Military goes high-tech in bid to win recruits

By Melanthia Mitchell
The Associated Press

	Soldiers from the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, a Stryker combat team, run drills earlier this month during a terrorist-training mission at Fort Lewis.
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FORT LEWIS — Today's military has switched from the traditional "Uncle Sam wants you" message to high-profile, high-tech recruitment tools: NASCAR sponsorships, online games and "PowerPoint rangers."

The military is going after Internet-savvy prospective soldiers on their own terms — even using the Fort Lewis Army base and its units as the backdrop for a computer game and a commercial geared toward recruitment.

"It's just a matter of we have to stay current with the way people are used to getting information," said Douglas Smith, spokesman for the Army Recruiting Command in Fort Knox, Ky. "We're like any other advertiser or any other organization that is selling something to the American public."

Services have depended on volunteer enlistments since the military draft ended in 1973. That means recruiting, which can be affected by changes in the economy, unemployment among youth and the number of high-school graduates attending college.

"It's been an evolutionary process where the Army has tried to keep pace with best business practices and changes in the communications arena," Smith said.

Since 1999, the Army has exceeded its recruitment goals. In 2003 it surpassed its mark of 73,800 enlistments by 332. The Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps also posted numbers above their target enrollments.

	ELAINE THOMPSON / AP Lt. Col. George Juntiff gives a demonstration earlier this month of "America's Army," the latest in the service's online-gaming tool at Fort Lewis. Today's military is going after today's Internet-savvy prospective soldiers and sailors on their own terms.

Despite the continued occupation in Iraq and a growing number of U.S. service members' deaths — more than 530 since military operations there began — the volunteers keep coming.

"There isn't going to be a problem" with enlistment in the future, Smith said.

Web sites, games, television commercials and providing laptops to recruitment officers — sarcastically dubbed "PowerPoint rangers" among the rank and file — are the innovative ways the Army hopes to boost its numbers.

It also sponsors the National Hot Rod Association; NASCAR; "Taking it to the Streets," a basketball tournament appealing to urban audiences; and the Army All-America Bowl, a football game featuring the country's star high-school-senior football players.

"We're dealing with the cyberspace generation. They're not likely to go downtown to a recruiting station," said David Segal, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park, and a leading military sociologist.

Military officials said there are no numbers to show whether heavier marketing works. But Lt. Bill Davis said when the Navy — also a NASCAR sponsor — launched its Web site www.navy.com in 2001, it recorded 6.5 million inquiries the first year. In 2003 there were 6.8 million hits.

The Internet allows potential enlistees to check out a service "without the intimidation of walking into a recruiter station," said Davis, spokesman at Navy Recruiting Command in Millington, Tenn.

The Army went a step further in using computers as a recruiting tool when it started offering free computer games in 2002.

Recently computer-software developers watched an anti-terrorist-training mission by the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, a Stryker combat team at Fort Lewis.

Soldiers barreled through buildings in a mock-up of a city in Iraq. A "grenade" permeated the air with daffodil-yellow smoke, and Arabian music blared above "gunfire" and soldiers' shouts.

The detail is to be used in the latest version of "America's Army," the service's online-gaming tool touting its elite fighting units. The newest version of the computer game is set for release in April and will be available at local recruiting stations.

Soldiers, however, cautioned against enlisting without serious consideration — regardless of how real the game.

"If you get shot, there's no coming back. There's no 'Play again,' " said Sgt. 1st Class Bernabe Quinones, 36.

Quinones played a "terrorist" role during the recent enactment of the terrorist encounter. "We try the best that we can to give them what they're actually going to face," he said.

Segal, the military sociologist, said the Navy, Air Force and Marines all face various recruitment challenges, but they dim next to the Army's insatiable need for bodies. "The Army is basically a big consumer of people," he said.

The Army's 74,132 recruits in 2003 far outnumbered the Navy's 41,075. The Air Force enlisted 37,141 last year while Marines, a comparatively smaller force, recruited 32,530.

The Army still uses posters, mailings and tables at job fairs to reach people, but Segal said advertising — like its "Army of One" motto — show it wants to broaden its appeal.

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