他们回到他们毕业的高中和他们的社区，向大家展示：这个人六个月前还在这里作为平民生活，但现在看看他们，”他在新闻稿中说。“这有助于打破任何障碍，因为他们认识这个穿着军装的人 — — 这有助于表明我们和其他人一样，也是普通人。”但自该计划启动之初，缺乏成功衡量标准和具体的服役要求就限制了 HRAP 的成效。
“We try to get the most out of them while they’re here by bringing them to the high school where they graduated and their communities to show everyone that this person was in your community six months ago as a civilian, but look at them now,” he said in the release. ”It helps to break down any barriers because they know that person in uniform — it helps show we are people just like everybody else.”But from early on in the program, a lack of success metrics and specific service requirements have limited HRAP’s success.
1983 年，美国陆军行为与社会科学研究所的一项研究发现，很难评估项目参与者的实用价值，因为很难追踪他们除了招募办公室的人流之外的影响。
A 1983 study from the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences found that it was hard to evaluate the usefulness of program participants, because it was hard to track their impact outside of foot traffic to the recruiting office.
不过，该研究也指出，尽管难以量化，但让新兵在家乡出现和可见，仍然存在一些非量化的好处。
It also suggested, though, that there were nevertheless non-quantifiable benefits to having new soldiers present and visible in their hometown.
研究发现，“助理因其带来的个人被招募人员随后入伍而受到肯定，但助理的努力总体影响比其招募人数之和更为微妙。”例如，助理可以“播下种子”或在入伍决定前数月奠定基础，但若入伍发生在其离职数月后，则不会获得相应肯定。陆军尚未宣布何时将就HRAP的后续方向作出最终决定。
“Aides are credited for individuals they brought to the recruiter who subsequently enlist, but the total effect of the aide’s efforts is more subtle than the sum of their recruits,” the study found. “For example, aides can ‘plant seeds’ or lay the groundwork months in advance of an enlistment decision and receive no credit for an enlistment that occurs months after his or her departure.”The Army hasn’t said when it will make final decisions on the way forward for HRAP.