Tougher sell for recruiters: Dad

The percentage of fathers who would support military service for their kids dropped from 77 percent in 2003 to 59 percent by last August, according to defense officials.

By Gordon Lubold | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the May 14, 2007 edition

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BELLE VERNON, PA. - Here among the rolling hills of southwestern Pennsylvania, where the effects of the shuttered steel industry still linger and some single-family homes go for under $25,000, Marine recruiter Gunnery Sgt. Brian Bensen has a lot going for him: a love for his Marine Corps, a sense of compassion, and what many military recruiters call "the gift of gab."

But even a successful recruiter like Sergeant Bensen can find it difficult to convince a wary public that enlisting in the military, and maybe deploying to a war zone, is the way to go. That's especially true when it comes to convincing many would-be recruits, as well as their mothers – and now, increasingly, their fathers, too.

It's a sign of the new difficulties in selling Americans on the tradition of service to one's country at a time when the military is growing and the public's patience for the war in Iraq is on the wane.

Parents are more involved than ever in their children's life decisions, and in recent years their approval has emerged as a key factor when it comes to signing on the military's dotted line. Mothers have always tended to be skeptical. But when the Pentagon polled these so-called influencers last year, it found a troubling new trend: Now fathers are expressing more concern.

The percentage of fathers who said they would support military service for their son or daughter dropped from 77 percent in 2003 to 59 percent by last August, according to defense officials. Mothers' support also dropped, from 65 percent to 52 percent. Even grandparents, some of whom belong to the "greatest generation," showed slightly more reluctance to approve of a grandchild joining the military.

Despite it all, the Army and Marine Corps, which are bearing the brunt of the war, are making their active duty recruiting goals. That's in part due to the efforts of recruiters like Bensen, who has met or exceeded his personal mission of signing up at least two new recruits each month. But he knows that he is recruiting the parents as much as he is the kid he wants in uniform.

"Mom and Dad raised that child, and they deserve me coming to talk to them," he says as he drives a government-owned dark sedan from one high school to another.

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