Armed services seeing healthy recruit figures

[thedrifter]

Forces' ranks swelling
Armed services seeing healthy recruit figures
By Greg Wright
Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON -- University of Cincinnati student Cameron Gibson offers two reasons he will quit college and join the Marines in October: He is bored and feeling patriotic.

"In college I was doing OK, but I wasn't really having any direction," said the 20-year-old from Ashland. "Joining the Corps is one of the few rites of passage left in America."

Young men and women continued to enlist in the Air Force, Army, Marines and Navy at a healthy clip, at least until March when the Iraq war began, according to the latest available Defense Department data. Figures from the spring are not available.

However, military enlistment could slack off later this year if U.S. troop deaths continue to mount and President Bush does not shake allegations that he exaggerated the Iraqi threat, said Jay Farrar, a military analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Enlistment in some branches of the military Reserves is already lower than target, according to the Pentagon.

People are shying away from becoming part-time soldiers because the financial and family hardships of troops sent to Afghanistan and Iraq has been widely reported, Farrar said.

"What we are seeing is a bit of reluctance of people to (enlist in the Reserves) because they don't want their regular lives disturbed for a year to two years," he said.

As of March, 82,724 people had enlisted in the Air Force, Army, Marines and Navy during the fiscal year that started Oct. 1, the Defense Department said. That was 1,219 more people than the military's goal.

But enlistment in the Reserves was slightly below target, with 66,106 volunteers by March. That was 97 percent of the Defense Department goal.

Enrollment lagged most in the Army National Guard, which reported 26,214 had enlisted, more than 3,600 below expectations. However, enlistment in the Air National Guard was 146 percent ahead of goal at 4,158 people.

More young people are signing up for active military service citing a desire to protect the country after the Sept. 11 attacks, said Jim Tully, chief executive officer at Orion International in Franklin, Tenn. Tully's company helps match veterans with civilian jobs.

The lackluster economy also may have kept active-duty enlistment steady because young people need jobs, Farrar said. A newly enlisted soldier can receive more than $26,000 in basic pay, housing allowances and other benefits.

However, some youths said they never would consider military duty because they do not support the war.

"It's not my kind of thing," said Rob Novak, 21, a senior at Colorado State University in Fort Collins who was working at a Boy Scout camp in Newark, Ohio, this summer. "It's all about big business and oil."

The military was a popular career choice when he was a child and teenager, said Mayor Frank Stare of Newark, where Novak grew up.

"Growing up, you were taught, 'your country, right or wrong,' " said Stare, who served in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969.




Dave Polcyn
Cameron Gibson, 20, of Ashland is leaving college to join the Marine Corps. He leaves for bootcamp at Parris Island, N.C., on Oct. 27.

http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/...ies/36311.html


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