Recruiting Rates Up Militarywide; Army Targets New Veterans

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12, 2005 – Both the active Army and Army National Guard continued reversing a springtime recruiting slump, exceeding their November goals at 105 and 110 percent, respectively, defense officials announced today. The active Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force also exceeded their November goals, reporting rates of 102, 105 and 101 percent, respectively. The Marine Corps Reserve and Air Force Reserve achieved 100 percent of their November recruiting goals as well, officials reported.

Three reserve components experienced shortfalls in November. The Army Reserve recruited 96 percent of its goal; the Navy Reserve, 87 percent. The Air National Guard, already at 99 percent of its year-end strength, recruited 71 percent of its earlier-designated November goal, officials said.

A new program designed to entice veterans of all services to join the Army is among initiatives expected to help the Army continue its recent success in reaching its recruiting goals, officials said. Officials are hopeful the new "Unity of Effort" program will encourage more prior-service members, regardless of their service, to bring their experience to the Army's ranks.

In mid-November Army officials contacted 78,000 veterans who recently left the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, encouraging them to consider returning to military service in the Army, Lt. Col. Roy Steed, the Army's deputy division chief of enlisted accessions, said during a recent interview with the Pentagon Channel.

The Army is hoping 1,600 of those contacted will take the Army up on its offer, helping the Army reach its higher recruiting goals with experienced new members who have already proven they can adapt to military life, Steed said.

"We are trying to work smart," he said. "If you have already recruited them once and you have already trained them once and the person wants to come back and serve, let's give them the opportunity to come back. And they are coming back."

Prior-service troops make attractive recruits, he said. "They bring experience. They bring commitment. They know what the military is about, so they already have that under the belt and they adjust and adapt a lot quicker," Steed said. "It's a win-win situation."

If retention rates are any indication, the program is likely to be a solid success.

The Army is at the 92 percent mark on its active-duty year-end re-enlistment goal, and the Marine Corps and Air Force both reported solid re-enlistment rates in November, defense officials reported today.

The Navy barely missed its mid-career goal, officials said, but is making program adjustments to reduce losses in specific specialized skill areas to achieve its end-of-year mission.

On the reserve component side, the Army and Air Guard retained 103 and 101 percent of their cumulative goals for the year, respectively. The Army Guard is at 95 percent of its end strength and the Air Guard is at 99 percent, officials said.

Losses in all other reserve components were within acceptable limits during October, and that trend continued in November, officials reported.

Semper Recruitus

Colonel Fred Peck, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired)

Proceedings, November 2005

It takes lots of shoe leather and phone calls to meet the Marine Corps' recruiting goal, but good commercials, such as "Diamond" and "The Climb", that challenge a young recruit's psyche, ease the task.

RECRUITING COMMAND

U.S. MARINE CORPS

In the recently ended commercial, "The Climb," Sergeant William Colver dangled from a cliff.

Despite ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan that continue to produce casualties among America's military personnel, Marine Corps recruiters have just reached their enlisted recruitment targets for the 23rd year in a row. Much of the credit goes to the more than 3,100 Marines assigned to one of the toughest jobs in the Corps—recruiting duty. Getting more than 40,000 of America's young men and women to volunteer each year to serve in arguably the toughest branch of the armed forces is no easy task. Yet, year after year, Marine recruiters have done just that. In contrast, the Army fell far short of its recruiting goals for 2005, and has missed the mark several times in the past decade.

A primary weapon in the Marine recruiter's arsenal for the past 58 years has been the often innovative, cutting edge advertising campaigns waged jointly with the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, now known as JWT. Crafty television spots and print ads that get the attention of 18- to 24-year-old men—most of the ads are aimed at the male audience—have greatly aided recruiters who have been "looking for a few good men."

If the armed forces were forthright in their advertising, their spots would say "Come join us so you can break things and blow stuff up—without getting in trouble for it and serve your country," followed immediately by that obnoxiously rapid-fire voice spouting disclaimers that you might also get broken, blown up, or killed. To its credit, Marine Corps advertising has carved a niche much closer to that prospect than any of the other services' advertisements. Marines don't promise to help you "Be all that you can be" or to give you "not just a job but an adventure," rather they tell you up front that they "won't promise you a rose garden." Log on to the Marines' website and click on "About the Marines." The first words you see are: "Marines are warriors."

Military recruiting is a combination of art and science. It takes lots of shoe leather and phone calls, together with some eye grabbing advertisements. The bravado of the Marines' slogan, "Maybe you can be one of us," was designed to throw down a challenge to a young man's psyche. It's a tactic JWT has refined and redesigned for the past 25 years. Every three to four years the Marines and JWT unveil a new TV commercial that is the cornerstone of a refreshed campaign; that in Fiscal Year 2005 spent $57 million on advertising. In February 2002, the chosen metaphor was "The Climb," which touted "The Climb is steep. The reward is great." In the TV spot a young man climbs a perilous rock wall and at the summit is transformed into a Marine.

That warrior ethos has pervaded Marine Corps advertising for decades. Starting with what was, at the time, a unique approach, the Corps with JWT produced a TV spot with knights on horseback slaying dragons with swords on a chessboard, metaphorically projecting a brains and brawn outlook. When some of the senior leadership of the Corps questioned what knights, dragons, and chessboards had to do with the Marine Corps, the answer was quite simple. The ads were not meant to entice the generals to sign up; they had done that 30 or so years ago. These ads were targeting those 18-to 24-year-old males in the TV audience. The ads not only worked, but attracted considerable news media attention that was more—free—advertising. These were followed with other ads featuring swords, flame filled mazes, and other dangerous physical challenges.

On 1 October 2005 the Corps debuted its latest iteration of this theme, supplanting "The Climb" spot. The chosen metaphor for the new campaign is a diamond. A lump of carbon deep in the earth is placed under tremendous heat and pressure to form a diamond that is then cut and polished into a beautiful gem. So too, is the young man shown undergoing the arduous crucible of boot camp to earn the eagle, globe, and anchor of a United States Marine.

It's not breaking things and blowing things up, but at least the Marines are not subtle about the fact that their recruits really do have to earn the title of United States Marine.

Colonel Peck, a 1970 Naval Academy graduate, was the Deputy Director of Public Affairs, at HQMC. In 1992-93, he served as the spokesman for Operation Restore Hope in Somalia. He is the co-owner of Bolder Voices, Inc., a multi-media communication company.

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