War On Terror: National Guard uses reality to recruit soldiers

Posted by Jim Stroud

April 15, 2006

Whenever potential recruits ask about their chances of being shipped off to Iraq if they enlist, National Guard recruiter Pierre Chatman doesn’t sugarcoat it: 100 percent, he tells them. “We are the military. That’s our job,” says Houston’s top recruiter. “We used to stress protecting the home front Ã¢â‚¬â€? and it was easier to do. But all that has changed.”

Indeed, local flare-ups used to be the purview of the “civilian soldier,” but since 9/11, that job description has changed Ã¢â‚¬â€? and the Guard has had to change recruiting strategies, too, to meet enlistment goals. Remarkably, it’s having some success. While active branches have experienced recruiting woes during wartime, the Army National Guard is now seeing its ranks rise for the first time in three years.

“The new posters show a soldier joining the National Guard to be a soldier, while the Army is still promoting money for college. The Guard has done a better job of adapting to the fact that we are at war.” - David Segal director of the Center for Research on Military Organization at the University of Maryland

READ: Guard Recruiters Try Realism, Succeed