In testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, Maj. Gen. David Mann confirmed the messages were part of a top-secret joint venture between USAREC and the U.S. Army psychological-operations community, the ultimate goal of which was to secure the maximum number of new recruits into the Army while simultaneously keeping down the costs associated with enlistment bonuses and other recruiting incentives.
The investigation was launched after the IG's office received numerous unsolicited, independent complaints from soldiers who claimed they somehow lost their capacity for rational decision-making and critical analysis when viewing Army recruiting media or meeting with recruiters, and subsequently agreed to enlistment under less than favorable circumstances, forgoing most, if not all, of the incentives for which they might otherwise have been eligible.
Mann testified that the song, which debuted with the rollout of the "Army Strong" recruiting campaign in 2006, was commissioned by USAREC in advance of the planned 2007 Iraq surge, in order to enable the Army to meet anticipated manpower needs at a time when many recruiting offices nationwide were having difficulty reaching their enlistment goals.
