COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Recruiting: General
Military sees parents as big recruiting barrier
Kristin Roberts, Reuters
May 11, 2007
The biggest obstacle for U.S. military recruiters is not finding young
Americans willing to enlist in wartime, it's dealing with their
parents, according to the Pentagon.
That reality, which has emerged over the past year through polling
data and recruiters' experiences throughout the United States, has led
some parts of the U.S. military to seek new ways to either convince
parents or simply bypass them.
The Army Reserve -- which is having the hardest time meeting
recruiting goals -- has opted to shift its focus onto peers.
The Reserve plans to adopt a National Guard program and use its young
soldiers as recruiters in their home communities, boosting the number
of recruiters reaching out to youth based on the belief that peers can
be a deciding force in the decision to enlist.
"Peers recruiting peers -- I think that's a great idea," Brig. Gen.
Richard Sherlock, deputy chief of the Army Reserve, said on Thursday
after the reserve missed its monthly recruiting goal by 19 percent.
Like other Pentagon officials, Sherlock said parents and adults that
recruiters call "influencers" are a tough hurdle to clear, but their
influence can be checked.
"Influencers certainly have a big impact, but I also think there are
other things that we really haven't tried or explored completely
before that have shown great success," he said.
Parental opposition is felt in other parts of the military too. That's
clear from the Army's decision to target part of its new "Army Strong"
advertising campaign at parents, telling them: "You made them strong.
We'll make them Army Strong."
STEEP DECLINES
Parents today are a greater deterrent than in previous years,
according to Defense Department polling data that shows a steady
decline in the number who say they would recommend military service to
youths.
Between 2001 and 2002, the percentage of parents with children aged 12
to 21 who were likely to recommend military service fell from 70 to
40. The figure had dropped to nearly 20 percent by June 2006.
The Pentagon says its problem with parents is partly generational.
"There are differences over time in how people think about their
responsibilities and what they owe their country, what they owe their
society," David Chu, the Pentagon's under secretary for personnel and
readiness, said earlier this year.
"I do personally believe part of the cause is generational, " he said.
Many parents of high school- and college-aged Americans belong to the
Vietnam War generation and some say the experience affected the advice
they give their children.
But others say the Iraq war has played just as big a part in their
decision to discourage enlistment.
Nora Barrett, a university professor in New Jersey, said her advice to
her 18-year-old son and to students is driven by a fear they'll be
hurt in Iraq and her opposition to the war overall.
"I'm actually very much against this particular war," Barrett said.
"There's nothing that could be said that would convince me that it was
a good idea for Tim to go."
Iraq has even affected parents who backed the war, leading some to
question whether they could support a child's desire to enlist.
"I can't say that I haven't always been a proponent of that war in the
beginning," said Joe Hazen, a New Yorker with a 17-year-old son. "I'm
a little discouraged as to the way it all turned out and some of the
things that are coming out, so I don't know how I'd react."
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