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Growing Problem for Military Recruiters: Parents

New York Times

Friday 3 June 2005, 8:47 am
Keywords: News Articles

By Damien Cave

Two years into the war in Iraq, as the Army and Marines struggle to refill their ranks, parents have become boulders of opposition that recruiters cannot move.

A Department of Defense survey last November, the latest, shows that only 25 percent of parents would recommend military service to their children, down from 42 percent in August 2003.

Legally, there is little a parent can do to prevent a child over 18 from enlisting. But in interviews, recruiters said that it was very hard to sign up a young man or woman over the strong objections of a parent.

The Pentagon - faced with using only volunteers during a sustained conflict, an effort rarely tried in American history - is especially vexed by a generation of more activist parents who have no qualms about projecting their own views onto their children.

The Army faces an uphill battle because many baby boomer parents are inclined to view military service negatively, especially during a controversial war.

"They don't realize that they have a role in helping make the all-volunteer force successful," said Colonel David Slotwinski, former chief of staff for Army recruiting. "If you don't, you're faced with the alternative, and the alternative is what they were opposed to the most, mandatory service."

Many of the mothers and fathers most adamant about recruitment do have a history of opposition to Vietnam.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/03/nyregion/03recruit.html