Annual Cardinal Company
St. Louis Welcomes 95 Future Sailors at 68th Annual Cardinal Company
The 2026 Cardinal Company was sworn in to service by Captain Mark Moran, Commanding Officer of Navy Recruiting Region West, alongside members of Navy Talent Acquisition Group Mid-America and hundreds of their family and friends.
On June 25, 2026, just prior to the first pitch at Busch Stadium, nearly 100 future sailors
took their Oath of Enlistment, as administered by U.S. Navy Capt. Mark Moran,
Commanding Officer of Navy Recruiting Region West. This was the 68 th annual mass
enlistment by Navy Sailors, who will be known as the Cardinal Company, upon arrival at
Naval Recruit Training Center Great Lakes that evening.
For the first time, the ceremony was impacted by a rain delay and was quickly moved
indoors near Gate 1. The induction ceremony included a Navy color guard and
recruiters from Navy Talent Acquisition Group Mid-America in summer whites along with
St. Louis Council President Capt. Henry Stephenson, USN (Ret.) and former Council
President Rear Adm. Dan Kloeppel, USN (Ret.) representing the Navy League.
As luck would have it, the skies cleared in time for a thunderous flyover by a pair of F/A-
18 Super Hornets from Lambert Airport. However, the field conditions required the game
to be postponed until Thursday, July 23, at 4:15 p.m. Council members and guests with
tickets for the game can return to Busch Stadium that day to watch the make-up game
against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Despite several years of barely meeting the recruiting mission, the Navy has done an
about-face getting sailors from the street into the fleet. In both 2024 and 2025, the Navy
beat expectations due in large part to the Naval Education and Training Command and
Navy Recruiting Command’s efforts to employ many new strategic improvements, like
establishing a Recruiting Operations Center to monitor data in real time. The Navy also
implemented the Future Sailor Preparatory Course to improve accession success,
streamlined medical waiver reviews and identified and removed barriers to recruiter
productivity.
The Navy entered FY2026 with exceptional momentum after exceeding its FY2025
recruiting goal, bringing in 44,096 recruits against a goal of 40,600 – its strongest
recruiting year in more than two decades.
The Department of the Navy increased its FY2026 recruiting and advertising budget by
about 5% specifically to sustain that momentum.
“Once again, the Navy accomplished its recruiting mission, this year three months
ahead of schedule, welcoming 45,000 future Sailors into our ranks,” said Acting
Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao on July 3, 2026. “This milestone belongs to our Navy
Recruiters who never quit and to every American who stepped forward to serve
something greater than themselves.”
Navy leadership has continued to express confidence in recruiting, although they have
cautioned that budget disruptions – not recruiting demand – could slow the movement of
new recruits from boot camp to A-schools if supplemental funding issues persist.
Future Sailors and Navy recruiters from Navy Talent Acquisition Group Mid-America
pose in front of the St. Louis Arch before a Navy appreciation event hosted by the St.
Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium. The engagement underscores the Navy’s
commitment to building personal connections with new recruits and supporting the
efforts of regional recruiting commands. (Photo by NTAG MidAmerica)
More News:
