Missing article

Sorry about that previous post.  I meant to forward this:

Despite National Emotion, There's No Rush to Enlist

By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON and AMY WALDMAN



Workers at the collapse site in Lower Manhattan greeted President
Bush by chanting "U.S.A., U.S.A.!" At memorial sites, there have
been spontaneous outbreaks of "God Bless America." American flags
sprout from window boxes and moving trucks, on the helmets of
rescue workers and the electronic marquees of Times Square.

 Yet while the armed services report a spike in the number of
people inquiring about enlistment and a near-doubling in the
visitors to the Army's online recruiter chat room, they also report
no rise in actual enlistments since the attack.

 In contrast to the days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, when
thousands of young men got in line to sign up for combat, this
time, with the apparent loss of life much greater, there are no
such lines. And many of the expressions of interest have come from
men too old to serve, according to spokesmen for the national
headquarters of all four recruiting commands.

 "These people in their 40's, these old guys, wanted to serve their
country, but the younger people just don't have any patriotism,"
said Staff Sgt. Donald Wilson, a Marine Corps recruiter. The
maximum age for Marine recruits in most cases is 29.

 Patriotism is not always the driving force behind military
enlistment. Still, some argue that these days may represent a test
for a generation largely detached from the military.

 On Friday, James Young, 18, a high school senior from Rochester,
joined the Marines, the only person in the state's third-largest
city to do so since Tuesday. He said he had tried to persuade
friends to sign up on Thursday and was mocked.

 "They are all cowards, self-centered and afraid," said Mr. Young,
a senior at an alternative high school. "They just wanted to get an
education, get women and get drunk."

 Charles Moskos, a professor of military sociology at Northwestern
University, said the lack of enlistment reflected a trend of
increasing estrangement between the military and society. Baby
boomers at least grappled with whether to serve, even if many
eventually did not. But since the draft's repeal in 1972, only a
small percentage of Americans have served in the military, and even
events like the Persian Gulf war failed to drive many more to do
so.

 "Flag-waving is not patriotism," Professor Moskos said.

 The flag wavers, of course, would say differently. On Wednesday,
with the sun shining, Midtown Manhattan looked as if it were
gearing up for a Fourth of July parade. Robert Negron was selling
flags at the corner of 34th Street and Seventh Avenue for $1
apiece, and selling out.

 "The Palestinians are waving theirs," he boomed out. "You should
be waving yours."

 His goal, he said, was to create a "snowball effect," and by
Thursday, the snowball was rolling. It was hard to go almost
anywhere without seeing an American flag.

 Evaluating enlistment last week by comparing it with Pearl Harbor
may be unfair, given that this time around, the nation's leaders
have yet to decide whom to fight or how. Also, most of those
joining the military these days are driven less by patriotism than
the desire for educational benefits and skills training.

 Still, last week's events seem certain to recalibrate the emotions
even of those already committed to serve.

 Joshua Sanders, 18, lives in New City, N.Y., and had been
recruited, as he put it last week, after weighing a military career
for two years. On Friday, picking up some forms at the Times Square
recruiting station, he talked about how the attack had strengthened
his commitment.

 "After what I saw on the news," he said, "my blood started to
boil."

 In the days since the attack, many people have called in to the
country's thousands of service recruiting centers to find out how
to help.

 Maj. David C. Andersen of the Marine Corps said the corps' public
affairs office at 50th Street and Third Avenue had been getting 20
calls a day from people saying they wanted to enlist. (For those
interested: that office does not process enlistments.)

 In many communities, the recruiting centers are the military's
most visible presence, a fact that also has military officials
worried. Spokesmen for the recruiting commands said they were
taking increased precautions to ensure the safety of their
recruiters and the facilities.

 There are no such worries on the recruitment Web site for the
Army, goarmy.com, where the recruiter chat room was packed last
week. The site is logging about 743 visitors during a four-hour
chat, up from 400 before the attack, according to Mr. Smith. There
have been 500 e-mail messages a day to the Web site recently, up
from 200.

 The postings Friday afternoon were fervent: "I want to help my
country all I can even if I have to die doing it!"

 "If I enlist now will I get a shot at those responsible for the
terrorist act?"

 "How do I become a sniper?"

 Many chat-room visitors said they lacked high school diplomas or
had criminal records, that they were over age or overweight, flat
of foot or pierced of tongue. They had questions: Would they be
qualified? Could standards be waived?

 Recruiters struggled to answer the flood of queries, generally
saying that each applicant would be judged individually.

 Still, many of the questions on the site were about re-enlistment,
by men older than the Army's customary age maximum of 34.

 "Veterans, God bless them, want to know what they can do," Mr.
Smith said. "But it's not for them to be a soldier again."

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/16/nyregion/16ENLI.html?ex=1001651038&ei=1&en=e

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