Posted on 08/14/2005 9:01:39 AM PDT by Libloather
Metal to medal? Military recruiters work the Ozzfest
The U.S. Marines manning a recruiting tent at the music festival were wearing camouflage but they didn't exactly blend in.
BY WILLIAM WEIR
The Hartford Courant
Posted on Sun, Aug. 14, 2005
POP CULTURE
Commerce at the Ozzfest in Hartford, Conn., is plentiful and brisk, and tends toward the countercultural. Items for sale include marijuana-flavored candy, clothing with spikes, and Cat-in-the-Hat-style hats with pictures of pot leaves.
The river of people that flows from booth to booth on a recent Sunday boasts a lot of fishnet and hairstyles that fully exploit the color spectrum. Fresh from a body-painting booth, a few women are topless, except for elaborately designed layers of air-brushed paint.
Peering over all this, like a very unlikely Lord of Misrule, is a 20-foot-tall inflatable drill sergeant. It's the signpost of the U.S. Marines tent, which has set up shop amid the T-shirt, tattoo and body-piercing booths. Some Marines wear camouflage, but instead of blending in, the uniforms have the opposite effect. A few hundred yards away, the U.S. Army has its own booth.
Certainly, the Ozzfest environs seem at odds with selling young people on the militaristic rigors of life in the service. That the touring heavy-metal music festival, now in its 10th year, was organized by Ozzy Osbourne -- self-proclaimed ''prince of darkness'' and television's famously confused father -- only adds to the incongruity. The all-day event features 20 bands.
Compounding the unlikeliness: According to Marine Staff Sgt. Larry Thomas, six or more tattoos disqualify applicants. Here, that would eliminate many.
SUMMER TACTICS
But in military recruiting, you go where the young folks are. That usually means going to schools, but the summer gives recruiters room to try other tactics.
And the current numbers don't afford recruiters much down time. The U.S. Army, the biggest of all the military branches, has a goal of 80,000 new enlistees by the end of September. By the end of June, the Army was more than 6,000 short of the 54,935 enlistees it needed to stay on pace, and more than 2,000 short of its goal of 15,554 Army Reservists.
So, if it takes setting up a booth at the Ozzfest and shouting to prospects over the chugga-chugga sounds of the nearby bands, then so be it. Not that the military guys seem to mind. The conversations are generally friendly, and the soldiers have a good time. A lot of the concertgoers tell the recruiters about friends or relatives in the military.
AN OZZFEST VETERAN
It's the first year the Army has officially come to the festival, but Sgt. Robert Nerkowski Jr. is a five-time Ozzfest veteran. Events like this, he says, show that joining the military doesn't mean the end of fun. ''We're a bunch of rockers, too,'' he said. ``People think we're a bunch of robots.''
Aesthetic differences aside, the metal-military gap really isn't so pronounced. Precision and aggression -- traits that serve a soldier well -- are two staples of the music. And unlike its equally aggressive (but less musically disciplined) cousins, punk and hard core, metal is generally apolitical; its legions are an ideological blank canvas.
''The kids who go to these shows make great soldiers,'' says Nerkowski, who works in the Hartford recruiting office. Reel in that energy, he says, and ``undisciplined kids can make great leaders.''
RAISING THE BAR
This is the sixth year the Marines have been to the Ozzfest, and as always, they bring the pull-up challenge. Guys get a U.S. Marines T-shirt for 20 pull-ups and a hat for 15. Women earn a shirt for holding their chin above the bar for 70 seconds, and a hat for 50 seconds. Posters and key chains are given to all who try. Competitors sign a liability form and check off whether they want informational material sent to them. The challenge is a good draw, and for much of the day, rockers crowd around and cheer on their friends.
The Army has no pull-up challenge, but it does have prime real estate. Its booth is right next to where the radio station WCCC is broadcasting and drawing a decent crowd.
Besides raffling off an Xbox and a Playstation 2 signed by the Ozzfest bands, the Army has plenty of loot, and no physical exertion is required. Free for the taking are water bottles, bags, dog tags and the official video game of the U.S. Army, America's Army.
Though he declines the pull-up challenge, 16-year-old Keith Toohey of Westbrook, Conn., talks to the Marines about what exactly he needs to do to join.
''I just want to shoot some guns -- rock and roll,'' he says. The back of Keith's Iron Maiden T-shirt says ''World Piece Tour 1983,'' which would be some six years before he was born. He says he's not scared about going into combat.
''Yeah, not `til you're there, with bullets whizzing past your head,'' says his friend, 17-year-old Jeremy Dufour, also from Westbrook. ``You'll be screaming for your mama.''
Jeremy says he thought about going into the military also, but not anymore: ``I don't feel like dying right now.''
The war is a common topic of conversation, but the recruiters say most of the kids they talk to have a good idea of what's going on. Some want to know if they would be shipped off immediately. They're told that there's a lot of training before anyone goes overseas.
Sgt. Jim Hewston, spokesman for the western New England region of the U.S. Marine Corps, says the marriage of Ozzfest and Marines may seem strange but hardly unproductive. He figures 200 to 300 signed up for the pull-up challenge. Most chose not to receive information, but Hewston says that's OK. Just getting the word out goes a long way.
The national numbers are down, but Hewston says the Marines go about their business as usual.
''We haven't changed any of our marketing,'' he says. ``It's one of those things -- we're not going to change our image midstream to meet some temporary demand level. It's just who we are.''
A few days after the Ozzfest, both the Army and Marine representatives look back on their experience positively. Nerkowski got a bear hug from Black Label Society's Zakk Wylde and met Will Smith and his wife, actress Jada Pinkett Smith, who sings for one of bands on the bill. And he met a lot of nice people.
''Nobody had a problem with us being there,'' he says. ``I would have to say that fans of that particular genre of music are among the most respectful and value-based people.''
Though relieved the body-painting booth was on the other side of the plaza, Hewston says the Marines and the metal-heads got along fine.
``A lot of those guys with the long beards and tattoos come up and shake your hand and talk to you about their service in the Marines. It's a lot of fun.''
What a smart idea by the Army and Marines, and it seems like it worked. Thanks for posting.
More photos would be cool, any links?
Another Yahoo search for Ozzfest produced nothing about the military. There are other photos...
Brent Hinds performs Thursday with his Atlanta-based band, Mastodon.
Ozzfest attendees rock out Thursday to the music of Soilwork at Auburn’s White River Amphitheatre. From left, Yulon Zu, 14; Eric Dobrowolski, 17; Mike Roman, 17; and Nate Brockman, 18, revel in the sound of the Swedish metal band. Ozzfest brought 19 bands to the city.
They'd probably have the same response at the public schools if the do-gooder gate-keepers weren't involved.
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In a nation where sixth-grade teachers light the flag on fire in class, those keeping the military out of schools cannot be referred to as do gooders.
They know that what they do is evil. They poison young minds against this country and their fellow man.
You're absolutely right.
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