‘Red October’ Inspires a Hunt for Green Navy Recruits

Anthony Estrada, 18, was planning on joining the Air Force until, like many an American male for generations before him, he was swayed to a new military career goal by a movie’s glamorous images.

But the movie had some help.

Estrada, emerging from a showing in Tarzana of “The Hunt for Red October,” filled with scenes of high-tech daring in an undersea duel between Soviet and American submarines, ran into a Navy recruiter waiting in the lobby with brochures.

The outcome: Scratch one Air Force recruit and add one prospective sailor.

“After watching the movie the first time, it called me out,” said Estrada, a senior at Cleveland High School in Reseda, who was seeing the film a second time.

The movie is about the search for a secret Soviet submarine, Red October, whose commander, played by Sean Connery, disappears at sea in order to defect to the United States.

Estrada had been thinking of joining the Air Force. But after seeing the movie, he said: “It was so touching and adventurous--so I’m thinking right after high school, I’m going to enlist in the Navy.”

Waiting for Estrada and people like him in the theater’s lobby was Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Darin Mathis, a recruiter, who brought pamphlets on the Navy’s submarines and career opportunities in the nuclear power field.

Naval recruiters have been stationed at some theaters showing “The Hunt for Red October,” and they have been in the lobby on weekends at Mann’s Valley West Theater in Tarzana since the movie premiered there March 2. It’s a low-key approach. They stand quietly beside a table covered with recruiting literature.

Mathis said that, in two weekends at the theater, he has talked to “about 10” people interested in signing up.

“I don’t think coming out of the movie they’re going to be hypnotized and want to join the Navy,” he said.

He was there to widen the “window to the Navy,” which usually operates out of the public’s sight or “over the horizon” in naval terms, he said. “This community doesn’t see a lot of the Navy. It’s a chance to show people what’s around. I hope to answer their questions and curiosities and make them maybe think about the Navy.”

The Navy responded to invitations from nine Los Angeles-area theaters, setting up model subs and posters in lobbies and sending recruiters, who answer questions but are not allowed to sign up candidates on the spot, said a spokeswoman, Petty Officer Tamara Turner. The Navy representatives will keep coming if invited, she said.

At the Tarzana theater, the Navy has backed up the naval theme with some big guns--two 67-foot models, of a cruiser and a battleship, parked in front of the theater.

With each movie ticket comes a coupon for a free personalized dog tag, provided by Recon-1, a nearby military surplus store. Blue Navy caps and Red October buttons adorn employees selling popcorn.

And, after the movie, theater manager Mark Mulcahy shows the audience slides of submarines.

“People go to movies to escape from reality,” said Mulcahy, who said it was his idea to invite the Navy recruiters.

“They get to go on the hunt for Red October. They got their dog tags, they see the huge boats. I like to do things big and get the patrons involved, try to make it so when they walk out of the theater, there’s something else besides just go home.”

“Red October” is the most recent movie glamorizing Navy careers, beginning with “An Officer and A Gentleman” and then “Top Gun.” Whether the movies actually boost recruiting is hard to say because so many factors affect the decision to enlist, Turner said.

Mathis said no one is annoyed to find the Navy in a theater lobby.

“I get a lot of retired Navy people telling me about World War II,” said the five-year Navy veteran. They tell him the uniform hasn’t changed much--still bell-bottom pants, he said.

Mulcahy said he received a few complaints about the Navy presence, from moviegoers who feared they were going to be pressured to enlist.