not for our kind of people

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Sat, 13 Aug 2005 22:41:10 -0700 (PDT)

not for " our kind of people "

 

 

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05223/552161.stm

 

Parent-trap snares recruiters

The tune changes at some homes when they hear 'sign here'

 

Thursday, August 11, 2005

By Jack Kelly, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

 

Staff Sgt. Jason Rivera, 26, a Marine recruiter in Pittsburgh, went to

the home of a high school student who had expressed interest in

joining the Marine Reserve to talk to his parents.

 

It was a large home in a well-to-do suburb north of the city. Two

American flags adorned the yard. The prospect's mom greeted him

wearing an American flag T-shirt.

 

" I want you to know we support you, " she gushed.

 

Rivera soon reached the limits of her support.

 

" Military service isn't for our son. It isn't for our kind of people, "

she told him.

 

" Parental consent is the toughest thing we face right now, " said

Rivera's boss, Maj. Michael Sherman, 36, commander of the recruiting

battalion headquartered in Pittsburgh. " There are so many kids just

waiting for their 18th birthday, so they can enlist. "

 

It is even tougher for the Army, which, along with the Marines, has

seen the bulk of the action in Iraq, but has far higher enlistment quotas.

 

Recruiters have to contact as many as 100 young people just to get one

who is willing to talk about enlisting, chiefly because of opposition

from parents, said Maj. Gen. Michael Rochelle, commander of the Army

Recruiting Command. That's nearly four times as many as before the war

in Iraq began.

 

The Army's difficulties were reflected in the latest monthly

recruiting figures, released yesterday by the U.S. Department of Defense.

 

They show that while all active-duty military services met their goals

for July, and the Army met its goal for the second month in a row, the

Army continues to lag for the recruiting year that began 10 months

ago, reaching only 89 percent of its goal.

 

The Army figures to be about 8,000 soldiers short of its goal of

80,000 for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, which would be the

first time since 1999 that it will have missed an annual target.

 

Army National Guard and Reserve units, even more than the active

service, have been having trouble attracting recruits as the war in

Iraq continues and the economy improves. Their enlistment figures have

not started to rebound -- the Army Guard reached only 80 percent of

its July recruiting goal; the Army Reserve, 82 percent. Among all

Guard and Reserve units, only the Marines and Air Force achieved their

quotas for July.

 

Stopping the bleeding

 

For the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, last year was the worst.

Total strength fell 1,088 soldiers below target. The additional

shortfall this year has been only 192 soldiers.

 

" We've stopped the bleeding, " said Lt. Col. Michael Curran, chief of

recruiting. " The tourniquet has been applied. "

 

If that's the case, it is because the Army and its affiliated Guard

and Reserve units have succeeded in throwing money at the problem by

boosting enlistment bonuses, hiring more recruiters and spending more

on advertisements.

 

A recent surge in re-enlistments by people with prior service

coincided with a tripling to $15,000 in the bonuses the Army Guard can

pay to veterans. If Congress approves doubling the bonus for initial

enlistments in the Guard and Reserve, to $20,000, the Guard's

recruiting troubles should be over, said Lt. Col. Mike Jones, a

personnel expert at National Guard Bureau headquarters in Arlington, Va.

 

The Army added 1,015 recruiters this year, the Army National Guard,

1,600. And the effect is just beginning to be felt, according to Maj.

Scott North, Western Pennsylvania recruiting officer for the National

Guard. Recruiters had to be selected and trained and are only now

becoming familiar with their territories, he said.

 

The Army also increased its advertising budget this year by $40

million, to $300 million. The Army National Guard boosted its ad

budget to $52 million, from $46 million.

 

Army recruiters say all these efforts are fine, but that education

benefits remain their most effective lure.

 

Those who join any branch of the military are eligible for the G.I.

Bill. The Army provides additional benefits up to $70,000. Those who

enlist in the Pennsylvania National Guard can get up to $270 a month

from the G.I. Bill and an additional $4,378 a year from the state.

 

On the other hand, the military's stiff educational standards make

recruiting more difficult. At least 90 percent of those entering the

Army this year will have a high school diploma. The figure is 96

percent in the Marine Corps.

 

" There are a lot of people who are interested, but they can't pass the

[Armed Forces Qualification Test], " said Staff Sgt. Mark Hatfield of

the Pennsylvania Army National Guard, who recruits in five Pittsburgh

area high schools.

 

" A third of the people we talk to cannot pass the AFQT, " said Sherman

of the Marines.

 

Another issue is a provision in the No Child Left Behind law that

requires high schools to give recruiters access to information about

their students. Parents can opt to deny this information to

recruiters, and antiwar groups are mounting a national effort to

encourage them to do so.

 

Recruiters say a quarter of the schools, mainly in the suburbs, do the

minimum the law requires, anyway.

 

" At Baldwin High, they put five recruiters in a small room, " Hatfield

said. " It was an uncomfortable environment for potential recruits. "

 

Donna Milanovich, superintendent of Baldwin-Whitehall School District,

said recruiters may come to the high school once a month, where they

are provided a room in the guidance office to meet with interested

students. The school is old, she said, and space is limited. The

school has denied recruiters' requests to meet students in hallways or

phys ed classes.

 

" I thought we had a good relationship with the military, " she said.

 

Antiwar activists present an obstacle, as well. Demonstrators

disrupted Army Reserve recruiters at Carnegie Mellon University in

April, and the Pittsburgh Organizing Group plans a " nonviolent day of

direct action " a week from Saturday to " shut down military recruiting

in Pittsburgh. "

 

Dealing with the parents

 

Despite the challenges of recruiting during a war and a growing

economy, this remains a rewarding time to be a recruiter, according to

Rivera.

 

" Nowadays you deal with a lot of good kids, " he said. " It takes a lot

of courage to join the Marines today. "

 

Tequia Brown, 21, wanted to join the Marines when she was 18. But her

mother objected strenuously, so she went to college instead. But after

her mom died this spring, she enlisted.

 

" It's a wonderful opportunity to see the world, to develop

self-respect, to have a sense of importance, to make a contribution, "

said Brown, who hopes to make a career of the Marines and then become

a doctor.

 

Jason McCamey, 19, got support from his family when he told them he

wanted to join the Marines.

 

His dad, Don, 46, who had served in the Navy from 1983 to 1986, joined

the Pennsylvania Army National Guard shortly after his son enlisted.

Jason's younger brother Sean, 17, a high school student, has joined

the Army Reserve.

 

" I taught my boys you should serve your country, " Don McCamey said.

 

But McCamey is an increasingly rare kind of parent these days.

 

Jason McCamey said, " I tried to get a friend to come down [to the

Marine recruiter] with me, but his dad wouldn't let him. "

 

Correction/Clarification: (Published August 12, 2005)The American

Friends Service Committee is spearheading efforts to encourage parents

to deny contact information to military recruiters but has not

endorsed a demonstration planned for Aug. 20 because of the potential

for confrontation. That demonstration is being planned by the

Pittsburgh Organizing Group. The error was made in this story as it

was published on Aug. 11, 2005.

 

(Jack Kelly can be reached at jkelly or 412-263-1476.)