The new recruits
With our country in the middle of a very messy war, why would anyone want to join the military now? Two South Florida men explain their reasons for signing up.
by Jim Di Paola
March 16 2005
Even though Ryan Bancroft announced several weeks ago that he was enlisting in the U.S. Marines, the people closest to him are still acting weird. His mother, Julie Bancroft-Kitchen, bursts into tears of both pride and fear when she thinks about her son's decision. His best friend calls him crazy. Friends since kindergarten ask if he has a death wish. Even the most supportive people in his life look more worried for him than happy.
"Pretty much everyone wants to tell me that you have other options, as if joining [the military] is a last solution," says Bancroft, 20. But I've done a lot of thinking, and I figure this is the quickest way for me to get where I want to be."
Ever since he graduated from Western High School in Davie with a B average a couple of years ago, Bancroft has been juggling what he calls a meaningless restaurant job while attending Broward Community College part-time. He wasn't earning enough money to move out of his parents' house. But he also wasn't saving enough to finish his college education without racking up huge debt in student loans and delaying graduation by two years.
So when Bancroft's friends talked about the U.S. military and wondered aloud why anyone would want to join now -- with the country engaged in a very messy war in Iraq -- he secretly wondered, "Why not?"
"A lot of my friends disagree with it, but it is something I want to do to push myself," Bancroft says of becoming a Marine. "It's taking on every responsibility in one little package they call the military. You're breaking away from your family for a long period of time, learning new things, becoming more disciplined. It's like a steppingstone to manhood, really."
Because Bancroft enlisted in the delayed-entry program, he won't begin the grueling 12 1/2-week basic training in Paris Island, S.C., until he finishes school in May. He occasionally stops by the Marines recruiting office in Plantation to lift weights with the recruiters, who also buoy his spirits for the dramatic changes to come in his life. Today, he is wearing a T-shirt that reads, "Property of the U.S. Marine Corps." It's a gift from his mother, who bought one for everyone in the family to show support for her eldest son.
Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Ellis smiles when he sees the shirt. "Ryan is going to go far," he predicts. Bancroft is one of 72 recruits his team in Plantation has signed during the first part of the 2005 fiscal year. Of those enlistees, Bancroft stood out. "He scored so well on the [aptitude test], he was qualified for any of the 350 jobs in the Marines," Ellis says. Bancroft chose the aviation division because it offers training in firefighting. "This guy's an adrenaline junkie. I can tell," Ellis adds.
Being a successful military recruiter is never easy, but the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the highly publicized casualty rates that have come with them have made it a particularly difficult assignment. Nationally, the Marine Corps did not meet its monthly recruiting goal for the first time in 10 years. The Army is facing a double whammy: Recruiters struggle to sign people up while active-duty soldiers are fleeing their jobs in record numbers. Since early 2003, the Army has not been able to increase its numbers, though the country's largest military force has a mandate to grow by at least 10 divisions. Since Oct. 1, 2004, military recruiters in all four branches in Broward and Miami-Dade counties have signed up 513 men and women, according to Department of Defense records. (Statistics for Palm Beach County were not available at press time.)
Locally, military recruiters fan out across the region in search of prospects. They go to shopping malls, concerts, NASCAR races, high schools and college campuses -- anywhere they think they may find people willing to consider military service for a career. Bancroft, for example, was approached by a Marine recruiter while shopping for stereo speakers at the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop.
"We've set up a flight simulator at the [Kiss Country] Chili Cook-off," says Navy recruiting supervisor Chief Angela Scott, who runs the Plantation office. "It pretty much had an older crowd, but the age and target market really benefited the Navy reserves. A lot of [reserve recruits] are business professionals who have their degree and are already out there. But because they are working full-time, the reserves is another option."
Recruiting for four years has taught Ellis that finding people willing to join is not the same thing as finding people qualified to do so. "If a Marine recruiting officer talks to 10 potential prospects a day, on average only one will be qualified," he says.
Prospects can fail to make the cut for a number of reasons. Some aren't able to meet the physical requirements. Others don't have the grades -- only 5 percent of Marine recruits get in with less than a high-school diploma. Others are filtered out because they don't have the mental discipline, can't pass the drug test or have a serious criminal record.
Unlike the Army and Marines, which have far greater numbers of troops in Iraq, the Navy and Air Force are seeing record numbers of people trying to enlist. The interest is so great the Navy recently raised the minimum score required to pass its aptitude test.
"We get a lot of people coming here looking for benefits, travel and economic security," Scott says. "It's about furthering their education and having that chance in life they can't get in the private sector. Here, we take the typical 18-to-25-year-old and put them on a flight deck like that with 8,000 people," she says, pointing to a recruiting poster of an aircraft carrier in her office. "So it's not always about the money."
But the money isn't bad. Military recruits with high test scores, good grades and decent backgrounds are being offered incentives like never before. "Our nuclear-power program offers an initial $30,000 sign-up bonus," Scott says.
In January, the Army greatly increased its incentive packages to keep its all-volunteer force fully staffed. Included among those incentives is cash and, in some cases, lots of it. Depending on an applicant's job skills, the Army will pay enlistment bonuses of up to $9,000 to people willing to join the infantry. Those who speak Arabic can also be eligible for a hefty signing bonus. The Army is offering some qualified recruits up to $70,000 in college tuition packages when they leave the service and tuition-free college educations while on active duty.
That's what sold Josue Fleurimond on the Navy. The 20-year-old who lives in Plantation and currently works as a bank teller is shipping out for basic training in June. Fleurimond says his parents were not happy when he told them he was enlisting. In hindsight, he can understand why his decision seemed so shocking. He graduated from Inlet Grove High School in Riviera Beach a year early to enter college and study mathematics. But he switched his focus to architecture and design and hoped to study overseas. He is only one year away from receiving his bachelor's degree.
"I was planning on going to London to study design," Fleurimond explains, "but I was short on funds, and I already have student loans. So I started thinking about how I could take care of my loans and still be able to travel."
At about that time, he received a recruiting e-mail from the Navy over the Internet. He decided to investigate further. "When the Navy said they would take care of my [current] student loans and my [future] schooling, I was like, 'Whoa! That is a huge burden taken off me,' " he remembers. "And I can explore the world with them."
Based on his test scores, Fleurimond signed up to be an administrative assistant for Navy chaplains. The job requires him to offer chaplains clerical support and protection when they travel to combat zones. At the same time, the educational benefits will allow him to complete his degree in design.
"Being a Christian and having that religious background, I can offer my services," Fleurimond says. "I made a decision that this is what I'm going to do in the Navy. I'm going to serve my time but still continue my schooling."
As for new Marine recruit Bancroft, the service will train him to become a fully certified firefighter. He will be able to take college courses tuition-free while on active duty, and when he leaves the service, he will be eligible for $65,000 in college aid. But talk of incentives makes Bancroft uncomfortable.
"I didn't do it just for the benefits," he says. "The ultimate service to your country is knowing that you may be put in a situation where you have to defend yourself and your country. My friends say, 'You're gonna die.' And they have valid points. I know very well I may have to go to Iraq or Afghanistan. I know there is a chance that I could get killed. But I tell them, 'You have a chance that you are going to die in a car accident. Does that mean you shouldn't drive?' Tomorrow is not guaranteed for any of us, so you might as well do as much as you can while you can."
Marine recruiter Ellis says the incentive packages are not intended to dupe people into military service. "We don't sugarcoat anything," he argues. "We do not want to buy people, because when the money is gone, what do you have? So if they say, 'I don't want to go to Iraq,' you tell them, 'This is the U.S. Marine Corps. We're America's 911 system. We always tell you there is a possibility you will have to go to Iraq.' "
Instead of focusing on the monetary incentives, Ellis says, Marine recruiters discuss what he calls "the intangibles" -- poise, courage and self-confidence. "[These are] things that when you get out of the Marine Corps will set you apart when you go back out into the private sector," he says.
"It's not like the movie Private Benjamin, where they tricked people into joining the service," Bancroft-Kitchen says of the recruiters who enlisted her son. "Ryan was told of the risks, that he might be deployed in Iraq if they need people. He had to sign papers that said there is no backing out."
Recruiting becomes a tricky business during wartime. Much of a recruiter's day is spent making cold calls to people who meet the most basic age and physical requirements and who may have no interest in the military. Nationally, the response to such tactics has been mixed. Some recruiters are complaining that parents who are morally opposed to the war refuse to take their phone calls. Some gripe that they are being viewed and treated like vultures swooping in for fresh meat. If that's true, local recruiters say it's not happening much in South Florida.
"I've seen nothing but patriotism," says Scott, who has been signing people to naval contracts for 16 years, the past four months in South Florida. "I was in Hollywood getting lunch yesterday and getting ready to pay for the food, and the clerk wouldn't take my money. She said, 'That young man over there paid for you.' I was about in tears. That's the reinforcement that reminds me why we are here."
Bancroft's mother tenses when she tells people her son is a Marine recruit, not knowing how they will react. "A lot of people think, 'Oh he joined the Marines; he must have gotten into some kind of trouble,' " she says. "But it's not that way. Ryan has been a wonderful child his whole life. He is so responsible. And he needs to be challenged to be happy with himself and do something worthy."
For the next few weeks, Bancroft and Fleurimond will enjoy being just two normal, 20-something college students living in South Florida. Fleurimond has been doing roadwork to make sure he'll pass the Navy's minimum physical requirements. It's turning into quite an adventure. He must be able to tread water for 15 minutes, swim 50 yards and run 1.5 miles in 12 minutes.
Fleurimond can't swim, and his initial time in the run was 22 minutes. So far, he has shaved nine minutes off his running time. But he's still looking for a swim instructor to teach him how to float and tread water. "I'm going to start working out five days a week instead of three and take some time off during the weekends," he says.
Bancroft, meanwhile, is looking forward to the going-away party his mother is organizing for him. His closest friends and family members will spend a day at Markham Park in Sunrise, where he can play a little ball with his buddies and say goodbye to people he has known since Little League. He says leaving the quiet Weston neighborhood in which he has lived his entire life will be the hardest thing he has ever done.
But now that he's getting more comfortable about his upcoming stint in the Marines, when people ask him who would join the military in these crazy times, he has a direct answer for them: Me.
"People have their opinions," he says. "But for me, if you are a U.S. Marine, you are bigger and better than anything else. I want to push myself to the ultimate."
Uncle Sam wants you -- bad
Risks aside, the military is offering some sweet deals to prospective recruits.
Whether or not you agree with the way our country has been waging its war on terrorism, the U.S. military clearly offers some of the best employment benefits around. Of course, the downside is your chance of getting killed in a foreign land is greater than if you work at, say, The Gap.
All four branches provide an entry-level annual salary of about $14,000; low-cost comprehensive medical, dental and life insurance; free room and board if living on base; a housing and food allowance if living off base; tax-free shopping for groceries and department-store items sold on base; and $35,000 in student aid for college and technical schools available for as long as 10 years after military discharge. Following is a breakdown of the additional benefits packages each branch offers.
ARMY
Slogan: "An army of one."
Job categories: 150
Perks: Up to $20,000 in bonuses, paid overtime for recruits who are willing to report for infantry basic training immediately. Also offers a job-employment program following active-duty service that links veterans with hundreds of U.S. businesses.
How it's faring: Falling short of its goals. Last month, the Army expected to recruit 7,000 people but attracted only 5,000. Worse yet, many veterans are not re-enlisting.
Conventional wisdom: Is $20,000 enough to entice people to dodge bullets and improvised explosive devices?
NAVY
Slogan: "Accelerate your life."
Job categories: 250
Perks: Will pay college students who qualify for nuclear training up to $30,000 in a delayed-entry program. Also will pay college students $1,700 a month for as long as three years in future naval officer program.
How it's faring: Surpassing recruiting goals. Raised minimum entry scores this month. Reporting 97 percent re-enlistment rate.
Conventional wisdom: The Navy is doing great now, but what happens when the president decides to throw down with a country like North Korea that actually has a navy?
AIR FORCE
Slogan: "We've been waiting for you."
Job categories: 170
Perks: Will pay up to $10,000 for recruits' outstanding student loans. Will also pay up to an additional $4,500 in college aid a year for active-duty members.
How it's faring: Reporting no problem in attracting new recruits.
Conventional wisdom: With congressional leaders talking about the draft, the Air Force's slogan seems a little creepy.
MARINES
Slogan: "The few, the proud, the Marines."
Job categories: 350
Perks: Offers up to $35,000 in college aid and cash bonuses for recruits who sign up for high-demand positions.
How it's faring: For the first time since 1994, the Corps failed to meet its recruitment goals the first two months of this year.
Conventional wisdom: The Marines need to start promoting their benefits package --big-time.
