By Tom Davis / Bergen County Record
The blood and turmoil of war are behind him. Now Sgt. 1st Class Rob Barea is fighting a new battle: He's trying to line up recruits for the New Jersey National Guard.
Occasionally, he'll get a kid who wants to travel or take advantage of the free tuition program. Others will meet Barea at a local high school and do sit-ups for him on the hallway floor to prove they're fit to fight.
Then they go home and talk to their folks.
"Some [parents] respect it," said Barea, a veteran of the 1999 Kosovo war. But others ask: "Why do you want to die?"
The National Guard clearly has become a hard sell. Because of the war in Iraq, the free tuition and other benefits are no longer attractive. Instead of a relatively safe, part-time commitment, it's viewed as a one-way ticket to the battlefield. Some critics have labeled it the "backdoor draft."
Although recruiters are working day and night, potential recruits are staying away in droves. New Jersey recruiting offices that were crowded 10 years ago are nearly deserted. Some report a 50 percent drop in business from a decade ago.
Nationwide, recruiting has dropped 22 percent since 2002, even as active-duty levels remain stable. In 2004, the Guard fell 12 percent short of its recruiting goal.
It's a huge shift since the Sept. 11 attacks, when patriotism impelled many to join. In 2002, the Guard exceeded its recruiting goals by 5 percent.
Patriotism is still high, the Pentagon says, noting that statistics can be misleading. More than 170,000 Guard members and reservists are serving in Iraq, and military officials say force levels remain strong.
Recruiters, meanwhile, say they still get a number of people interested in military service.
"You get parents who call up and say, 'Will you take my kid?' " said Sgt. Manny Vasquez, a recruiter in Passaic and Morris counties.
Many civilians say they're unwilling to take that risk, however. They note that more than 1,500 Americans have died in Iraq, 36 of them from New Jersey.
"I don't want to be in a life-or-death situation," said Kim McSharar, a senior at Lodi High School who once considered joining the military.
Potential recruits also hear the stories of people pulled from their families and full-time jobs to serve 12 to 18 months in a war zone. They fear losing their lives outside of the Guard and detaching themselves from the people they're already struggling to support.
'Something behind it'
Unlike the part-time reserves, the New Jersey Guard provides a free education at any state school. But signing up also requires a three-year commitment.
In that time, some parents say, anything can happen.
"They always think there's something behind it," said Sgt. 1st Class Gabriel Gonzalez, a recruiter in Teaneck.
Alexandra Diakos, a 16-year-old sophomore at Lodi High School, wants to join. She's athletic, although a bit unsure of her goals. The college opportunity excites her, though.
Aiming to impress the recruiters, she recently did sit-ups outside the school's cafeteria as they counted.
If Diakos joins when she's 17, she'll need her parents' signature, which is required for recruits under 18. She's not sure she'll get it.
"They're understanding," she said, "but they're afraid."
With the nation at war, fewer soldiers are leaving active duty to join the National Guard, said Lt. Col. Mike Milord, a Pentagon spokesman. What's more, some Guard members say they regret ever joining.
Before Sept. 11, they served only two weeks in the summer and one weekend a month. Now, some say, they have no plans to reenlist.
"It's ruined my life completely," said Ray Murdock, a Bass River Township resident and specialist in the Army National Guard. "It's going to take me a long, long time to recover from this."
Safe no more
The Guard was once considered a safe haven. Many young people joined during the Vietnam War - if they were lucky enough to find an opening - to avoid the conflict.
Into the 1990s, the Guard regularly reached its recruiting goals.
"Ten years ago, you could trip over people" at a recruiting station, Gonzalez said.
With no draft in place, however, the Pentagon has begun relying more heavily on the Guard for combat operations. Now, if the recruiters sign up two a week at any station, that's good.
Few have enlisted at the Teaneck and Riverdale armories, the only National Guard recruiting centers in Bergen, Passaic and Morris counties.
Recruiters often sit and wait for people to walk in, but end up looking at empty chairs.
"We have to go out there and expose ourselves to the public," said Gonzalez.
They also distribute their cellphone numbers to anyone who shows any interest and accept calls late into the night. They attend job fairs and sporting events in which potential recruits participate. They talk about family, share food and talk about rap artists.
On a rare night out with their families, recruiters will go to a mall and talk up the virtues of Guard life with a store clerk. Their spouses usually don't mind.
"Sometimes I have my wife working for me," Gonzalez said.
Going to school
For many recruiters, however, schools remain the primary target.
In Paterson, Passaic and Hackensack, recruiters pitch college and job-training opportunities. But in inner-city neighborhoods, disenfranchisement from the military, and the war, is heavy, recruiters say.
"I've gone to high schools where people have called me a murderer and a killer," Vasquez said.
At the more suburban schools, students hang out with the recruiters during their lunch periods. They pick up fliers.
Showing interest is a far cry from signing up, however.
Recently, recruiters set up a table outside the cafeteria at Lodi High School. They gave out free pencils and notebooks to students passing by. Pvt. Stephanie Saunders, a recent recruit, gave students a pep talk.
"You meet people who are willing to go to war with you, and die with you," she told a group of students.
Jacqueline Mendez, a 17-year-old senior, said she's ready to join, as long as she can go to a fashion school, too.
She did add one condition, however.
"I don't want to go to war," she said. "I can't shoot anybody. I'd be too scared."
By Mimi Hall, USA TODAY
The Bush administration periodically put the USA on high alert for terrorist attacks even though then-Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge argued there was only flimsy evidence to justify raising the threat level, Ridge now says.
