Georgians join military as civilian jobs dry up

Jeremy Scheib stood in formation with 40 other fresh faces last Sunday at a Georgia Army National Guard recruitment ceremony, thankful to Uncle Sam for bailing him out.

Scheib, a 23-year-old specialist, previously spent 15 months in Iraq with the 1st Infantry Division. When he returned to Georgia, his wife, Angel, begged him to get out of the Army. So he hung up the uniform and settled in Hiram to raise a family, making $12 an hour as a mechanic for 18-wheelers.

But on Thanksgiving, Scheib’s world came crashing down when he was laid off from his job. The $237 he collected every month in unemployment barely made a dent in the bills. And with almost 400,000 Georgians looking for jobs, Scheib was out of luck.

With four mouths to feed at home, he returned to the one institution he knows readily hires and rarely fires: the military.

He purposely joined the 48th Infantry Brigade, which is preparing for a tour of Afghanistan. He needed the extra $225 a month in hostile fire pay.

“The wife doesn’t like it,” he shrugged. “But it’s a steady paycheck. It’s health care.”

Army recruiters in Georgia say bad times for America are translating into good business for the military. While it may be too early to quantify the consequences of a dismal economy, recruiters say they are talking to more men and women who see the armed forces as a safe haven.

“The economy has had a pretty good impact,” said Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey Simmons, a top recruiter for the National Guard in metro Atlanta. “I hear from people who say they lost their job or were downsized.”

Army Recruiting Command spokeswoman Julia Bobick said America’s all-volunteer military still faces a recruiting challenge during a period of protracted war.

But she said the Army exceeded its first-quarter goals for fiscal 2009 (which started in October 2008)

for the first time since 2003.

In fact, the Pentagon reported that all branches of the armed forces met recruitment goals in 2008, another first since 2004, the first full year of the Iraq war.

After relaxing entry requirements and boosting enlistment bonuses for a number of years, the military can afford to be choosy now, Simmons said.

A year ago, the National Guard in Georgia might have considered a moral waiver for a potential recruit who had a felony conviction. Not anymore. And applicants now must score higher on an aptitude test — at least a 50 out of a possible 99 score — in order to enlist.

“We’re doing so well right now that if they have baggage, we’d reject them,” said Lt. Col. Anthony Abbott, recruiting and retention commander for the Georgia Army National Guard. “What that means is we’re getting higher-quality soldiers.”

Simmons, 42, answers about 100 recruiting

e-mails a day on his BlackBerry. His work begins before the sun rises, and not one waking moment is lost in selling the National Guard, whether it’s at high schools, colleges, restaurants, sporting events or even in an ambulance. Simmons managed to persuade a paramedic to enlist as the dehydrated recruiter was being rushed to a hospital emergency room.

Simmons said he is talking to people who a few years ago probably would not have considered the military.

Take Willie DeMouchette, an analyst for Wells Fargo Bank.

The 34-year-old Atlantan fears his job will soon evaporate. He has $80,000 in student loans to repay and thinks the National Guard can help him build a future.

“My position is in the balance,” DeMouchette said. “I wanted to give back to my country. That’s why I turned to the military.”

Simmons gets off the phone with DeMouchette and has another potential recruit sitting before him at the National Guard’s Roswell recruiting office in a Mansell Road shopping center.

Tim Cozart, 37, of Cumming wants to start all over in life. (The maximum age to join the Army is 42.) He quit his consulting job for a computer company and is considering the Guard as a vehicle to return to college, perhaps Georgia Tech, to pursue an engineering degree.

Georgia recruiters said the dreary job market is just one reason enlistments are up; financial aid remains the biggest lure.

The Guard offers a $20,000 enlistment bonus and 100 percent tuition assistance up to $4,500 a year. The Montgomery GI Bill can pay up to $779 a month.

The regular Army offers up to a $40,000 enlistment bonus, depending on test scores and job skills, as well as college money and the GI Bill.

That’s huge, said Staff Sgt. Nicholaus Bloom, a Guard recruiter, especially for parents who have eaten into college savings to make ends meet.

Simmons added that the National Guard can offer certain recruits a guarantee that they will not be deployed until graduation from college, a big concern as long as the United States has troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“That way, parents get warm and fuzzy,” he said. “Johnny gets his education paid for, and they don’t have to worry about him going off to war.”