http://www.indystar.com/articles/8/227880-4518-010.html

Army a tougher sell for blacks, women


By Robert Burns
Associated Press
March 9, 2005


WASHINGTON -- Young blacks and women are turning down offers to join the Army. These trends, combined with the negative effects of its image as a last-resort career choice for what one study called the "average Joe," suggests the Army may be entering a prolonged recruiting slump at a time when it is trying to expand its ranks.

The share of blacks in the Army's recruiting classes has plummeted by about one-third during the past five years. It has continued to slip this year.

Female recruits as a share of total enlistments have dropped 13 percent during the past five years and continue to drop, the Army Recruiting Command says.

For both groups, concern about being sent to fight in Iraq is the major turnoff, according to a series of studies done for the Army during the past year and a half. "Risks of military service, and particularly the Army, are perceived to far outweigh the rewards for the vast majority of youth," said an August study by GfK Custom Research Inc.

Explaining the drop-off, Army officials cite an improving national economy that offers more career opportunities, as well as concern about the war in Iraq.

In Indiana, the Army National Guard has worked to make its force reflective of the racial and gender makeup of the state's population, but it still has a ways to go. About 15.5 percent of this year's recruits have been women, which is down about 1 percentage point from 2004 but higher than the proportion in 2002. That's not a red flag so early in the year, said Lt. Col. Ivan Denton, commander of recruiting and retention.

Women make up about 8 percent of recruiters, which is more than usual, Denton said, as the entire recruiting staff has expanded to about 125. Denton did not have data readily available for the racial makeup of this year's 779 recruits.