Guard pays members for enlisting others

It is one way that phone companies and health clubs attract new customers. Now for the first time in its history, the Army National Guard is taking a similar approach to recruit soldiers: If Guard members get a buddy to join, they can earn cash rewards of $2,000.

With combat deaths mounting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Guard's traditional recruiters are running into resistance from people increasingly wary of slick sells and star-spangled television ads, Guard officials say. But a soldier talking to a friend, co-worker, or cousin can offer a credible, powerful, and personally tailored message, soldiers say.

''Word of mouth is the holy grail of marketing," Major Winfield S. Danielson III, a spokesman for the Massachusetts National Guard, said yesterday. ''It's like when your friend says, 'Hey, that was a really cool movie.' There's a lot of believability in that. You look at it as an unbiased source, or at least biased to what your friend likes or your friend's interests are."

Guards in 15 states, including New Hampshire and Maine, have begun offering the $2,000 bonus through the Guard Recruiting Assistance Program. By September, Guards in Massachusetts and all other states are expected to offer the bonus as the Guard looks to boost its numbers, which have been diminished by several years of disappointing recruiting.

The program is already reaping some small successes.

Staff Sergeant Daniel Landers, a member of the Bangor Fire Department, persuaded a fellow firefighter, a repairman who fixes his heating at home, and a 23-year-old he overheard applying for a job in a video store to submit their names to the Maine National Guard. He would have talked to them about joining even without the cash incentive, he said, but now he stands to earn $6,000 if they enlist.

''If they're going to offer a cash incentive to do what a lot of us do anyway, well, who's going to say no to that?" said Landers, 34, who said he will put the money toward household expenses.

''The reality is that every soldier in the Guard probably knows one or two people who are enlistable," he said yesterday, ''and it's just a way to capitalize on that and bring people in."

Soldiers can collect the $2,000 bonuses for bringing in new recruits and former Guard members who reenlist: $1,000 when they sign up and the other $1,000 when they go to basic training.

To get the bonus, soldiers must stay in contact with the potential recruits, arrange meetings, help the recruits get ready for basic training, and ask them if they know anyone else who might want to join the Guard.

Soldiers who want the rewards must also take an online course on the basics of military recruiting. The course encourages soldiers to speak about their personal experiences, to ask potential soldiers about their needs and desires, and to be honest about the risks and rewards of service.

''Deployment is probable in today's current GWOT [Global War On Terror] environment, and you must be 100 percent upfront with any potential soldier about the possibilities of serving the nation during this time," the program says on its website.

Since the program started in New Hampshire last month, 71 soldiers have taken the online course, and helped the Guard find six potential recruits, said Major Greg Heilshorn, a spokesman for the New Hampshire National Guard. Like Guard officials in other states, he has high hopes that the cash rewards will continue to bring in new leads.

''We're capitalizing on our biggest strength, which is our soldiers, our men and women, who are our best salesmen for what we do and what we stand for," Heilshorn said.

In the 1970s, the Guard gave away engraved Zippo lighters and money clips to soldiers who brought in new recruits. But the challenge is much steeper nowadays. No longer ''weekend warriors," the Army National Guard now has 36,073 soldiers serving in Iraq and 5,634 in Afghanistan, Guard officials say. Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, 341 members of the Army National Guard have died while deployed, Guard officials say.

The toll is hurting recruitment, soldiers say.

''It's been a challenge," said Heilshorn. ''Many of these decisions, especially for young men and women, are made at the kitchen table with their parents, and any parent would be concerned about the potential for their son or daughter to serve in a combat theater."

Last fiscal year, the Guard set a recruitment goal of 63,000 new soldiers, but signed up only 50,000. In fiscal 2004, recruiters sought 56,000, but fell 7,000 short of their goal, and in fiscal 2003 they sought 62,000 soldiers, but fell about 7,800 short. The Army National Guard now counts 333,000 members nationwide, about 95 percent of what it considers full strength.

In Massachusetts, the ranks of the Army National Guard have plummeted from 8,200 members in 1998 to 5,600 last year. In response, officials opened eight storefront recruiting centers last year and expanded a marketing partnership with the New England Patriots.

''Our message to our potential recruits is, yes, there is a very real chance that you could deploy in your time of service, but we also want to stress that joining the National Guard doesn't necessarily automatically mean you're going to go overseas," Heilshorn said.

Guard recruiters also sell the monetary benefits of joining. In addition to tuition grants and waivers, recruits can earn $200 for a weekend of training each month and $725 for their two weeks of intensive training a year. The Guard also recently boosted enlistment bonuses from $5,000 to $10,000 for first-time soldiers and from $5,000 to $15,000 for former members who reenlist.

''It still amazes me that we don't have people lining up out our door to enlist," said Landers, who joined the Guard in high school and served last year at a medical clinic in Mosul, Iraq. ''If you're a person looking to fund a college education, there's a lot of great benefits for one weekend a month."