Jean Caze walked into an Army recruiting office downtown yesterday with some questions for the man in uniform at the desk. But the unemployed 24-year-old from Somerville did not want to know about the dangers of serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. He asked about the pay, training, and how the recruiting officer had made his way through the Army. A half hour later, the recruiter was smiling: Caze had agreed to join.

Despite a litany of US casualties and extensions of duty abroad, military recruiters say they are continuing to fill their monthly goals for enlisting men and women in the Army, Navy, and Marines. But the recruiters acknowledge it takes more reassuring and explaining to recruit the same numbers than before the nation was at war...

...It's working: The Army is on track to reach its national goal of recruiting 77,000 to active duty this fiscal year, including 21,200 reservists, according to the US Army Recruiting Command. The targets vary with retirements and routine discharges. But reenlistment numbers are also strong, officials said, with many soldiers taking advantage of bonuses of up to $10,000 for reenlisting.

"A lot of people thought that because of the extended tours of duty, not many people would be reenlisting, but they are," said Lieutenant Colonel Franklin Childress, an Army public affairs officer.

The Navy and Marines also report steady recruiting and reenlistment, but they say they haven't increased marketing.

The Navy is signing up 60 to 80 recruits a month, said Daniel Day, a public affairs officer. Since February 2002, the Navy has exceeded its goals every month, he said.

At the Marine Corps, it's "business as usual," said Major David Griesmer, a public affairs officer with the Marine Corps Recruiting Command in Quantico, Va. "You don't change recruiting because something is going on in the world," Griesmer said. "It's a very steady, systematic process."