Cover Story

By Leslie King

Lagniappe staff

When Nina Beaubine, 19, walks into her job at Wal-Mart, she thinks about her future – or the one she won’t have if she stays with the world’s biggest retailer. She doesn’t believe pricing pants and shelving shirts in the men’s department will allow her an opportunity for a successful life. Beaubine is so convinced, she’s willing to possibly end up in the war in Iraq in order to secure her future.

Nina is thinking about joining the Army National Guard as a way to pay for her education. As she walked through the recruiter’s door recently, her mind began turning.

“When I went in to talk to him, I was a little nervous. I was getting ready to sign up. Not really knowing what’s going to go on. I was worried about school, what type of mission would they send me on. Possibly getting separated from my boyfriend,” Beaubine said.

Although she is cautious about a possible future with the Army National Guard, Beaubine still feels anything will be better than her present at Wal-Mart in Biloxi.

“Going into the military will drag me out of this. I don’t make a lot of money and I feel like I’m in a hole and I need a boost,” Beaubine said. She also desires to attend college and does not want to depend on others to help her make that happen. “I can get the loans for school, that isn’t a problem, but I don’t make enough money to pay them back. I want to go in the military and make money and take care of things on my own. I want to make it by myself and not have to ask my mom or dad for money,” she said.

Beaubine is acutely aware of the very real possibility of being sent to war.

“I’m scared of being sent overseas,” she said. “Basically, if I were to get shipped off, of course I’d go, but I wouldn’t want to.”

Not so long ago, joining the military may have seemed like a pretty safe way to earn college bucks and have a defining experience with little chance of getting shot at. That has changed as the war in Iraq drags on. Still, people like Beaubine are considering the military voluntarily, even at the risk of getting killed or wounded. But has the war diminished the number of people looking to the military as a way out of poverty and into college?

Finding recruits

Lagniappe recently sent a reporter to various military recruiting centers to observe the process and find out how recruiters are tackling the war issue. The reporter visited the National Guard, Air Force and Army offices inquiring about joining. At the time, the reporter did not reveal her association with Lagniappe or that she was writing a story.

In each office the reporter was asked basic information such as: age, height, weight, health and educational questions, etc. The reporter revealed she already has a college degree, owes over $12,000 in student loans, and was exploring options. According to recruiters, this was a rare case because the majority of those who join depend on the military for educational assistance. As a result, the incentives offered to our reporter by the recruiters were student loan payoff, officer candidate school, early retirement and money, money, money.

The National Guard recruiter said honesty is their policy and attempted no high-pressure techniques to get the reporter to sign up. He said the National Guard is the only branch of the military that pays up to $20,000 in loans and mentioned basic training would be a breeze.

“Of course, there is some strenuous exercise, but the National Guard will help strengthen you little by little for the process. You may start out by being able to do only four push ups, but by the end you will be surprised at what you have accomplished, ” he said. The National Guard recruiter never mentioned the possibility of going to war.

The next office was the Air Force. The Air Force recruiter was more up front about war concerns, which are pretty low for those in the Air Force.

“There are only four percent of people in the Air Force who fly planes, and you wouldn’t be one of them, so that isn’t something you have to worry about,” he said.

The Air Force recruiter mentioned they can pay back up to $10,000 in student loans. Since war was not a big concern, the Air Force recruiter was interested in the path the reporter would like to take in the Air Force.

The final office was the Army. The reporter looked forward to what would be said since this branch sends the most people to war. The two recruiters encountered were very enthusiastic about their Army involvement. The notorious war issue eventually came to the table and the reporter was told there was no guarantee of not being deployed to Iraq. The recruiter also offered bonuses, but the reporter was informed this option is available only in certain fields and in certain amounts based upon qualification.

Our reporter felt the recruiters had been forthcoming and persuasive, but there are some with different stories. Toni Hamilton, a Faulkner State University student who joined the Army Reserve in 2003, says her recruiter was not honest about deployment.

“My recruiter told me that my chance of getting deployed was not likely, but I found out that wasn’t true,” Hamilton said.

Going to Iraq

There have been approximately 3,373 casualties according to the Associated Press since America went to war with Iraq five years ago. So how is this affecting military recruiting?

It seems people are still signing up, although it is having an effect. According to the Department of Defense, all ranks except the Army National Guard, Army Reserve, Navy Reserve, Air National Guard and Coast Guard met their recruiting goals for fiscal year 2006, which means most of the active military branches are still getting recruits. Locally, though, recruiters are feeling the effect of the war with Iraq in a big way.

“Before the war, people were swarming to the military, but now you call houses and they say don’t call here anymore. People are scared,” one of the Army recruiters told our undercover reporter.

His fellow recruiter has signed up 30 people in 19 months. He said he is aware those who take a step into the recruiting office are serious individuals.

“Walking through the door at such a time as this shows that a person has courage. Because if the person hadn’t been thinking about it, they wouldn’t have even walked through the door,” he said.

The war even hits close to home in the recruiters’ lives in other ways. One has a wife in Afghanistan and a son in Iraq.

“I am not worried about my son, because I put him in God’s hands. I know that he is protected and I also knew that when he signed up that may be a result, but I am fine with it. He is performing his duty,” the recruiter said.

Military recruiting has not only become difficult in the recruiting stations, but at high schools as well. Military recruiters targeting high schools have new regulations to follow, but this has not slowed their efforts.

“The recruiters are allowed two visits per month. There is a set process from the downtown guidance supervisor that has been in effect two years now. Recruiters don’t want to follow the process. They want to do what they want to do,” Terry Noojin, the 12th grade Baker high school counselor said.

However, students are still joining. There has been an increase in JROTC students joining the military and a decrease in the number of students joining with no prior military experience.

“It’s slow for sign-ups joining the military, but there is an increase in the number of JROTC students receiving scholarships from the JROTC program. Students are getting an education first and then giving back to the military,” Noojin said.

Deborah Thompson, parent of a Marine Reserve, did not have a good experience with the military recruiter who enlisted her son while he was in high school. After her son signed up, Thompson discovered he was on the list for deployment to Iraq.

“I called to get in touch with the general and they checked through the records and stuff and he was listed to go to Iraq. They already had him scheduled for whatever they wanted him scheduled for,” Thompson said.

Thompson immediately took action because her son was registered for college. “I was calling numbers. I didn’t know who I was calling. I ended up talking to a general personally. I told him I didn’t want him to go so then he said, ‘I’ll take care of it.’ and so they did,” Thompson said.

While most seem to join the military for finances, others join for a variety of reasons. Eli Nichols, owner of the beauty supply store Beauty Closet, joined the Army in 1999 to escape college, but he still attended in the end.

“I was in junior college when I joined. I didn’t like school period, so I dropped out, went into the Army, came back and got a college degree,” Nichols said.

Still attractive to some

Rumeysa Venus, an Air Force signee, was drawn to the resume boost and lifestyle. “When I got out of college, I was like I don’t know what I want to do, and I knew the military could set me up with a good four-year experience that I could put on my resume,” Venus said. “They take good care of people who get in. They pay a good salary starting out, full medical benefits, potential to travel. My case I was familiar with it because I grew up a military brat and that had a lot to do with it.”

Similar to Venus, Tranquilla McGee signed an eight-year contract with the Marine Reserves in December 2006 to stand out above the rest.

“What I really want to do is work in the government for the CIA, FBI or something like that so I thought if I go in the Marines it would look much better on my resume,” McGee said.

Beaubine’s path out of Wal-Mart and into the military may have been complicated by more than the war in Iraq. After her boyfriend joined the National Guard, she planned on it as well, but her visit with the recruiter revealed a new obstacle.

“I was ready to sign up. I was ready for it, I was going to do it, but when I mentioned I had a rod in my leg he told me I would have to wait seven months before I could think about signing up. If I got hurt, they wouldn’t cover it, I would have to cover it myself,” she said.

Beaubine will try signing up again once her leg heals, and believes experience will be the best teacher. “If it benefits me, I’ll make it into a career, but it depends on the experience as to whether I want to do that or not,” she said.

In the meantime, there’s still Wal-Mart.

Correction: Lagniappe’s last feature (Future’s So Bright…, May 9-22) included an estimate of jobs created by the ThyssenKrupp steel plant. The figure was mistakenly attributed to the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce rather than its orginator, ThyssenKrupp.

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