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Military Recruits Eager Despite Wartime

Navy 'Deppers' Ready For Training

By Robin Mero / Morning News

BENTONVILLE, AR -- Lucretia Radloff used a fat black marker to pen the Navy's 11 General Orders of the Sentry across her pink bedroom walls.

When she leaves for basic training in June, the 17-year-old enlistee must be ready to recite them from memory -- anywhere, anytime, to anyone who asks.

A tiny brunette with delicate features, Radloff wanted to be a seaman since junior high school. She sat recently across a table from her mother in Starbucks, drinking a sugary coffee, shoulders draped with her boyfriend's letterman jacket.

So determined was Radloff to join the Navy after high school, she convinced her parents to sign early enlistment papers a year before her 18th birthday. Once a month now, she goes to a delayed entry program -- or "DEP" -- meeting, with dozens of recruits, called "deppers." They loudly recite those orders. They submit to hundreds of push-ups. They learn when and who to salute (each time upon encountering an officer outside, or once on ship first thing in the morning).

Radloff is the group's youngest. She dreams of being a physical therapist and living in Alaska. She's pretty, but not a girly girl. Her ears are unpierced and nails unpainted.

Her mother is slightly wary of her middle child's ambitions. LaDonya McCullough had three children by age 21, and encouraged them to live full lives before parenting. But the military?

When Radloff first asked her mother to sign, the answer was no.

"I really wish you'd rethink that," McCullough described as her first reaction. "I kept thinking about where they'll send her, what might happen. I have a concern about her being around all the men. But after I thought about it, and she moped around the house, I realized I have to let her go."

Radloff reached across the table, resting a hand on her mother's arm. "We all die eventually. So let me die living my dreams."

Wartime Work

Enlistment numbers in the military held steady during the past decade, despite the nation being at war. Navy officials said wartime presents no more of a challenge to recruiting than a vibrant job market and increased college enrollment.

Recruiting goals were met 67 months in a row in this region -- which includes Arkansas and seven other states, said Petty Officer Steve Owsley of the Nashville Public Affairs Office.

Recruiting may come a bit easier in the Navy than for other military branches, said Matt Burgess, an electronics second-class surface warfare specialist -- and one of three recruiters in Benton County.

"Few Navy jobs will put you in Iraq, and most of those you have to volunteer for," said Burgess, who recruited Radloff.

Still, parents in particular always ask: Are they going to Iraq, and what's the possibility of them dying?

Burgess addresses those concerns first. Recruits worry more about leaving friends and family, and signing a job contract -- usually four years, he said.

Once signatures meet paper, Burgess and the other recruiters teach Navy customs and etiquette and acclimate deppers before they face the 8-week basic training in Great Lakes, Ill. Basic is designed to challenge recruits physically, mentally and emotionally, and starts with a two-week moratorium on communication with the outside world. Those who finish -- and more than 95 percent do -- are then assigned to various locales based on their jobs. Perhaps Coronado, Calif., Chicago, Florida, Europe -- or a ship or submarine.

The Rogers recruiting office is producing about four to five recruits per month, which is above average based on population, Burgess said. Everyone's pay starts at about $24,000 annually, which increases based on rank and geographical area.

Nuke School

Major Taylor, 19, whose first name is real and has nothing to do with the military, showed up to meet a reporter with a willowy girlfriend in tow, Carolyn Figuereo, 18. He grasped her hand most of the hour.

Taylor plans to be a "nuke" in the Navy -- learn to operate a nuclear power plant on a submarine -- and the first two years he'll attend school in Charleston, S.C.

A "left-brain" guy, he likes science and math but also plays guitar and bass, and writes music and poems.

"I want to be an audio engineer, and the Navy will give me the electrical knowledge," he said. "It's essentially getting an associate's degree in physics, and then I'll finish college after. I don't feel I am very motivated and disciplined at all. I figured joining the military will force me to learn responsibility."

Taylor got the idea last summer, before beginning his senior year in high school, and his parents didn't like it.

"When I first told them I was going to get my physical and take tests, they were really upset. My mom heard all these horror stories," he said.

Recruiter Petty Officer 1st Class Luke Rayfield reassured his parents. But, the reality of the country being at war didn't help.

"A lot of people think the war in Iraq is pointless, so I think it's less likely that people will volunteer," Taylor said. "People don't want to waste their lives for seemingly nothing. But it didn't really affect my decision at all. I think everything will work out as it's supposed to."

Taylor enlisted for six years because of his career path. His girlfriend attends college in Georgia, and they like the idea of being near each other.

"The Navy is a good option for education, with the GI Bill," he said. "If you're not doing anything for the next few years, why not?"

Taylor and Figuereo look at each other, think about that last comment, and laugh.

'Truly Inspired'

Radloff's push-ups were determined and she didn't cheat. Twenty-nine deppers were crammed into the recruiting office, faces red from shouting the sailor's creed.

Burgess and Rayfield snapped commands. As deppers foiled orders, they dropped for more push-ups. The air grew sticky and rank.

One recruit was leaving in two days. For others, such as Radloff, months remain.

"To quit my post only when properly relieved," one belts the fifth order.

As deppers moved outside for a formation drill, one tall and beefy recruit, Adam Corbett, stood aside to watch, his leg in a cast. He carefully tracked movements of his twin brother, Andrew, and the others. Adam is in command of the deppers, the "recruit chief," and feels obligated to get things right, know his stuff. The twins report for basic training July 25, and have already been promoted twice.

Aspiring pilots since age 15, they'll enter the Navy as masters at arms, or military police. Now 18, they hope to someday fly supersonic precision jet maneuvers -- or patrol skies for enemy submarines.

In junior high school, Adam and Andrew job-shadowed Bentonville Police, riding in squad cars for a day. Their father, Tony Corbett, said they came home that night "fired up."

"That day had a profound effect on the boys. They were truly inspired -- and talk about it still," Tony Corbett said.

"Adam asked me at a young age how to combine military intelligence with aviation," their father said in his British accent. "They already soloed and are finishing their private pilot's license."

The Navy seemed to offer the most flexibility and options, Tony Corbett said. The twins should remain together -- at least for several months -- and won't likely face direct combat.

"With all the trouble throughout the world, there's always the element of concern," he said. "(My wife, Pamela) is a little more cautious. She shows it more. These are the only kids we have and we'll become empty nesters overnight."

Tony Corbett said his boys inherited his adventurous spirit.

"We have a saying in our family, 'If you're not living on the edge, you're leaving too much room.'"

AT A GLANCE

Service With A Smile

Reasons cited for joining the military by enlistees in the U.S. Navy Delayed Entry Response Program in Rogers.

* An education

* Make some good money

* I want to fly

* To accelerate my life

* Get out of Arkansas

* Better myself

* Travel

* Life experiences

* Get my life straight

* My dad was in the military

* To do something different