Strength in numbers

~ While national numbers tumble, local Guard and state recruiters see success.

When 17-year-old Autumn Crowden walked up to the National Guard booth at the SEMO District Fair last month, her life was in a free fall.

She had already moved out of her parents' home in Chaffee. Then she dropped out of high school after getting into trouble doing things like drinking, missing classes and staying out late.

Crowden felt lost.

"I was just being rebellious like any other 17-year-old would be," she said. "I was just clueless about what I was going to do with my life. I was just going with the flow. I really didn't know anything."

Then she came upon those men in green, the Missouri National Guard recruiters, who talked about making something of herself.

Then, on Sept. 16, she signed up and she feels like her world's turned around. Now, she talks about getting her GED and going to college to become a physical therapist, with the help of the G.I. Bill and the Guard's tuition assistance programs.

"I can tell people what my future is now," she said. "I definitely couldn't do that before."

Crowden is among a growing number of young people who are looking to the Missouri National Guard as a better way. Despite national recruiting problems, Southeast Missouri Guard recruiters -- in fact recruiters across the state -- have turned it around.

On May 1, the Missouri National Guard ranked 37th in the country in recruiting and retention. By Sept. 30, the state had moved to number 12.

Locally, the Guard recruiting force finished their recruiting year at 136 percent of their assigned mission. Between October 2004 to April 2005, there were 61 new recruits. But between May and September, there were 101. According to Master Sgt. Chad Craft of the 27th Recruiting and Retention Battalion, those numbers helped them lead the entire state.

That's even more note-worthy when you look at the national trends. Overall, the U.S. Army National Guard has missed its goal every month in fiscal 2005, reaching only 80 percent of its recruiting goals. Other military branches are also struggling to meet their goals.

But the Guard is making recruiting a higher priority. The Guard will have 300 more recruiters by the end of November, meaning there will be about 5,100 recruiters working to meet this fiscal year's recruiting goal of 70,000 people.

The Guard added 2,000 recruiters during fiscal 2005, and the move appears to be paying off. Lt. Col. Mike Jones, deputy division chief for recruiting and retention, said in a published report that the Guard nationwide hit its recruiting goal of 6,148 in September, bringing in 6,048 people.

"Every month since March, we've improved the recruiting numbers," Jones said in the U.S. Army Times. "We've almost doubled the recruiting force."

There are about 35 million 17- to 25-year-olds in America, Jones said. "That's an enormous market. Eventually if you put the right recruiters in the right places at the right time, you'll make your mission."

Locally, Craft oversees 13 recruiters who work Area 5, one of eight such areas in the state. They recruit from southern St. Louis to Arkansas and west to West Plains, Mo.

Those recruiters feel their success can be traced to several factors. In March, the 1140th Engineer Battalion returned from a yearlong deployment in Iraq. The unit had what it feels was an extremely successful year. The battalion was submitted for the "Meritorious Unit Citation" by its higher headquarters in Iraq.

"Local Guard members returning to their communities was good for the morale of the communities and probably put a lot more realistic face on the war," said Staff Sgt. Stephen Casey, an Area 5 recruiter. "These soldiers came back into the communities and let their families, friends, neighbors and co-workers know what it was really like over there."

Casey said recruiters received a lot of calls from people interested in joining the National Guard because someone they knew had just come back from Iraq.

Potential recruits also find the benefits enticing. The Guard, for example, can pay for 100 percent of college tuition and then throw in as much as $497 a month extra with the G.I. Bill for full-time students, said Staff Sgt. Doyle Wicker, who recruits for the Guard in Dexter. Money is also available to attend a vocational school or apprenticeship programs, he said. Soldiers may also qualify for up to a $10,000 sign-up bonus and $20,000 in student loan repayments, he said.

"And our soldiers deserve these benefits as the country continues to ask more of the National Guard," he said.

Some do worry about the possibility of going to war, though. Wicker, who deployed to Iraq with the 1140th said it's obviously a reality.

"And I'm living proof," he said. "Throughout this country's history, we've asked men and women to serve the nation in peacetime and at times of war. There are plenty of citizens who are willing to serve by wearing a military uniform. Service, whether in the military or through some volunteer organization in a community, is a noble cause."

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, ext. 137