MILITARY RECRUITING REBOUNDS

18 year-old Julio Sanchez of East LA is latest Marine recruit

Washington, WPI - In a joint statement today the armed forces announced that it had met and exceeded its recruiting goals for the first time in four months. They attribute the improvement to an aggressive new enlistment program named, “Project Shanghai.”

The project, jointly developed by the Army, Navy and Marine Corps works closely with local governments and community activist groups to target youths who might benefit most from military service.

In San Diego recruitment is up nearly 500% over previous months. Regional recruitment officer, Colonel Drew Malfortunato, says his close coordination with local authorities has made the difference. “We work with the schools, police agencies, truant officers, drug and probation agencies to find kids that need a fresh start.”

Maj. Gen. Michael D. Rochelle, who oversees Army enlistments explained, “There are many teenagers who really want an opportunity to get off the street, to leave the dangers of their ghetto-type neighborhoods behind. They don’t always know it right away but that is what this program is about. We create that opportunity for them.”

Using various governmental data bases, some of them only recently available under new “Patriot Act” rules, the recruiters go right into the streets to find enlistments. Often working at night, and in large groups, the recruiters will encircle a local “target of opportunity”to sweep for prospects.

“We identify trouble spots,” said Col. Malfortunato, “Playgrounds, parks, street corners, wherever local authorities have identified problems and groups of kids who are either drop-outs or otherwise ‘at risk.’ These are our primary targets.”

Specific recruiting tactics are not revealed, “Hey, this is a competitive business,” laughs Sargent Mannley Butcher who oversees operations in the Oakland, California region. ”The Air Force didn’t sign on and we have to contend with the Peace Corp, Americorp and a few other goodie-goodie agencies who are looking for volunteers. There’s only a limited number of warm bodies out there, we’re not revealing our tactics to ‘the enemy!’” Butcher added good naturedly.

Butcher, a former Marine drill instructor at Fort Pendelton, is a hand-to-hand and small arms expert and a veteran of both Desert Storm and the current Gulf War. “Without getting into specifics, we run our recruiting like an operation. We sweep into a target area and round up prospective recruits, ‘detainees’ we call them- using combat terms seems to help the patrol go efficiently,” said the now serious Sargent.

Critics have suggested that teens are intimidated by the fact that the recruiters are armed soldiers with M-1 rifles, 9mm side arms, stun grenades, pepper spray, night sticks, bullet-proof vests, handcuffs, black bags, helmets and masks. Some community organizations claim the enlistees are not permitted to visit their families before being sent to boot camp.

Reverend Arthur Condone of the Pentecostal Church of Latter Day Visionaries in Oakland charged that recruits are transported out of the community in the middle of the night without any opportunity for contemplation or consultation with family and friends. “These young men and women are hearded together at gun point and shipped out to boot camp without even saying goodbye to their Mommas!”

Sargent Butcher denies the claims, “We are soldiers. These are the tools of our trade. Kids like to see the weapons, they like riding in Bradley vehicles. I’ll tell you something, a lot of these kids, when they see the guns, they get very enthusiastic about joining up.”

Rev. Condone alleges that some teens have been enlisted even though they are under age. Butcher admits there have been mistakes.

“When we run an operation we storm into a ‘hot spot,’ as we call it, and we never know what we might find. Sometimes there are drug dealers around, some of these kids have weapons, we make every recruit produce identification. If they aren’t old enough we throw ‘em back in.”

Objecting to the allegations he added, “Every one of our recruits signs up, nobody is forced to do nothin’ they don’t want to. We make it clear that we won’t be around like this again, that this is their last chance. Hey, most of these kids are very glad to have an alternative.”

General Rochelle said the program is an overwhelming success. “We merely had to take a military approach to a military problem. Once we employed the tactics which have been successful in other theaters-of-operation we have become successful in this one.”

Captain Able Seshure, commander of Naval recruiting said, “I don’t know about the critics but the results for the Navy have been very impressive!”