COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Counter-Recruitment: General
Armed Guard and No Door, but Recruiters Carry On
ANTHONY RAMIREZ, New York Times
March 8, 2008
The scene of the crime on Friday morning had no yellow "crime scene"
tape blocking off the sidewalk, and no locks on the door. The door
had been so badly shattered that it had to be removed.
A day after a small explosion shook the military recruiting station
in Times Square, the station commander, Sgt. James V. Latella, 32,
offered his assessment: The station has "absolutely gone back to normal, sir."
Not quite.
Outside the recruiting station, which is an 18-wheeler-size box of
gunmetal gray, two New York City police officers walked in small
circles. Several others patrolled surrounding streets.
Nearby, a television news truck was preparing for a broadcast.
Passengers pointed at the station from cars stopped at the red light.
Tourists milled around and took photographs of their friends with the
damaged station in the background.
Jokesters posed for pictures while pulling hoodies over their heads
and making handlebar gestures an allusion to the suspected bomber
who surveillance footage indicated wore a hooded sweatshirt or jacket
and rode a bicycle.
The city has long had an ambivalent relationship with the military,
played out, as often as not, in Times Square.
Perhaps the most famous photograph ever taken there, not far from the
bombed station, is of a sailor planting a kiss on a swooning nurse on
V-J Day in 1945. During Fleet Week every year, Navy officers and
sailors in dress whites get hearty handshakes from admiring civilians.
On the other hand, the Times Square recruiting station has often
become an object of resentment during conflicts with less popular
support than World War II had. Demonstrations protesting Korea,
Vietnam and both Iraq wars have been held nearby. An occasional stone
has been thrown at it, and countless discouraging words have been
uttered about it.
But the bomb blast, about 3:45 a.m. on Thursday, was by far the worst
incident. Luckily, there were no injuries and little property damage.
No arrests have been made, no suspects identified. But police
investigators said that a blue bicycle recovered at Madison Avenue
and 38th Street on Thursday morning was probably the one used by the
bomber. A $12,000 reward has been offered for any information that
leads to a conviction in the bombing.
The station reopened shortly after 5 p.m. on Thursday. On any given
day, said Sergeant Latella a 12-year veteran from Irwin, Pa. the
number of people who walk in depends on the weather. He said it could
be about two dozen on a good day.
Of the six recruiting stations in Manhattan, the Times Square station
just below where the ball drops on New Year's Eve is the most
successful, averaging 20 or more recruits a year for the Army alone,
said Capt. Charles Jaquillard, 31, a 10-year Army veteran from
Toledo, Ohio, who supervises the six stations.
The station also accepts volunteers for the Navy, the Marines and the
Air Force, but Captain Jaquillard was not familiar with those numbers.
The authorities called Captain Jaquillard at his home shortly after 5
a.m. Thursday to tell him about the bomb. "I was still groggy," he
recalled. "I got up and turned on the television and found out that
it was in fact a valid statement." He telephoned his girlfriend to
tell her that no one had been injured and that there was no cause for concern.
By 6 a.m., Captain Jaquillard was at the station, watching as
investigators combed the scene for evidence. "For whatever reason
this was done," he said, "there are other ways to get a point across.
Whatever that point was, whether it was to stop our recruiting
operations or something else, obviously it was a fruitless effort."
After the police left in the afternoon, Captain Jaquillard deployed
two soldiers at the station because the shattered door had been
removed. There were computers and other valuable equipment inside, as
well as personnel records. The door was replaced in the afternoon.
Recruiting goes on, he emphasized, comparing the bombing to a spell
of bad weather. The station is normally open Monday through Saturday,
from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
"People come in because they've got interest in military service," he
said. "It's like any other job interview whether it's raining or
snowing, it doesn't really matter, does it?"
To volunteer for the United States armed forces, an applicant can be
as young as 17, with a parent's permission, but most applicants are
in their early 20s, Captain Jaquillard said.
While recruiting soldiers for a shooting war may seem difficult, he
said, most applicants usually give one of four reasons for joining:
to gain new skills, to earn money for college, to go overseas, and
"just plain getting out of the neighborhood. "
By midafternoon Friday, despite the milling tourists and the
television broadcast trucks, at least three young people had dropped
by to talk for an hour or more with recruiters.
One possible recruit, who seemed barely in her teens, left the
station and was immediately surrounded by reporters seeking comment.
She smiled, said nothing and walked away.
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