Flocking to enlist
http://www.theoutlookonline.com/news/story.php?story_id=127725383771447700
Scarce jobs, high tuition fuel recruiting boom
By Peter Korn
Jun 22, 2010
Southeast Portland resident Rommel Mangubat applied for a job at a
supermarket chain this spring and was told he could have one – at
entry level. The work would include stocking shelves and collecting carts.
That wasn't what the 31-year-old Mangubat expected when he graduated
this spring from Portland State University with a degree in general
management and information systems and now has student loans to pay
off. He anticipated a job as a retail manager or assistant manager at
least. But he couldn't find one, anywhere.
Mangubat's plan had been to find the right job and possibly enlist in
the U.S. Army Reserve. Without the right job, he changed his plan. In
September, he will report to basic training in Fort Leonard Wood,
Mo., after enlisting in the Army with a four-year commitment that
will include training as an Army medic.
Sgt. 1st Class Renny Lutz, commander at the U.S. Army Recruiting
Station on Southeast 82nd Avenue, has been hearing similar stories all year.
"I'm talking to so many people who are recently laid off or can't
find a job," Lutz says.
Meanwhile, Sgt. 1st Class Andrew Mace, station commander of the Army
Career Center in Gresham, says within the last month he has spoken
with at least five potential recruits with bachelor's degrees.
Many of today's recruits, he adds, are having trouble financing their
post-secondary education and are looking to gain both financial
assistance as well as job training in the Army.
"If they are in post-secondary education, and they have not completed
their degree, there's two groups," he says. "One has not figured out
how to further finance their education, and the second … are looking
for a job skill or a full-time job in the Army," he says
War and the future
Despite the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Oregonians are
enlisting. In 2009, all the nation's armed forces exceeded their
recruiting goals for the first time since the draft was abolished in
1973, according to military reports. Locally, Lutz says, the trend
has been similar, and appears even more pronounced for 2010.
Having more potential soldiers means the military can be more
selective, and Lutz says so far in 2010 his Portland office has seen
a 32 percent increase of what the Army calls "highly qualified
enlistments" compared to last year. "Highly qualified enlistments"
have high school diplomas and score well on military aptitude tests.
Indeed, Mace points out that it's been decades since the Army was a
prime destination for aimless teenagers who had dropped out of high school.
"You have a higher probability of success with someone who completes
high school than with someone who didn't," he adds, noting there are
more than enough high school graduates who want to enlist at this time.
East County recruits generally range in age from 17 to 27, with the
bulk coming in the 17 to 24 range, Mace says. Most have either
completed high school or are already in college. About 85 to 90 men
and women join the Army or Army Reserve through his center each year, he adds.
"We're looking for the motivated person who is career oriented, who
is looking to honestly better themselves, and not feeling like the
Army is the last resort," he says, adding it's noticeably easier to
recruit now than earlier in the decade when Congress wanted a bigger army.
Nationally, better than nine of 10 military recruits last year had a
high school diploma, compared with seven of 10 three years ago.
Elizabeth Allen, a spokeswoman for the Navy recruiting office in
Northeast Portland, says that Oregon and Washington Navy recruiters
doubled their recruiting goals in 2009 and are 158 percent ahead of
recruiting goals so far in 2010.
The recession has proved a bonanza for military recruiters, though
the economic climate is only one factor behind the record enlistment
rates. Skyrocketing college costs are also contributing to the trend,
according to recruiters.
"A lot of people seem to be stuck in that category where they don't
qualify for Pell grants for education, their parents make too much
money, but they still can't afford to pay for their college," Lutz says.
According to a U.S. Department of Education nationwide survey, the
average student loan debt for a graduating college senior in 2008 was
$23,200, a 24-percent increase from 2004 and about double the average
student debt in 1996. A whopping 61 percent of students leaving
Oregon four-year colleges had college loans to pay, ranging from an
average of $16,223 for University of Oregon graduates to an average
of $27,140 for graduates of private Linfield College.
Recruits' reasons
Nicholas Anderson, 18, just completed his first year at Mt. Hood
Community College, works as a technical office assistant at Grace
Community Church in Gresham and hopes to work in law enforcement someday.
Anderson also just became a private in the Army Reserve, and was
recruited through the Gresham center. Anderson leaves for basic
training at Fort Leonard Wood on Aug. 21.
A number of reasons led him to enlist, he says, from patriotism
rooted in his grandfather's service in the Army to a desire to gain
financial assistance for his education. He noted he received a $2,000
bonus for signing up and has already received some help paying his
school bills. He chuckled when asked if he and his friends had
discussed joining.
"A lot of the people I talked to are trying to stay as far away from
the Army as they can," Anderson says.
He also notes that the fact the country is at war did not give him pause.
"If it's what I have to do, it's what I have to do," Anderson says.
The young soldier adds that he believes the Army Reserve will give
him an edge over other law enforcement applicants down the road
because he will learn leadership skills.
Recent Parkrose High School graduate Ashley LeCarno says she hopes to
attend college someday, but if she does, the federal government will
pay the bills. For now, the 18-year-old LeCarno says the prospect of
job training was what most motivated her to enlist in the Army. She
will leave for basic training at Fort Still, Okla., in August.
LeCarno scored well in the Army's battery of aptitude tests, which
gave her more options when it came time to negotiate a service
contract with Lutz. She says she'd long been fascinated by
helicopters, even though she knows little about them beyond the
experience of a vacation ride over Seaside a few years ago.
LeCarno has the Army's promise that she will be trained as a
helicopter mechanic. But because of the Army's investment in training
her, LeCarno's commitment is for a minimum of six years. After that,
if she chooses to attend college, the military will pay all her
tuition bills for four years at any Oregon public university.
Still, there are those two wars out there. LeCarno sounds like the
teenager she is when asked whether the prospect of serving in a war
zone factored into her decision.
"People will say, 'There's a war going on, how do you know you're not
going to be shipped out?' " she says. "But even if I am, it's a part
of the experience."
Lutz says he doesn't avoid discussing the wars when he's recruiting.
"It's the first thing I tell people, we're at war," he says. "I tell
them there's a 90, 95 percent chance you're going to Iraq or
Afghanistan. Is it really that high? I don't think so. But I'd rather
make it sound worse."
Most of his young recruits, Lutz says, don't register a great deal of
fear about serving at war.
"The misgivings are more from parents," he says. "They don't want
their son or daughter to go to war and potentially die."
Anne Trudeau, a longtime Northeast Portland peace activist, agrees with that.
"It's the nature of youth to underestimate the risk," she says.
Trudeau says her nephew recently re-enlisted in the Air Force and his
mother, Trudeau's sister-in-law, told her, "What else is he going to
do? There are no jobs." But Trudeau thinks that's unjust.
She calls the current situation a "poverty draft."
Mace disagrees.
"The economy has affected everybody," he says. "We're not seeing the
poverty-stricken people coming to us in the majority. The typical
recruit, if I had to stereotype it, would be middle class, from the
upper middle class to the lower middle class, are the majority."
Recruiters' access
Navy spokeswoman Allen says that a major contributor to the recent
success of recruiters is the controversial clause in the federal No
Child Left Behind legislation that increased public education
standards but also required high schools to grant military recruiters
the same access to students as college recruiters.
Schools also must provide military recruiters contact information for
students unless parents specifically sign an opt-out form.
Mireaya Medina, Peace Building program director for the American
Friends Service Committee's Portland chapter, says No Child Left
Behind has given recruiters too much of an edge.
"When I was a kid, there were military recruiters, but they weren't
hanging out in the schools," Medina says. "It's almost as if the
schools are selling kids out for some money."
But the larger question is whether or not enlistment is buying time
for young people who cannot find work or afford college during the
current recession, or whether enlistment is providing a long-term
solution. According to federal Bureau of Labor statistics, the
current unemployment rate for veterans is 8.1 percent, slightly lower
than the national average.
But male veterans younger than 25 had a 21.6 percent unemployment
rate in 2009, higher than the 19.1 percent jobless rate for
nonveteran males younger than 25.
A major reason is miscommunication, says Linda Rosser, an Army
reserve lieutenant colonel and member of the advisory board of the
Call of Duty Endowment, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that helps
veterans find jobs.
Rosser says most returning veterans have gained marketable job
skills, but they don't know how to convey to civilian employers the
value of what they do in the military.
In addition, Rosser says, many civilian employers have developed
their own biases.
"There's a lot of hesitation because there's concern that anybody who
has recently returned from Iraq or Afghanistan is coming back with
PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), and they're not ready to take
that risk," Rosser says.
Are returning veterans employable?
"I think they are, but I don't think they're packaging themselves
very well," Rosser says.
Mace urges veterans to contact the Veterans Administration for
assistance in their job hunts. Veterans need to plan their transition
into civilian life, he says.
"There's an adjustment phase," he says. "In some cases it can become
frustrating for the veterans. That's why these Veterans
Administration representatives are there to help assist through the
changing process."
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