Spring break

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla.

Young men and women crawl across the sand, climb over a plywood wall and swing from overhead bars on an obstacle course as a sergeant in a camouflage Army uniform barks orders. n Basic training? No, spring break.

The Army is hitting the beaches in search of volunteers among throngs of frolicking college and high school students. It's been an annual ritual for the Army in recent years, but a slump in enlistments amid mounting casualties in Iraq has put added emphasis on the effort.

Spring break offers a unique recruiting opportunity, said Staff Sgt. Kenneth McCarn, who oversees the obstacle course.

"We have to humanize ourselves as soldiers, and coming out here talking to the youth of America does that," said McCarn, an Iraq veteran from Columbia, S.C. "They see we're real people." Some students need little convincing, but they are a distinct minority. Douglas Caveney, 22, of Oswego, N.Y., a student at the State University of New York at Oswego, said he may consider the military once he graduates because of the training, benefits and respect.

"You go out anywhere, 'U.S. Army, hey, good for you,'" Caveney said after climbing a 75-foot training tower.

Rutgers University student Milo Pierwola, 21, of Princeton, N.J., also scaled the tower, topped with three U.S. flags, and said he's considering the military in the future.

"It's a great way to go around and explore and kind of guarantee yourself something for the rest of your life," Pierwola said. He added, "I kind of want to go into the Marines."

Pierwola said the war in Iraq wouldn't discourage him, but an August study done for the Army, which has suffered most of the casualties, showed it is a turnoff to many potential recruits.

That was evident on the beach, where most students interviewed said they're not interested in the military.

"No way, dude," said University of Texas student Katherine Bates, 22, of Austin, Texas, after trying the obstacle course. "I'm just against war."

Eastern Illinois University student Bridget Gibson, 20, of Chicago said she once had thought about the Reserves or National Guard to help pay for college, but no longer.

"The whole war thing, I'm against it," Gibson said.

Few if any students sign up on the beach. Instead, they are asked to fill out forms with information that gets forwarded to their local recruiters and ROTC units.

College students are recruited for enlisted as well as officer ranks in the regular Army, the Reserves and National Guard. Recruiters say enlisting may be an option for students who need money for school or drop out.

The Marine Corps once also did spring break recruiting in Panama City Beach and Daytona Beach but stopped last year. Mixing Marines with spring break carousing in peacetime is one thing, but not during a war.

"We felt it didn't match our brand image," said Staff Sgt. Will Price, a Marine recruiting spokesman in Jacksonville. "We have to get serious now."

The Navy, too, is absent and the Air Force has had a limited exposure, sending a band to Daytona Beach.

"We continue to make our goals and don't see a particular need to target that market right now," said Cmdr. Timber Pangonas, commanding officer of the Jacksonville Navy Recruiting District.

The Navy and Air Force are meeting recruiting goals and the Marines have narrowly missed theirs. The Army, however, was about 6 percent behind schedule for meeting its 2005 goals through the first five months of the budget year that began Oct. 1.

Sgt. Dana Brewton of Douglas, Ga., said the Army sees spring break as an effective way to advertise through one-on-one exposure and by offering interesting diversions including the tower, obstacle course, video games and a mechanical bull.

The Army's Golden Knights parachute team also attracts attention with jumps at Panama City Beach and South Padre Island, Texas.

Then there are the freebies.

"You get 10,000 kids to wear the Army T-shirt and have the Army towel, that's pretty good advertising," said 1st Lt. Christian Mills of Port St. Joe.

Mills is a Louisiana National Guard member on recruiting duty while recovering from a broken leg suffered in a motor pool accident in Iraq.

Students sometimes ask about the war. Mills boldly tells them he wishes he was still in Iraq with his troops while McCarn treads lightly.

"I deflect most of the questions about Iraq, usually just [answering] like 'Was it tough over there? Or hot?'" McCarn said. "Yeah, it's tough, it's hard, it's hot."