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N7GCW > VETS 22.03.05 19:28l 106 Lines 4806 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 40184_WA7V
Read: GUEST
Subj: The DRAFT is coming soon!
Path: DB0FHN<DB0RGB<OK0PPL<DB0RES<DK0WUE<7M3TJZ<W7NTF<WA7V<WA7V
Sent: 050322/1625z @:WA7V.#SEWA.WA.USA.NOAM [Walla Walla] $:40184_WA7V
Date: Mon, 07 Mar 2005 11:23:14 -0500
Subject: [gulflink] U.S. Army Struggling- Draft is near.
U.S. Army struggles for recruits amid Iraq war
Sunday, March 6, 2005 Posted: 11:53 AM EST (1653 GMT)
U.S. Army recruits in San Antonio, Texas, preparing to be sworn in on
February 16.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Staff Sgt. Richard Guzman is on the front lines of
one of the U.S. Army's toughest battles in years, and he's not in Iraq.
He's an Army recruiter trying to coax young men and women into volunteering
to serve at a time when U.S. ground forces are engaged in a war halfway
around the world.
"To me, recruiting used to be easy. Right now, you really have to hunt for
those ones who really want to" serve, said Guzman, who recruits in New York
City's Harlem section.
Nearly two years into an Iraq war that has left more than 1,500 U.S. troops
dead and another 11,200 wounded, recruiters like Guzman are having to work
hard as the Army strives to sign up 80,000 recruits this year to replace
soldiers leaving the service.
The Army in February, for the first time in nearly five years, failed to
achieve its monthly recruiting goal. It is in danger of missing its annual
recruiting target for the first time since 1999.
Recruiting for the Army's reserve component -- the National Guard and Army
Reserve -- is suffering even more as the Pentagon relies heavily on these
part-time soldiers to maintain troop levels in Iraq. The regular Army is 6
percent behind its year-to-date recruiting target, the Reserve is 10 percent
behind, and the Guard is 26 percent short.
The Marine Corps, the other service providing ground forces in Iraq, has its
own difficulties.
In January and February, the Marines missed their goal for signing up new
recruits -- the first such shortfall in nearly a decade -- but remained a
bit ahead of their target for shipping recruits into basic training.
Iraq marks the first protracted conflict for U.S. forces since the end of
the draft in 1973, which ushered in the era of the all-volunteer military.
If the military fails to attract enough recruits and America maintains a
large commitment in Iraq, the nation may have to consider some form of
conscription, said Cato Institute defense analyst Charles Pena. "This is
getting dicey," said Pena.
Lt. Col. John Gillette, who commands the Army recruiting battalion in New
York City, said young people and their families are asking questions about
the war.
"Instead of just talking specifically to the applicant, we're talking to the
applicant's parents, and, in some cases, extended family -- aunts, uncles --
just to answer their questions and concerns as well," Gillette said.
Guzman said he reassures families that a recruit will get the normal nine
weeks of basic training and further individual training and not just be
shoved in a uniform and sent into combat. "They think that after two weeks
in basic training, they will be deployed overseas," Guzman said.
Army Recruiting Command spokesman Douglas Smith said recruiters do
everything they can to allay the apprehension of recruits and families. "But
there are certain things that we just can't talk our way through or give a
hard answer to, like, 'Will I be deployed?' That's just not something a
recruiter can predict."
The improving economy and civilian job opportunities also are factors in
recruiting, Smith said.
Army Secretary Francis Harvey said the active-duty and reserve components
have added 3,000 recruiters since last year and increased enlistment bonuses
to try to lure new soldiers.
"So we've got a challenge, but we're certainly not going to give up," Harvey
told a congressional panel.
Defense analyst Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute said there has
been a migration of recruits away from the ground forces toward services
less likely to be in harm's way in Iraq -- the Navy and Air Force.
"There's a bottom line to the recruiting debate. People don't want to die,"
Thompson said.
The problem is even more dire than it appears because the Army, through
"stop-loss" orders, has forced thousands of soldiers designated for duty in
Iraq and Afghanistan to remain in uniform when their volunteer service
commitment ends, thus keeping recruiting needs artificially low, Pena said.
Some of these soldiers may remain in the Army involuntarily for up to 18
months beyond when they were scheduled to leave.
"The military can hold things together on a relatively short-term basis
through some fairly extreme measures like 'stop-loss' and making much
greater use of Reserve and Guard units to fill the requirements in Iraq,"
Pena said.
"But you cannot do this indefinitely. At some point, you break the force.
And the question is: how close are we to that breaking point?"
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