"It's a challenging recruiting environment . . . "

[me in Central America circa 1986]

Remember when the armed services was a career choice? Now, I imagine it's a 'calling'.

Recently news reported that National Guard and reserve recruitment is down to only a percentage of its formal self. When I joined the Army way back in 1985 (wow, 20 years ago!) my goal wasn't to fend off terrorism and tyranny. It was an easy way to gain experience, adventure and make a deal with the government to pay for your college education.

I imagine now, the pig-shaved heads of thousands of new recruits are stroking that stubble not thinking what I thought then, "I'll get a nice cushy assignment,based here in the states, maybe we'll have to do a little dangerous engaging, but we'd come home to Ft. So-in-so at the end of the month" Now I imagine these 21st century newbees are thinking, "Man, I can't wait for that nice cushy 6-month retraining breaks between deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan". No wonder the recruiting is down.

Especially for the part time soldier, they were expecting a lot less. Don't get me wrong, if they didn't read the contract they signed - it's not the governments fault. You sign up for a four year enlistment, that means you can be kept for a 10-year war. A lesson in reading the fine print if I ever saw one. But I can see how it would be hard to sign kids up now. They're probably reading the fine print. They want to help the nation, they don't want to be owned. Understandable.

Even a program for the Navy & Air Force to transfer the overbloat of personnel from "Blue to Green" didn't go over very well. With the attempt to reduce the unnecessary ranks (apparently these two branches have figured how to defend freedom with fewer troops) the DOD tried to lure sailors and airmen over to be ground pounders. According to USA Today reporting "only 50 sailors and 89 airmen have switched to the Army". Not a good turn out. If memory serves me, that's less than a full training battery, um .. company, sorry I was in artillery.

Seems the Army and the Marines aren't the career choice it use to be. It's no wonder people are balking a little to sign up. Or are they? According to the regular active Army and Marines, their recruiting has met their goals. I'm sure their goals will increase with our increased 'on the ground' presence in actual conflict. We'll see a lot more recruiters patrolling the malls, highschools and college campuses. But I suspect we'll see quotas met. No, maybe still not in the reserve units, after all these were part-time jobs. Now they aren't. I wonder if those people are just signing up full time active instead. If they're going to be deployed for a year-plus anyway, what's the point in being in the Guard?

The recruits signing up now, aren't looking for a career or even 'adventure' in the innocent sense. They are literally "Defending Freedom". During the cold war people didn't sign up to "Defeat Communism" no.... They did it because they need to pay off that student loan, or their dad or the local judge told them to quit making trouble go join the army. No, today's recruit ... The volunteer, probably has larger factors that drive them to sign up.

It's not just an adventure, it's a sacrifice.