Army loses minorities

Joanna James

WORCESTER — Travis Morris is a prime target for army recruiters. A junior at Doherty High School, Morris, 16, is smart, athletic and African American.

There’s only one problem.

Morris says he wouldn’t think of joining the military.

“I’m scared because of the war,” he said in a soft-spoken voice. “I would never want to go now.”

For Morris, it’s not a question of patriotism. The youngest in a family of five, Morris said he would rather work or find other means to attend North Carolina State, his “dream college,” rather than be persuaded to enlist in the army, even with recruitment incentives such as receiving a $10,000 initial bonus for serving three or more years or up to $50,000 in tuition assistance.

Morris is not alone. Five years ago, 45 percent of the Army’s enlistees were minorities, and 29 percent were African American, according to federal statistics. Last year, African American enlistees made up less than 14 percent.

Analysts point to the violence in the war in Iraq and a stronger and more accessible economy as some of the reasons deterring today’s youth from enlisting.

Srini Sitaraman, a professor in Clark University’s Department of Government and International Relations, said not only has there been an overall decline in military recruitment targets, but Sitaraman emphasized the dramatic drop in African-American enlistees.

“There is a long-term trend here with African-Americans: the military is no longer a way out and used as a way to better themselves,” Sitaraman said. “There are other ways for African Americans to move up on the socioeconomic ladder, including more and more going to college and others getting blue-collared jobs.”

Critics of the war cite the insurgencies and violence in Iraq claiming 2,000 U.S. military lives as other disillusioning factors for why recruitment numbers have been so low. In fact, the Army missed its fiscal 2005 recruitment goal of 80,000 by 6,627 recruits — more than 8 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Defense that released its official military recruitment statistics earlier this month.

Army Secretary Francis Harvey also acknowledged his concern with the recruitment numbers, however he denied that the Army was in the midst of a recruitment crisis, which he said at a press conference earlier this month when the recruitment numbers were released.

Harvey pointed to a series of new initiatives to downscale the problem, including an increase in the Army’s advertisement budget and putting 3,000 more recruits on the streets.

Retired Air Force General Tad Oelstrom, now serves as the director of Harvard University’s National Security Program in the Kennedy School of Government, said there are a series of factors why the recruitment numbers are at a low, including the constant media accounts on casualties that put a “wear on anyone’s mind, especially of the young folks.

“But more importantly,” Oelstrom said, “what young folks are seeing is the mission the U.S. Military is being asked to do is a stabilization mission, which is one the military has not been asked to do in our history.”

Oelstrom explained that there “doesn’t seem to be an end …any time soon” and the military is being asked to handle a very dangerous situation with lots of unknowns.

Although President Bush has said the U.S. military is being asked to fight for the spread of freedom and has compared the mission to that of fighting totalitarianism during World War II, Oelstrom pointed out that there is a major difference in the two missions.

“After World War II we went from a termination of hostilities to peacekeeping with the aid from countries all over the world — it didn’t include a phase that we’re seeing now in Iraq — there is no transition in the classic sense of war fighting to peacekeeping in Iraq,” Oelstrom said.

Although Oelstrom said the low recruitment numbers should be a concern right now, he did not see it as a dire situation. But Oelstrom said he hopes the Pentagon will take “a very serious look at what U.S. Policy needs to be about.”

Travis Morris isn’t surprised that the U.S. Army missed its annual recruiting goal for the first time in six years.

One of Morris’s friends actually did consider enlisting in the U.S. Air Force more than a year ago. But he changed his mind and decided to apply for a civilian job.

Josian Martinez also wants to go to college but unlike his friend Morris, he doesn’t have a dream school. “I want to go to whatever college I can afford,” he said.

Instead of joining he Air Force, Martinez, 16, landed a job at BestBuy, and intends to help his Puerto Rican-born-and-raised parents by saving money to help pay for college. Unfortunately for the Air Force, Martinez’ plan doesn’t include the military.

“I didn’t want to go to the war then,” Martinez said, “and I don’t want to go now.”