Wanted (badly): more Green Beret recruits

"They'll do stuff like put you on guard duty for three days straight, to see what you're made of," says John, the Special Ops soldier from Miami.

Once accepted, a special forces trooper isn't built overnight. In fact, it takes 80 weeks to build a civilian duffer into a lean, mean fighting machine, as able to engage enemies on the ground as make jokes in Tagalog.

"What you need is a combination of stamina, physical endurance, and mental toughness," says Capt. David Connolly, a spokesman for the US Army Recruitment Command at Ft. Knox, Ky.

While some soldiers showed surprise at the Army's new tack, others saw it coming.

"The Army has only been shrinking, and that means that the pool of capable soldiers has also been shrinking," says David, a retired special forces sergeant who, in the 1960s, taught the mountain-dwelling Montagnards to fight the Vietcong.

The move also comes at a time when the Army is vying to revamp its soldier schools to appeal to today's tech-savvy teens. At the JFK Special Warfare Center and School here at Ft. Bragg, for instance, top brass are now jazzing up their linguistics curriculum to incorporate state-of-the-art language software.

"A lot of our guys are getting older and retiring, and we're trying to find ways to appeal to the next generation of soldiers," says Tim Loney, the commander of Charlie Company, which runs the school.

Pay incentives have also been mooted. The base salary for a battle-ready soldier is about $1,500 per month. (Food and lodging are free.) Soldiers get $110 if they're "jumpers," and another $110 for serving in a combat zone. There are also marriage allotments that can run as much $400 a month.

But a pay raise may accompany the US Department of Defense's proposed 21 percent increase in the fiscal year 2003 budget for the US Special Operations Command - which oversees the Green Berets.

But will Americans, emboldened, perhaps, by patriotic fervor, enlist?

To some, the new gambit is the first real chance for Americans to join the war effort. Up to this point, however, there has not been a crush of civilian volunteers at recruitment offices. Some critics wonder if the Army will have trouble filling its ranks.

"What has not happened since 9/11 has been an increase in actual recruits," says Mr. Smith of the CDI. "I have watched the Army's reports about an upsurge in calls, but they tend to be mostly old fogeys wanting to reenlist or people calling to express their support."

Top brass stress that Americans now have a chance to support their country.

"The president has said that now is the time to step forward and do your time," says Army Lt. Col Ryan Yantis. "A lot of people who come to the Army come for the adventure, but, today, what's overriding that is the sense of service to country."

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