Army recruiters nationwide are facing the worst recruiting slump in years. However, recruiters in the Muncie area say local enlistment numbers have not suffered this widespread problem.
"It has been one of the toughest years, but the numbers have been pretty good," Staff Sgt. Tony Hinds, a recruiting and retention officer at the Muncie Office of the National Guard, said. "In terms of nationwide though, some cities and states are less patriotic than others and that's why recruiters face some hindrances. Muncie is a very patriotic city, which makes the recruiting process much easier."
Additionally, the Ball State University chapter of the Reserve Officer Training Corps, an officer-producing program for the United States Army, has approximately 50 contracted and another 50 enrolled non-contracted members, said Lt. Col. Larry Trittipo, chairman and professor of military science at Ball State.
"The ROTC is not experiencing a letdown in recruiting," said Trittipo, who has been at Ball State for two years. "The class sizes are actually getting bigger. Each year the BSU ROTC commissions 15 to 18 recruits and this year is one of the largest classes."
The Army National Guard saw 6,048 accessions for the month of September, 98 percent of its monthly goal, according to a Department of Defense press release. For the fiscal year, the Army National guard reached 80 percent of its goal. Active-duty, the Reserve, and the National Guard fell slightly short of projected recruiting numbers for the 2005 fiscal year.
Sgt. 1st Class Timothy Day, station commander in the Muncie Office of the National Guard, said he attributed the shortfall to several factors.
"The number one reason is the Iraqi/Afghan war," he said. "All of the negative press coverage and publicity in the news is making people hesitant to enlist because they see all of the media reports and the number of people dying."
Still, Muncie is doing well compared to the rest of the country.
"We do have goals each month; however, they change from month to month," Day said. "Muncie is currently meeting these goals."
Hinds said one misconception about enlisting in the National Guard that could be hampering recruiting numbers is that once recruits sign up, they are immediately sent to war.
"There are so many other jobs available that don't include going to war, like recruiting," he said. "On the flip side, the misconception is that the National Guard works during floods and fills sandbags. The National Guard is actually one of the largest fighting forces in the war."
Day, a seven-year veteran of the National Guard and a former recruiter, said reasons for joining the National Guard today differ from the reasons for joining less than a decade ago.
"It was different seven years ago because there were not as many deployments and activation of the National Guard," he said. "Also, I think it indicates that the criteria to sign up and enlist are a lot tougher these days."
The National Guard is one of the most popular officer-producing programs for the Army. Day said nowadays the biggest draws to the National Guard are college money, the opportunity to serve the country, a chance of adventure and the challenges posed. Since January, the Muncie office has completed 49 contracts for people interested in joining the National Guard.
"I think people are becoming more hesitant because of the war," Hinds said. "But during the war, you find the best recruits who are likely to be in it for a while. That's when you get the soldiers that want to be there and are doing it for their country."
Bret Unger, 26, an Emergency Medical Technician from Muncie, completed his final paperwork last month to enlist as a medical specialist in the National Guard. Following his swearing in, Unger will attend medical school in Fort Sam, Texas for 16 weeks.
"I am looking forward to the opportunity of an education to better myself and give me a better future," Unger said. "It will also give me something to stand for."
Once Unger is sworn into the National Guard, the credits taken during basic training would be converted to college credit, which would put Unger a semester ahead if he decided to return to college, Hinds said.
Since the Muncie National Guard Office moved to its new location at University Avenue and Dill Street almost a year ago, Day said the local National Guard had experienced a moderate upswing of walk-in recruits.
Although both the National Guard and the ROTC rely on walk-in recruits, active recruiting involves heavy high school and college campus presence.
"We do a lot of high school stuff because they represent a large part of our market," Day said. "We go in and teach classes, talk to faculty and do lunchtime presentations on Guard benefits so educators are aware of tuition money available. We go out to a P.E. class and give the army physical fitness test or we take a Hummer to a shop class.
"Recruiters need to be thorough with the material and what we offer people because people need to be well informed and get parents involved," he said.
The ROTC focuses predominantly on the college campus to find prospective recruits.
"We go to different student orientation sessions during the summer and set up a table primarily to recruit incoming freshman," Trittipo said. "Then most of our recruitment comes from students who walk in here who have had prior military service."
As a National Guard recruiter, Hinds said his responsibility is two-fold.
"I am not only responsible for going out and finding people, but as a retention officer, I make sure people are in it for the long run," he said. "That's why the National Guard recruiters and recruits have longevity. It's because we actively work to keep them in the service."
Day said the most important element of recruiting is educating people on all areas of the National Guard.
"There is no quick sell when it comes to recruiting," he said. "You are not going to get people on an impulse buy when you are selling a lifestyle, so there is no sneaky little tactic. You have to give people everything they need."
Once the recruiter makes contact with a possible recruit, there are certain criteria the recruit must meet in order to be eligible for enlistment. In the National Guard and ROTC, mental and physical fitness are significant to a recruit's success.
"If your mind is prepared you can get your body through it," Day said, "but if your body is prepared and your mind is not, you will most likely not make it through. It is 90 percent mental. It's not like you are trying to climb Mount Everest."
In addition, since the ROTC is a campus-based organization, a student's grade point average is also vital.
"ROTC members must maintain a 2.0 grade point average for non-commissioned contracts and a 2.5 grade point average for commissioned contracts," Trittipo said. "Students can get 100 percent of their tuition paid for through scholarships, which work just like any other type of scholarship available to BSU students."
Apart from possessing a moderate level physical fitness and scholastic aptitude, Day said recruits must possess a strong sense of patriotism.
"They must have a willingness to serve country, which is the primary motive, " he said. "They need to be a good citizen, a good recruit with a fairly clean record. There are some law violations we can work with but probably not an outstanding warrant or felony conviction."
Trittipo added that the ROTC looks for top-notch recruits who will become the future leaders of the U.S. Army.
"An army officer is a lead soldier of the (United States)," he said. "We need people to lead. We want athletes who have participated in sports, leaders of fraternities, or some other campus activity. That's what we look for in an army officer."
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