Posted on Sun, Mar. 18, 2007
Armed forces face challenge filling ranks in time of war: Recruiters retool strategies
Some concerned military sacrificing quality for quantity by lowering enlistment standards
By Dogen Hannah
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

Paula Anguinao has been tempted to join the military. So has Brian Dominguez.

The East Bay high school students, Junior ROTC classmates, like the self-discipline, teamwork and leadership the military instills. They also like that the military helps pay for college.

Yet both have decided against serving in the armed forces. As long as the nation is at war, neither wants to risk being sent into harm's way.

"I don't want to get hurt," said Anguinao, a 16-year-old sophomore at Alameda's Encinal High School. "I don't want to lose my life."

Said Dominguez, a 15-year-old Encinal freshman: "Getting hurt or dying really wasn't the choice for me."

The unexpectedly long and increasingly unpopular Iraq war, which has claimed the lives of about 3,200 U.S. service members and begins its fifth year this week, has made it tougher to persuade prospective recruits to enlist.

Now another recruiting challenge looms: President Bush wants to permanently boost the size of the Army and the Marine Corps.

The proposal, unveiled in January in the State of the Union address, would add 92,000 soldiers and Marines in the next five years. That would increase by more than 13 percent the Army and Marine Corps' combined active-duty force of about 691,400 people.

Bush's plan, which requires congressional approval, would make it more difficult for recruiters to find enough willing and qualified people to fill the ranks during wartime, said military experts.

Army recruiters are likely to have the hardest time meeting higher quotas, said Michele Flournoy, a national defense expert who is the president and co-founder of the Center for a New American Security, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

"It is going to be a real challenge for the Army to meet the higher levels of recruiting required for expansion while at the same time maintaining the quality that's essential for today's military," she said.

Recruiting pressures

The Army, which has been bearing the biggest and bloodiest burden among the armed forces in Iraq, has largely rebounded after missing its recruiting target for the 2005 fiscal year.

This fiscal year, which began in October, the Army is on pace to meet its goal of recruiting 80,000 active-duty soldiers, according to Army recruiting statistics. However, the Army missed four of the first five monthly targets for this fiscal year's goal of recruiting 26,500 reservists.

To attract new soldiers, in the past few years the Army has added recruiters by the hundreds, raised some enlistment bonuses by thousands of dollars and raised the maximum enlistment age in some cases.

It also has enlisted more people with less education, a low military aptitude test score or a relatively serious criminal record.

"It's true they've been making their numbers for recruiting," said defense analyst Cindy Williams of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's security studies program. "But they've done that at a very big trade-off between quality and quantity."

For instance, fewer Army recruits have graduated from high school, which is troubling because those without a diploma are less likely to complete their enlistment, Williams said. Also, scores on the armed forces cognitive skills test, used to evaluate recruits' potential, have been falling, she said.

"They had fewer people doing well and more people doing badly on that test last year than they have had in two decades," Williams said.

Meeting goals

Other military branches have not been under as much recruiting pressure.

The Marine Corps, the smallest of the branches, with an active-duty force of about 179,000 troops, has continued to meet its recruiting goals. The Air Force and Navy have been streamlining their forces, partly because they have been investing in weapons systems and other new technologies that are less labor intensive.

Still, when it comes to Afghanistan, Iraq and the global war on terrorism, "there's no real technological substitute for boots on the ground in some situations," Flournoy said. So, retaining sizable Army and Marines Corps forces remains vital to national security, she said.

Not all military experts are concerned about the quality and quantity of recruits.

James Jay Carafano of the Washington, D.C.-based Heritage Foundation said the enlistment of lower-scoring and less-educated people is not a cause for worry. He discounted the assertion that only the most-educated and highest-scoring recruits make good soldiers.

"People make too much of that," Carafano said. "I think if you look at the actual performance of military units in the field, that's not the case."

Recruiting faltered because the Army, which had cut recruiters before the Iraq war, was still reinforcing its recruiting force in 2005, Carafano said. Also, a relatively strong national economy has given potential recruits more opportunities for civilian employment, he said.

Now that extra recruiters are on the job and the Army has increased enlistment bonuses and made other adjustments to fill the ranks, the military should be able to reach Bush's goal of increasing the size of the Army and Marine Corps, said Carafano.

"We're actually in pretty good shape," Carafano said. "If anything, we've had a shooting war for several years now, and we've been recruiting people just fine."

Weighing the risks

Even during wartime, many people see the military as a good opportunity.

For Gerald Oldfield, enlisting in the Army was a way to end a streak of dead-end jobs and to start a career that could support his wife and his 4-year-old stepdaughter.

"I've been thinking about it for a long time, and I just decided: You know what, I'm 30 years old; I'm not getting any younger," Oldfield said. "If I'm going to make the move, I need to do it now."

The move brought the Kings County resident to Mountain View one day last month. His destination was one of the nation's 65 Military Entrance Processing Stations, where recruits are screened and officially enlisted.

At the station, recruits undergo a medical exam, background check and aptitude test to determine their suitability for service. If qualified, they pick a military job, sign an enlistment contract and swear an oath to defend the Constitution.

As he sat in a lounge awaiting test results, Oldfield said he was leaning toward a job, such as helicopter mechanic, that would provide him with skills he could employ outside the military. In any case, he said, he was eager to enlist and attend basic training.

"I'm hoping to go tomorrow -- as soon as I can," Oldfield said. "I just want to get out there and do what I have to do."

Oldfield said he was prepared to accept the risks of military service, including the possibility of being sent to war. His wife was less enthusiastic about his decision to enlist, he said.

"She's not as happy about it as I am because of the war and everything," he said. "If they send me to Iraq, I'll go to Iraq, do what I need to do there, take care of my job and, hopefully, come back in one piece."

Parental influence

Of course, spouses aren't the only people who might raise objections to joining the military.

As public support for the Iraq war fell and recruiting became tougher, the Army retooled its publicity campaign. It rolled out new ads targeting parents, high school coaches and other people with influence over prospective recruits.

"They're trying to reach out to parents to be willing to consider sending a son or daughter to the Army," Williams said. "It's not just aimed at the individual who might join" the military.

The influence of parents and coaches can be considerable.

In Alameda, for instance, Encinal High School sophomore Destinee Martel said she has argued with her basketball coach about whether she should join the Army.

The 16-year-old member of the school's Junior ROTC has been weighing her options. After high school, she said, she might enlist or attend college while serving in the Army Reserve.

Martel said her coach was skeptical of her military prospects and urged her not to make her decision lightly. "She was just letting me know to be aware of what war really is, what the Army really is."

Martel said her parents, fearing that she could be hurt or killed, also are not keen for her to enlist. "But I told them that it's my decision. If I choose to go to the war, if we're at war, then I choose to go."

Another Encinal student, Oakland resident Norman Lee, said his parents would disapprove if he joined the military during a war. The 15-year-old freshman said he might enlist if he doesn't get into college but has not raised that possibility with his parents.

"I haven't because I know their reaction already," Lee said. "They will freak out."

For another Oakland resident, however, enlisting was a way to please a parent. Tien Trinh, 17, said he joined the Marine Corps Reserve to follow in the footsteps of his father, a former member of the South Vietnamese Army.

"He's always wanted me to join the military," Trinh said. "I want to make him proud. ... I want to defend this country."

The high school senior said he enlisted also for the military's rigorous physical and mental training and for education benefits. He said he is leaning toward being trained as a mechanic, skills he also could employ as a civilian.

"To me, it seems more challenging than going to college," said Trinh, who is scheduled to begin basic training in July and does not worry about being sent to war.

"I don't fear death," Trinh said. "God decided when we die, and we'll never know."

Eager to serve

If called on to increase the size of the Army and Marine Corps, as Bush has proposed, the military probably would continue to use more recruiters, higher enlistment bonuses and relaxed standards, said Beth Asch, a senior economist and defense manpower analyst at the RAND Corp. think tank in Santa Monica.

"I think it will be a combination strategy," Asch said, noting that such a strategy would continue to trade at least some quality for quantity. "I don't think numbers will be a problem. It will be the kind of recruit they get."

At the Mountain View military entrance processing station last month, those recruits included Ian Kummer and Jason Rixey. Both said they were eager to serve in uniform and willing to go to war.

"I don't want to kind of sit back here and not do my share," said Kummer, an 18-year-old Martinez resident and high school senior who enlisted in the Marine Corps. "I want to be involved, no matter how it turns out."

Rixey, who enlisted in the Army, was no less enthusiastic. The 20-year-old construction worker from Kelseyville said he plans to be a cavalry scout and is counting on being sent to fight.

"I want to go to Iraq," Rixey said. "I want to go over there and see it firsthand. ... Everybody says war is glorified. I just want to find out for myself."

Dogen Hannah covers the military and the home front. Reach him at 925-945-4794 or dhannah@cctimes.com.

RECRUITS' STORIES

Rolf Zelonis

Age: 17

Home: Vallejo

Service: Marine Corps

Why enlisting: Joined to become a helicopter pilot, travel and receive education benefits.

Quote: "Probably when I'm on the bus going there (to basic training), I'll be nervous. ... It doesn't seem that hard, but I'll probably change my mind once I'm there."

Jonathan Humphreys

Age: 24

Home: Morgan Hill

Service: Marine Corps

Why re-enlisting: After completing a four-year enlistment, decided that a military career would be enjoyable and the best way to provide for himself and his wife.

Quote: "I've always compared every single job I've had to the Marine Corps. To me, they just don't compare."

Christina Douk

Age: 17

Home: Alameda

Why not planning to join the military: After considering attending the Air Force Academy or enlisting, decided to remain in the Bay Area to attend art school and help look after her family.

Quote: "I don't support the war very much, but I'd help out if I was in the military because it's the right thing to do."

Jason Rixey

Age: 20

Home: Kelseyville

Service: Army

Why enlisting: After ruling out continuing in construction work, followed in the footsteps of relatives who have served in the military and to set out to see war firsthand.

Quote: "It's one heck of a leap. I've just been waiting to do it for a long time. I'm glad I finally got it done and over with."

Ian Kummer

Age: 18

Home: Martinez

Service: Marine Corps

Why enlisting: Decided about a year ago to pursue a career as a military officer and chose the Marine Corps because it instills values he admires.

Quote: "I don't want something that's just a job or (about) money. I want something that, you know, it changes you personally. It's the intangible qualities that matter the most."

Ernesto Torres

Age: 41

Home: Fresno

Service: Army

Why enlisting: Repeatedly laid off from white-collar jobs, decided to enlist for a steady job that would support himself, his wife and their four children.

Quote: "I still can't get my brain around the whole concept: At 41, I'm going into the Army. But you got to do what you got to do for the family, you know. My needs come second."

Brian Dominguez

Age: 15

Home: Alameda

Why not planning to join the military: Likes military teamwork, self-discipline and leadership, but the risks and disadvantages of serving abroad in a war are too great.

Quote: "What really swayed me to go in the other direction was really just leaving my family and the possibility of maybe getting hurt or dying."

Ryan Garrett

Age: 18

Home: Alameda

Service: Army

Why enlisting: Considered law enforcement career, but after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks decided to follow in the footsteps of relatives by joining the military.

Quote: "It seems like a lot of people that are the more anti-military types are the people who sit there and complain but don't do anything about it. I figured if there's something I can do, I should do it."

Tien Trinh

Age: 17

Home: Oakland

Service: Marine Corps Reserve

Why enlisting: Decided to enlist to make his father, a South Vietnamese Army veteran, proud and for career and education opportunities.

Quote: "I want to defend this country. I want to train myself physically but mentally as well. I also want more education, to be a good leader, (to be) someone who can be depended on."

Gerald Oldfield

Age: 30

Home: Riverdale

Service: Army

Why enlisting: After considering enlisting for years, decided that the Army can provide a career that can support himself, his wife and his 4-year-old stepdaughter.

Quote: "I just had my 30th birthday, and it was time to go. It's time to move on with my life -- try to get myself a career going instead of doing these dead-end jobs -- and the Army can offer that."

Michael Cooksie

Age: 30

Home: San Carlos

Service: Army

Why re-enlisting: After being medically discharged from the Army during basic training a decade ago, decided to re-enlist when he was offered the military job he wanted.

Quote: "I've been given a second chance, and having the opportunity to go back and improve my service record is important to me."

Ellie