You'd think that with a majority of Americans supporting this war, the army would busting at the seams with recruits....soooo...where are the sons and daughters of the these folks who think this war is so righteous?
Al
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Army's new battle: Signing up soldiers
Wed Jan 21, 7:28 AM ET
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By Charisse Jones, USA TODAY
Staff Sgt. Katrese Clayton stands in front of the New York City College of Technology, her smile as gleaming as her medals. But for every person who stops to chat with the Army recruiter, at least two pretend not to hear her say hello.
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"I still speak," says Clayton, 24, of Brooklyn. "I smile. But inside I'm like, 'Oh. They don't like us.' You just get used to it after a while."
Nothing keeps Clayton and other recruiters from scouting for would-be soldiers. Not the winter chill. Not the holidays. Not the war in Iraq (news - web sites), for the pressure to replenish the ranks of the U.S. Army never ends. (Audio: Clayton discusses the recruiting process)
Roughly 7,000 Army recruiters scour the country by passing out flyers, visiting campuses and walking neighborhood streets to persuade young men and women to join the nation's largest military branch, which has more than 710,000 active and reserve soldiers. The U.S. presence in Iraq is causing parents and potential recruits to ask more questions about their fate if they sign up.
"Everyday someone's dying," says Staff Sgt. LaVone Anderson, 33, commander of the Times Plaza Army Recruiting Station in Brooklyn. "It hit us close to home because on Nov. 5, someone in our company died over there. ... The fact is, we're at war. And the fact is, people aren't willing to join like they used to be."
Recruiters spend seven weeks at Fort Jackson in Columbia, S.C., to learn how to sell the Army. They tout its training, the chance for travel and its generous financial package for college.
Straight to college
In the past, the Army focused on recruiting teenagers graduating from high school. But with more than 60% of high school seniors in the 1990s planning to go straight to college, recruiters have become more aggressive in courting those who are college age.
"What we know is lots of those people start college but don't complete it because they're not ready maturity-wise, or don't have the finances. And the Army can offer them both," says Douglas Smith, spokesman for the Army Recruiting Command at Fort Knox in Kentucky.
Despite the incentives, officials estimate it takes 120 to 150 contacts to get one person to enlist. And the small recruiting stations dotting the country are on the front line.
Times Plaza in Brooklyn is one of 42 stations in New York City's battalion. Its six recruiters and station commander compete for candidates with the Marine and Navy centers recruiting next door. Its monthly goal is seven enlistees and three in the Army Reserve.
"You've got 40% of the battle licked if you can just get them in here," says Staff Sgt. Laurence Colley, 35, a recruiter. "The other 40(%) is qualifying them, and the 20(%) is making them commit."
Anderson, the Times Plaza commander, says it is harder to get young people to see the opportunities the Army can provide when they are barraged with daily death tolls from Iraq.
But the battalion commander, Lt. Col. John Gillette, says, "Concern about being a casualty, that happens just as much when we're not at war as when we are."He says recruiters note that a person could be killed by a criminal or a drunken driver. Plus, it takes at least six months before an enlistee could be in a unit and possibly sent overseas.
When Clayton pitches the Army, she focuses on perks rather than patriotism. She knows firsthand that incentives such as free health coverage, a housing allowance and money for college are what ultimately compel many young people to join the military.
"I never thought about the Army until I couldn't pay for school," Clayton says. She was in her first year at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey when an Army recruiter left a business card at her home. "I wasn't thinking about any war. I was thinking I need help. I was struggling." She enlisted Feb. 5, 1998.
Getting people to show up
Clayton sees the Army as a steppingstone rather than a career, a chance to save money and push closer to her dream of becoming a lawyer. But after being tapped as a recruiter 18 months ago, her days now are consumed with finding new soldiers. Clayton and the other recruiters in her station spend hours on the telephone and go to schools or community centers to line up their mandatory two appointments a day with potential recruits.
"When you make an appointment, you have to interview them in 48 hours," Clayton explains. Any longer, and the belief is "it's too much time for them to think."
But getting people to show up is a challenge. Two days before Christmas, one man scheduled to talk to Clayton never arrived. Another prospect, who had gotten help from a recruiter to apply for a Social Security (news - web sites) card, was dodging calls. And until recruits go off to basic training, they are free to change their minds.
On a mild afternoon, Clayton set up a table in front of the New York City College of Technology, one of 20 schools that her station targets. She put out brochures, key chains and bumper stickers that say "An Army of One."
"They'll ask about the war," she says. "I tell them I can't guarantee they won't go over there." But for at least two young men, the chance to fight against terrorism drew them to Clayton's table.
"I always wanted to join the military," says Kenneth Sessoms, 19, a college freshman. Now, the war "makes you want to fight for your country."
Turning a life around
Back at the station, Emanuel Wilson, 22, of Brooklyn, says he was trained as a chef in the Job Corps but couldn't find a job. He was preparing to take the military's aptitude exam and physical to enlist in the Army Reserve. Wilson says he peddled drugs as a teenager and fears dead-end jobs could drive him back into that world.
He's not worried about war. "God's not going to put me in a position I'm not supposed to be in," he says. "So if I'm supposed to go to war and die, then that's it."
Colley, the recruiter, emphasizes that not just anybody can join the Army: "That's a big misperception people have, that the Army will take anybody. That you don't need an education."
Colley, 35, has been in the Army 16 years and volunteered to be a recruiter. "I wanted to try to be a direct link to a lot of kids not going in the right direction."
He remembers the sergeant who recruited him. "I'd laugh at him, hang up on him," says Colley, who was headed to college in West Virginia. But Colley dropped out his freshman year after he was injured and couldn't play football. "I went straight back to that same recruiter who used to call me. And he laughed. He said, 'Oh you want to talk now?' "
Now Colley has picked up the sergeant's baton.
"I'm proud of being a soldier, a recruiter," he says. "I'm proud of the United States military. I just wish everybody else was." |
