WASHINGTON – The Army’s top general told Congress yesterday that the Army is at “serious risk” of not making its recruiting goals for the year, as military officials pressed lawmakers for increased bonuses to attract new soldiers.

One Pentagon official, who requested anonymity, said the Army’s hierarchy already realized it would not make the goal of 80,000 recruits this year and the only question was how many thousands short it would be. The Army is about 7,800 recruits short now, with three months left in the recruiting year.

The last time the service failed to meet its recruiting number was 1999.

“The Army’s [recruitment mission] of 80,000 is at serious risk, and recruiting will remain challenging for the remainder of 2005 and well into the future,” General Peter Schoomaker, the Army’s chief of staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

General Schoomaker and other officials acknowledged that the war in Iraq had hampered recruitment, as parents, coaches, and teachers have persuaded the young to avoid the military.

Still, the general maintained, “I believe this generation wants to serve.”

General Schoomaker also blamed the failure to meet goals, in part, on a decision by the Pentagon to increase the overall size of the Army by 30,000 soldiers over the next several years.

The grim recruiting outlook comes despite the fact the Army made its monthly sign-up goals in June for the first time since January, bringing in about 6,150 recruits, and exceeding a goal of 5,650. The Army Reserve also made its goal in June, exceeding the target of 3,610 by about 40 soldiers.

The Army National Guard did not meet its monthly goal, according to Pentagon officials, although specific figures were not available.

The Army is accepting more recruits who score poorly on the military’s aptitude test. These recruits, known as Category 4, account for about 1.98% of total recruits, compared with 0.60% last year.

That is the highest percentage in this category since 2001, when the Army also was struggling to meet recruiting goals. Officials have said they will not go above a self-imposed 2% ceiling for the category, although Pentagon rules allow up to 4%.

“We’re nearing the limit,” said Douglas Smith, a spokesman for the Army’s Recruiting Command.

General Schoomaker said 2006 “may be the toughest recruiting environment ever.” The Army has had to place nearly every recruit it can get into its monthly quotas, rather than holding them in a pool of recruits, known as the Delayed Entry Program, that can be used to cover shortfalls in the hard-to-recruit winter months.

Typically, the Army likes to begin a recruiting year with 25% to 35% of its yearly recruiting mission already in the Delayed Entry Program.

But the Army began this year with 18.4% in the program and found itself struggling all year, officials said. Next year, the program will be somewhere between 9% and 10%, which Schoomaker called “the smallest beginning Delayed Entry Program in history.”

David S.C. Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel, told lawmakers that the Pentagon would like to increase recruiting bonuses in an effort to increase enlistments. The House has raised the maximum level of enlistment bonuses to $30,000 from $20,000, but the Senate has yet to act.