A Few Good Men and Women

Erik Castillo graduated Wednesday from Hawthorne High School and has only about three weeks of civilian life remaining.

He’ll visit Las Vegas with his father, celebrate Independence Day with his neighborhood friends and spend time with his family and girlfriend.

On July 13, the 17-year-old will exchange his loose-fitting jeans and T-shirt for U.S. Army fatigues and begin nine weeks of basic training at Ft. Sill, Okla.

Army officials will welcome Castillo and others like him enthusiastically as they try to fill their ranks in the all-volunteer armed services. In the last fiscal year, the Army fell 6,290 enlistees short of its recruiting goal.

Way too many young people are turned off by the prospect of a highly structured life far from home, military officials say. Take Frankie Greenstone:

“Oooh, the military,” she said, cringing. “That’s a scary place.”

The Chatsworth High School senior said her grandfather, a retired Navy officer, has pressured her to join the Marines.

“He thinks it would be good for my attitude,” Greenstone said. “I’m not the discipline type. I can’t be controlled or told what to do.”

Greenstone said she needs her own shower and bedroom. And, she added: “I need my stuffed animals.”

She plans to attend community college next school year and eventually to study marine biology.

Other students, such as Matthew Schenifiayad, have talked to military recruiters and considered the options but decided not to enlist.

“It came down to one thing,” said Schenifiayad, a Cleveland High School student. None of the military branches has a career in what he wants to do--Web design. “So I knew I wasn’t going,” he said.

Schenifiayad instead plans to study Web design at DeVry Institute.

Adrian Ceja came close to enlisting in the Army but decided he did not want to leave familiar surroundings.

“If you go to college, you can always leave if you do not like it,” he said. “But if you join the Army, unless you get kicked out, you’re there.”

Ceja, who graduated from Lakewood High last week, is thinking about enrolling in a community college.

Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera, a West Point graduate, is fully aware of many of the worries young people have about enlisting in the Army.

“The biggest concerns,” Caldera said, are: “Am I going to be treated fairly in the Army? Is it going to be too tough physically? Am I going to have any friends? Am I going to have a personal life? And, will I ever get to come home and see my family?

“Those are hurdles for a lot of them that the military is trying to overcome,” said Caldera, a former state assemblyman from Los Angeles.

Services Expand Education Programs

Some students feel that they can accomplish their career goals more quickly by heading straight to college, he said. “That’s why we are trying to improve our education programs.”

As part of an effort to encourage military service, all four branches--the Army, the Air Force, the Navy and the Marines--have expanded educational opportunities and advertising campaigns.

Tuition-aid grants are what attracted Jorge Tobar to the military. Knowing that it would be difficult for him to pay for a quality college education, Tobar joined the Air Force a year ago after graduating from Hawthorne High.

Because he is not a U.S. citizen yet, it was difficult for Tobar to get financial aid for college. After enlisting, he took dentistry courses at Wichita State University in Kansas, and he now works as an Air Force dental technician. The service is picking up most of the tab for his education, he said.

“It’s been the greatest experience,” said Tobar, a native of Guatemala who returned to Hawthorne last week to visit friends in the Navy ROTC program.

His friend Castillo said that it was only after speaking to military recruiters during his junior year of high school that he began to consider serving.

The option is perfect for him, Castillo said. He will learn to fire howitzers and other weapons as a field artilleryman, and will get Army pay of about $1,200 a month.

Castillo also plans to study criminal justice at North Carolina State while stationed in Ft. Bragg, N.C. Through the Army’s tuition assistance program, 75% of Castillo’s tuition costs will be covered while he is in the service. After he leaves, he will be eligible for as much as $50,000 in educational grants.

Castillo and Tobar got their introductions to the military in high school Junior ROTC. All four military branches have such programs; most consist of one-hour classes involving academics, marching drills or physical training, said Lt. Commander Jeffrey Treude, a naval science instructor at Hawthorne High School.

The program is not geared toward getting students into the armed forces, said retired Capt. John Bonnett, a naval science instructor at Wilson High School in Long Beach.

“What we do is show the kids what the armed forces are all about,” he said.

About 20% of graduating seniors in Wilson’s Navy Junior ROTC program enlist in the reserves or the National Guard or go on active duty, Bonnett said.

On the Eastside, the Garfield High ROTC program has 13 graduating seniors, but none is going directly into the military; most have chosen college.

The same exacting order and discipline that turn some students away from the military are an attraction for Michelle Sime, who graduated this week from Chatsworth High School. She will begin basic training in Meridian, Miss., in a month.

“I come from a strict family anyway,” said Sime, who completed three years of Chatsworth’s Junior ROTC program. “My parents taught me to be organized and to respect . . . patience. I like dressing in my uniform and looking neat.”

Attracted to an Organized Life

Sime speaks of the military almost as if it were some orderly promised land--free food, free housing, free insurance, free school and one heck of a workout plan.

“I have three uncles who work for the [U.S.] Air Force in Peru,” Sime said. “One is an engineer. When I was in the eighth grade and saw him for the first time in his full-length uniform, I was like, ‘Ah, he’s so tidy. He has so much pride for himself.’ In that uniform he was showing off his pride for his country.”

A realistic view of life keeps Sime from worrying about the dangers of war.

“For one thing, women don’t go into combat; I’m going to be like a secretary,” she said.

Cassie Myracks is not sold on the idea of entering the military, but the Hawthorne High sophomore may change her mind, depending on the benefits available.

“I come from [Hawthorne] and my family just doesn’t have money sitting around, so if this can give me a better education and I’ll be doing something that I like to do, that’s all the motivation that I need.”

The Army and the other services are constantly looking for a few more good men--and women.

“Think of the Army as an education and training opportunity,” Caldera said. “We are the largest employer of young people in America. We have 80,000 good jobs to give away every single year.”

Times staff writer Zanto Peabody contributed to this story.

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By the Numbers

The Army and Air Force fell short of recruiting goals last year while the Marines and Navy achieved their targets. These figures are for enlistees and do not include officers or reservists:

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ARMY Goal Enlistments 1999 74,500 68,210 1998 72,550 71,749 1997 82,000 82,087 1996 73,400 73,528 1995 63,000 62,967

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AIR FORCE Goal Enlistments 1999 33,800 32,068 1998 31,300 31,491 1997 30,200 30,200 1996 30,700 30,700 1995 31,000 31,000

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MARINES Goal Enlistments 1999 39,486 39,521 1998 40,325 40,366 1997 40,369 40,716 1996 39,465 39,484 1995 38,625 38,643

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NAVY Goal Enlistments 1999 52,524 52,595 1998 55,321 48,429 1997 50,135 50,135 1996 48,206 48,206 1995 48,637 48,637

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Note: Years are for U.S. government fiscal years. Source: Armed forces recruitment officials