1.

Nation

FOR GUARD RECRUITERS, A TOUGH SELL
By Dave Moniz

USA Today
March 8, 2005

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-03-07-recruits-cover_x.htm

[PHOTO CAPTION: Virginia Army Guard recruiter Sgt. 1st Class Jim O'Ferrell finishes up another long day of work.]

[INSET: Recruiting goals not being met -- Army National Guard recruiting has fallen short of its target by more than 14,500 soldiers in the past two recruting years. Recruiting numbers: 2000 Goal: 60,000; Actual: 62,015 -- 2001 Goal: 60, 252; Actual: 61,956 -- 2002 Goal: 60,252; Actual: 63,251 -- 2003 Goal: 62,000; Actual: 54,202 -- 2004 Goal: 56,002; Actual: 49,210. -- NOTE: This refers not to calendar years but to fiscal years. Fiscal year 2004 runs from Oct. 1, 2003 to Sept. 30, 2004, for example.]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Like all good recruiters, Sgt. 1st Class Jim O'Ferrell can sniff out a prospective soldier just about anywhere.

Two years ago, he stopped at a Jiffy Lube station in Staunton, Va., to have the oil changed in his Dodge Stratus. While the attendant was checking under the hood, O'Ferrell noticed that the guy had near-perfect posture. So he asked the attendant whether he had ever served in the military.

"Marine Corps," the man told him.

Within two weeks, O'Ferrell had persuaded his new buddy to enlist, racking up another new soldier for the Virginia Army National Guard. (Related item: Guard recruiters photo gallery) [SLIDESHOW: A TOUGH SELL FOR GUARD RECRUITERS -- PHOTO CAPTIONS: (1) The continuing war in Iraq is making recruiter Sgt. 1st Class Jim O'Ferrell's job more difficult as he tries to enlist new soldiers for the Virginia National Guard. (2) In his quest for fresh recruits, O'Ferrell conducts interviews at his Alexandria, Va., office and makes the rounds of local high schools to give presentations. Her he greets prospective recruit Luis Portillo, 17, a senior at Bishop O'Connell High School in Arlington, Va. (3) Last year was not kind to the Army National Guard. On Sept. 30, the end of the military's 2004 fiscal year, Army Guard recruiters finished nearly 7,000 short of their goal of 56,000 soldiers. (4) While visiting the high school, O'Ferrell restocks his recruiting display. Other military branches are struggling to find recruits, too, but not as much as the Army Guard. (5) O'Ferrell hands recruiting material to Kevin Hoyt, a Junior ROTC student at Lee High School. Army Guard recruiters across the country are facing their most daunting challenge since the Vietnam War. (6) O'Ferrell talks with Rebecca Lockard, a counselor at Lee High School. The Guard is a tough sell at some schools. Since the war on terrorism began, more than 203 Guard soldiers have been killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, or in related duties. (7) After another long day, O'Ferrell heads out from the office. The recruiting woes for the Guard could have serious consequences for the Pentagon, making it tougher to field enough troops to fight America's ongoing wars abroad.]

Two years removed from that encounter, though, O'Ferrell is having a tough time. In December, he experienced a first as a Guard recruiter: O'Ferrell, 42, "rolled a donut," military lingo for going an entire month without signing a recruit.

O'Ferrell and 4,100 other Army Guard recruiters across the country are facing their most daunting challenge since the Vietnam War, one that may define the limits of the Bush administration's use of Guard and reserve troops in the war on terrorism.

Last year, Army Guard recruiters fell nearly 7,000 short of their goal of 56,000 soldiers. This year, the Guard's recruiting goal is an even more ambitious 63,000 soldiers, in part to make up for the 2004 shortfall. But through January, four months into the recruiting year that began in October, the Guard had recruited just 12,821 new soldiers, almost 24% below its target for that period.

Other military branches are struggling to find recruits, too, but not as much as the Army Guard. The Marine Corps met its target for sending recruits to boot camp in January and February, but for the first time in almost a decade, it missed its overall recruiting goal, which includes recruits who agree to go to boot camp later. In February, the active-duty Army fell short of its goal for sending recruits to boot camp for the first time in almost five years, missing by more than 1,900 soldiers. It is 6% below its target for the year to date.

By contrast, the Navy and Air Force are having no trouble recruiting. Those branches play only a small role in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Unless the Army Guard can reverse its shortfall, it is headed for one of the worst recruiting years for any branch for at least the last 15 years, something the nation's all-volunteer military can ill afford in wartime.

Guard and reserve troops make up about one-third of the 150,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. The Guard's recruiting problems could make it tougher for the Pentagon to find enough troops to fight ongoing wars.

DEATH AND BURNOUT

In a normal year, the Guard's ambitious 2005 recruiting target might be achievable. But two powerful forces are hampering recruiters' efforts: death and burnout. (Related story: 'Counter-recruiters' shadowing the military [see below])

Since the war on terrorism began, 203 Guard soldiers have been killed in Iraq or Afghanistan or in related duties. Though the losses represent only a small percentage of Guard troops, the public no longer views part-time military service as a largely risk-free way to earn extra money or pay for college.

The Guard's taxing duties are also deterring potential enlistees. For decades, troops leaving the active military eagerly signed up for the Guard. Until last year, recruiters could enlist them with the promise of drills one weekend a month and two weeks a year -- a typical peacetime workload.

Now that Guard troops and reservists are being called up for missions as long as 18 months, those leaving the active force are more reluctant to join. A photograph of an Army Guard sign stenciled on a Humvee in Iraq -- widely circulated by Guardsmen -- tells the story. "Two weeks my ass!" it reads.

O'Ferrell says the public knows about the new demands. "Before, the regular Army was the one that was 24/7," he says. "Right now, we don't offer much of an alternative."

Lt. Gen. Steve Blum, the top National Guard commander in the United States, has added 1,400 recruiters to the existing force of 2,700 -- the largest increase in the history of the all-volunteer military. Blum says he hopes to reduce the recruiting deficit and perhaps erase it by fall. But more recruiters might not be enough.

The Guard once counted on "prior-service" recruits -- those coming out of the active Army and Marines -- for nearly half its new troops. It now might get only a third of its recruits that way.

Because of the falloff, Guard recruiters will be forced for the first time to compete with the active-duty military for those prospects who have never spent a day in uniform. In high schools and on college campuses across America, O'Ferrell and others like him will go toe-to-toe with military services that offer far greater benefits.

"The fish are no longer jumping in the boat," Blum says. "Our guys are going to have to go out and learn how to fish."

2.

Nation

'COUNTER-RECRUITERS' SHADOWING THE MILITARY
By Rick Hampson

USA Today
March 8, 2005

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-03-07-counter-recruiters_x.htm

[PHOTO CAPTION: Counter recruiter Ruth Robertson talks with students from Palo Alto High School and passes out anti-war buttons.]

NEW YORK -- The Marines didn't have to recruit Greg McCullough. He signed a promise to enlist last year, while he was still in high school. But now McCullough has had second thoughts, and he's talking to a different kind of recruiter.

Jim Murphy is a "counter-recruiter," one of a small but growing number of opponents of the Iraq war who say they want to compete with military recruiters for the hearts and minds of young people. (Related story: For Guard recruiters, a tough sell [see above])

"I don't tell kids not to join the military," says Murphy, 59, a member of Veterans for Peace. "I tell them: 'Have a plan for your future. Because if you don't, the military has a plan for you.' "

Since the advent of the all-volunteer military three decades ago, the armed services have used an array of tools, from recruiting in schools to TV advertising, to successfully sell careers in the military. But with ground troops in Iraq still under fire, the Army and Marines are struggling to get enough enlistments.

The armed services need many recruits each year -- the Army and Army Reserve alone need more than 100,000 -- and less than 10% come knocking on the door. The rest must be recruited.

Anti-war activists such as Murphy charge that to fill their quotas, some military recruiters make promises they can't guarantee, such as money for college or training in a particular specialty, and give misleading descriptions of military life.

Murphy says high school graduates don't need to join the military to learn a skill, pay for college, see the world or learn discipline.

BUILDING A NETWORK

Counter-recruiters formed a national network at meetings in Philadelphia in the summers of 2003 and 2004. They range from Vietnam War veterans, such as Murphy, to high school students trained to talk to their peers about enlistment.

The American Friends Service Committee, one of several peace groups opposed to what it calls "militarization of youth," has prepared a brochure titled "Do You Know Enough to Enlist?" In a tip of the hat to the opposition, it's deliberately designed to look like a military recruiting brochure.

Using a 1986 federal appeals court decision that supported the rights of draft registration opponents to equal access to students, the Los Angeles Unified School District teachers union has helped get counter-recruiting into some schools regularly visited by military recruiters in the nation's second largest public district. The counter-recruiters make public address announcements, distribute literature, show documentaries, and give classroom presentations. [NOTE: This is a reference to San Diego Committee against Registration and the Draft (CARD) v. The Governing Board of the Grossmont Union High School District, 790 F.2d 1471 (9th Cir. 1986), also known as San Diego Committee v. Governing Bd., a 10-page decision available in a .pdf file at the link. The Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD) comments: "Basically, the Ninth Circuit stated that the question of military service (whether voluntary or compulsory) is a controversial political issue, and if a school establishes a forum for one side to present its views on the issue, it must give opponents equal access to the forum. While the ruling has a direct legal effect in only the nine Western states within the boundaries of the Ninth Circuit, it can be used in other regions to help persuade noncooperative school districts to grant equal access to counter-recruitment activists. There have been other similar, though less encompassing, rulings in the Eleventh Circuit (Southeast U.S.) and in several cases decided at the federal district court level in Illinois, Pennsylvania and Florida."]

In the San Francisco area, members of a group called the Raging Grannies dress up in flamboyant old-lady attire (big hats, long, flowered dresses) and visit high schools. They offer a selection of political buttons and make their pitch while students are choosing. Sometimes the Grannies sing peace songs and dance.

"When you kick up your heels, it gets their attention," says Ruth Robertson, a 52-year-old Granny.

But in most places, the contest between military recruiters and counter-recruiters is a mismatch. The former are full-time, uniformed servicemembers; the latter are volunteers working on a small budget, if any.

While military recruiters often enjoy free rein in high schools, anti-war activists say it's difficult just to get in the door.

OFF SCHOOL GROUNDS

Eric Peters is an anti-war organizer in Chicago, where most public high schools have Junior ROTC programs. He says some administrators think counter-recruiters are unpatriotic, and others fear parental or public criticism. As a result, his group must distribute fliers off school grounds.

"Where the need is greatest, it's hard to find groups committed to go into schools," says Bob Henschen of the Houston Action Committee for Youth and Non-Military Options. He says it's so hard to get permission to enter schools that he won't say where his group has access. He says he's afraid publicity would jeopardize the arrangement.

Nationally, says Maj. Dave Griesmer, spokesman for the Marines' national recruiting command, counter-recruiters aren't much of a factor: "We don't spend a lot of time thinking about these people."

A CHANGE OF MIND

Jim Murphy does not look like a recruiter of any kind. His untucked shirt covers a pot belly, his gray hair reaches his shoulders, and he favors blue jeans and windbreakers. But he has two credentials for counter-recruiting: He's a high school administrator who knows how to talk to kids, and he's an Air Force veteran who served in Vietnam in the mid-1960s.

When Greg McCullough met Murphy, he had already joined the Marines' Delayed Entry Program, which allows high school students to sign up for the Corps before graduation.

McCullough seemed a perfect candidate. He was a member of the Junior ROTC honor guard at his Brooklyn high school. He loved everything about the Marines, from the lore to the uniform. After being rebuffed twice because he was too young, McCullough passed a physical and an entrance exam last June.

But McCullough says he has concluded, after talking with Murphy and other veterans, that military life is not for him.

For one thing, Murphy helped convince him that he could go to college to pursue his interest in criminal justice, and that there was no guarantee he'd get his request for assignment to military police. For another, he's worried about combat in Iraq.

Murphy told him that even for Americans from the most violent neighborhoods, combat is a shock. "It's gonna change you forever, and not necessarily positively. Think of all the civilians killed in Fallujah. You're gonna see something like that for the rest of your life," he told him.

"Poor kids listen to recruiters because they're scared about what's going to happen to them," Murphy says. "They know they need to get out of the neighborhood, but they're afraid to leave the corner. In the military, they know they won't have to make any decisions for four years, and they'll make their parents proud."

But McCullough had signed up for the Delayed Entry Program, which the Marines told him was a binding commitment, and which Murphy told him was not.

Murphy gave him a form letter to send to the commander of the Marine recruiting station, saying he'd changed his mind and was going to college. Murphy told McCullough that the armed services don't consider recruits to have joined until they go to basic training -- "until they shave your head," as he put it.

People like Murphy annoy Maj. J.J. Dill, commander of Marine recruiters in metro New York. "These counter-recruiters don't know what they're talking about," he says. "But saying that we're tricking and lying, that certainly has an impact on a young person. A lot of them are influenced by these counter-recruiters or by negative media coverage (of Iraq)."

DISCUSSING THEIR CONCERNS

When he gets a form letter like the one Murphy recommends, he says, "We call the recruit in and talk about it: 'What's your concern? What's changed?' We generally have a good success rate at turning them around." But, he adds, "We're not going to force anybody to go to (basic) training. I will discharge them."

McCullough, 19, knows he'll get the call, but says it won't do any good. He's going to attend John Jay College and major in international criminal justice and Arabic.

He says he appreciates Murphy's assistance: "Jim showed me the options."

This school year, Murphy says he'll counsel about 20 students. He's proud of his record -- he says that four years ago he got six students to change their minds about joining the Marines.

But, he adds, "I don't always win. I lose a kid for every one I get into college or a union (training) program. I've got one in Iraq right now."