The Gazette January 12, 2005
Colorado Guard suggests bounty for recruitment
By Tom Roeder
Recruiting has gotten so difficult for the Colorado Army National Guard that commanders want to offer $200 bounties to guardsmen who get their friends to sign up.
Since October, the Guard has brought in about half the recruits it needs to maintain ranks and be ready for war.
The problem is twofold, said Lt. Col. Michael Stowell, who heads recruiting and retention for the Colorado Guard. First, experienced soldiers who were sent to Iraq have been quitting after they return. Second, would-be recruits are scared off by the prospect of spending a year in a war zone.
"What we're telling people is the likelihood of being deployed if you enlist is pretty high," Stowell said. "It's not so much of a what if, but a when."
The colonel hopes that by year's end the Guard will be back at full strength - roughly 2,400 soldiers. In addition to asking the Legislature for the bounty money, the Guard has added a dozen recruiters.
Recruiting for the full-time Army and Reserve is also off to a tough start this year in Colorado, although the Army said it's meeting its goal nationwide. The recruiting region that includes Colorado and Wyoming has brought in less than half its goal in the past month.
The strongest area in the region for recruiters remains Colorado Springs, where a large military population tends to produce more would-be soldiers.
Throughout the West, Air Force, Navy and Marine recruiters are reporting success. But Army recruiters, despite offering bonuses of up to $20,000 and piles of college money, face an uphill battle.
"They're describing it as a fight," said Col. Patrick Nary, operations officer for the 6th Recruiting Brigade in Las Vegas, which handles recruiting for the Western states.
Nationally, the Army says, things are fine.
From Oct. 1 through Dec. 23, 14,183 people had signed up for the regular Army, which hopes to bring in 80,000 recruits by the end of September. For the Army Reserve during the same period, 2,672 were brought in to help meet the annual goal of 22,175.
"It's a challenging year, but we're satisfied," said Douglas Smith, a spokesman for the Army Recruiting Command at Fort Knox, Ky.
Smith said the Army narrowly exceeded its recruiting goals for 2004, and he expects the same or better this year. He said low numbers in November and December are caused by a traditional slowdown for the holidays.
Still, skeptics say the Army and especially its Reserve components are likely to finish the year well below recruiting targets.
"If they are going for 80,000 a year, they would like to hit 20,000 a quarter," said David Segal, director of the Center for Research on Military Organization at the University of Maryland. "And they would like to get more than that so they aren't playing catch-up at the end of year."
About 162,000 guardsmen and reservists are on active duty in the largest call-up of part-time soldiers in generations.
"The Reserve forces may well be victims of the Iraq war," Segal said.
The Guard and Army Reserve weren't designed for rotational duty as peacekeepers, said John Pike, executive director of the defense think tank GlobalSecurity.org.
"They were designed to fight World War III," he said. "They're not going to be able to get people to join the damn thing if they get to go to Iraq as a result."
Nary said his recruiters work to counter the images of Iraq that would-be soldiers see on television.
"We're inundated by the car bombs. We don't see the schools being built," he said.
Despite regional recruiting problems, re-enlistments in the full-time Army have stayed steady throughout the Iraq war.
At Fort Carson, units that have been in Iraq have seen a surge of re-enlistments since they got home.
Although they all got big bonuses, most of the re-enlisting soldiers cited loyalty to their comrades as their reason for staying.
Lt. Col. Jeff Brodeur, who commands Army recruiters in Colorado and Wyoming, said loyalty to their country motivates many of his recruits, as well.
"It would probably surprise people to learn about the number of people that do join to give service to their nation," he said.
Although recruiting has been tough this winter, Brodeur expects things to get better.
"Nothing is hand-fed to us," he said. "It's a challenging mission."
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