Marines’ Recruiting Falls Short

The Marine Corps fell slightly short of its recruiting goal in January, the first month that has happened in nearly a decade, amid parents’ concerns about the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Although the Marines remain on target to meet their full-year goal, officials said Thursday that the prolonged combat has made the parents of potential recruits much harder sells.

“It’s a natural reaction in a time of war that a mother and father are going to have concerns, and so they are putting on the brakes,” said Maj. Dave Griesmer, spokesman for Marine Corps Recruiting Command.

The 17-year-olds in high school who are a prime target of recruiters cannot sign up without parental approval. Griesmer said that parents increasingly are making their sons and daughters wait until they are 18.

“What we’re doing is working with the parents more,” he said. “Whereas before it may have taken one visit and they would accept, now it may take a recruiter two, three, four” visits.

In January, the Marines signed up 84 fewer recruits than their target of 3,270, Griesmer said. That was the first time they had missed a monthly goal since July 1995. That year also was the last time the Marines missed their full-year goal.

The Marines managed to make the January quota of recruits sent to boot camp because some had been signed up previously, Griesmer said.

The Army National Guard and Army Reserve also have fallen behind on recruiting. The National Guard missed its full-year goal in 2004 for the first time since 1994.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are not the only factors working against recruiters. They also compete with private-sector opportunities and college aspirations.

The Marines’ losses in Iraq have been especially heavy in recent months. In November, when the Marines led an offensive against insurgents in the city of Fallouja, 80 troops were killed in action.

In January, 30 Marines were killed when their CH-53E helicopter crashed in western Iraq.