COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Recruiting: Recruiting in Rural Areas
Induction ceremony at show highlights recruiting efforts
MICHAEL BECKER, Bozeman Daily Chronicle
July 29, 2007
With a pair of F-16 fighter jets as a backdrop, a dozen new Air Force
recruits took the oath of enlistment at the Blue Angels in the Big
Sky air show on Sunday afternoon.
Recruits from across the state traveled to Gallatin Field airport to
take the oath, including 17-year-old Andrea Swisse from Savage.
Swisse will graduate from high school next year and hopes to train as
an X-ray technician with the Air Force and then to turn that into a
career outside the military.
"I've always wanted to be in the military," she said.
Recruit Austin Schwarz, 17, of Livingston was looking forward to the
career possibilities and the associate's degree he will earn in the Air Force.
"I'm excited," he said. "It's going to be an awesome opportunity. "
Tech Sgt. Gary Foote, the Air Force recruiting supervisor for
Montana, said recruits like Swisse, who have an eye toward jobs and
college after the military, are becoming more common, and the Air
Force doesn't mind.
"It opens up so many opportunities, whether someone wants to stay 40
years or four years," Foote said.
The induction ceremony, performed by Capt. Russ Piggott, was
broadcast over the loudspeakers at the air show and drew applause
from people across the tarmac.
Piggott, an F-16 Falcon demonstration pilot, said swearing in new
recruits is part of his mission to raise awareness of the Air Force
and to get people more excited about enlisting.
An Iraq veteran, Piggott said attending air shows as a child
motivated him to join ROTC in college.
"It drove a stake in my soul," he said. "I said, 'I'm going to be a
pilot. I'm going to be a fighter pilot.'"
The other military branches and law enforcement agencies also took
advantage of the environment and set up recruiting booths at the air show.
Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Kevin Hedge said the military-friendly
atmosphere drove a good number of people to his booth.
"Just from the sheer awe of these amazing machines and the people who
operate them," Hedge said.
Some stopped by for the free goodies offered at the booth, he said,
but others are genuinely interested in Naval service.
The story was the same at the Marine Corps' booth, where Staff Sgt.
Michael Hatlen said recruiters were having pretty good luck drawing attention.
"We just tell our story, and that's what get's them," he said.
Even the Montana Highway Patrol's recruitment booth was seeing a fair
amount of interest, Trooper Cherie Lofton said. The MHP normally
recruits at job fairs, she said. This was the agency's first time at
an air show.
"There are a lot of people who are receptive to this here," she said.
"Plus, it's a chance to do public relations."
Though recruiters do often see a spike in interest during and after
air shows, Foote said they are not just disguised recruiting tools.
"They raise a lot of awareness about the military," he said. "A lot
of people in their daily lives forget what's happening out there."
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