Jobless turn to the armed forces

HANOVER, PENNSYLVANIA // When Gregory Jordan was laid off last month from his job as a dishwasher at a local restaurant, the 19-year-old recent high school graduate did what an increasing number of US residents are doing in these tough economic times: he joined the military. With unemployment rates soaring and jobs becoming scarce, more Americans have been lured by Uncle Sam's promise of health benefits, tuition for school and job training. Four of the five branches of the US military - the army, air force, navy and marines - have exceeded recruitment targets for each of the first five months of this fiscal year and recruiters are reporting a surge in interest among young people like Mr Jordan, who decided to join the air force because he could not afford college.

"The economy is going down ? but the air force still has the ability to pay its troops very well," said Mr Jordan, standing in front of the local Armed Services Career Center, a recruiting station housed in a strip mall in this rural region of southern Pennsylvania. "I am very excited about this." Mr Jordan came to the recruiting station to finalise his enlistment papers. He emerged about a half-hour later, proudly sporting an air force baseball cap. He will now face a battery of physical tests and take the military entrance exam before being shipped off to boot camp.

"There's a whole world of opportunities now," said Mr Jordan, a native of the nearby town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. "There's basically no limit to it, and it just feels amazing." An increase in the country's unemployment rate has historically led to a spike in military enlistments, Pentagon officials said. From the beginning of the current fiscal year in October through February, the army, the largest branch of the military, enlisted 44,262 new active and reserve soldiers, nearly eight per cent more than its target. During that same period, the unemployment rate rose to 8.1 per cent from 6.6 per cent. "We've had a good year," said Douglas Smith, a spokesman for the US Army Recruiting Command in Fort Knox, Kentucky, who noted that the army has not enjoyed such success for at least six years and perhaps longer, depending on how long the current streak lasts.

While the economy is the largest contributor to the recruitment boom, Mr Smith said other factors such as the planned withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and an improvement in military benefits have attracted many. A new "GI Bill", which enhances the military's educational perks, will take effect in August. The defence department has rarely failed to meet its recruiting targets; it has only happened once since 1999. But with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and steady news coverage of the casualties, it has not been easy for recruiters to meet their quotas. Some standards have been lowered to help them beef up the ranks.

The army, for example, normally requires 90 per cent of its recruits to have a high school diploma. But since 2005, around the time when conditions in Iraq deteriorated, that standard has not been met. In 2007, only 79 per cent of the new recruits graduated from high school. In 2006, the army also increased its maximum age to 42 from 35 and eased other restrictions that would have previously disqualified some from enlisting, such as low scores on the entrance exam or having a criminal record.

Now, however, with the new surge of interest, some recruiters say they are turning candidates away because they simply cannot keep up with demand. Only one-quarter of US youth are qualified to serve in the military, according to Curtis Gilroy, the director of accession policy at the defence department, who testified before Congress in March. At the recruiting station in Hanover, which serves all four branches of the military, at least six young people showed up at the station in a two-hour span last week. One of them was Leah Knowlton, 17, of the nearby town of Fairfield, who plans to enlist in the army after she graduates high school in the spring. Because she is a minor, Leah needed her parents' approval to begin the recruitment process.

"There's a few benefits and bonuses and stuff. My parents, they agree with it," she said, adding that she hoped to join the military police. "It's pretty much like a guaranteed job." It is not hard to see how such job security would appeal to young people in this rural, blue-collar region of Pennsylvania. The borough of Hanover is best known for being the "snack food capital of the world" because it is home to several national food brands, including Utz, the maker of potato chips, or crisps. Many of the jobs that await high school graduates here are in factories; for some the military is a better option. The unemployment rate here lurched to 7.2 per cent in January from 5.8 per cent in December. In the nearby town of Littlestown, a cabinetmaker recently shut down, leaving 400 people without jobs.

"People are coming in looking for a fresh start on a career if they are unemployed and unable to find work," said Sgt Gregory Koskey, who heads the army's recruiting operation in Hanover. He said fewer recruits are expressing concerns about being sent off to war. "They just kind of realise that it's probably going to happen. They have grasped the reality as a nation that this is what we're in right now."

People here know that a military job can be a dangerous way to make a living. A local man, Michael Dinterman, from Littlestown, died of a gunshot wound in Afghanistan last year. He had been there one month and was about to turn 19. Dinterman enlisted at the Hanover recruiting station a little more than a year ago, just after graduating high school. "We are well aware of the dangers of enlistment and we make that well known to our recruits when they come into the station," said Sgt Koskey, who remembered when Dinterman came into the office. "When it hits that close to home, it opens your eyes."

Still, such risks did not deter Mike Conover, an 18-year-old high school senior, who is also from Littlestown. He came to the recruiting station to join the navy on his daughter's first birthday. "I did think over this a few times - I thought that maybe I should not do this because of [my daughter]," said Mr Conover, who was also considering jobs in construction and at a local store. "I thought this was the best decision for the future."

sstanek@thenational.ae