U.S. military recruiters' new pitch is aimed at the parents [View All]

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/living/education/6474788.htm

Ask Mark Jones how he's doing and he says, "I'm living a dream."

Jones, 35, is the founder and CEO of his own VIP protection service. He's an avid skydiver, a competitive ice-sculptor, and a professional cook. And he says he picked up all these skills in one place - the U.S. Army.

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A new Pentagon recruiting ad campaign, featuring Jones and four other role models, aims to persuade more parents to see the military as a winning option for their children. Parents usually can make or break the deals that recruiters want their offspring to sign.

But according to a 2002 Pentagon survey, most parents today view military service as a last resort, far behind continuing school and finding a job. The exceptions tend to be parents like Jones' who have served in uniform themselves, and their numbers are shrinking in these days of a downsized, all-volunteer military.

Growing parental bias, or even just ignorance of the military, threatens to compound the military's, and especially the Army's, difficulties attracting all the high-quality recruits it needs to staff and maintain increasingly sophisticated equipment and meet growing commitments in dangerous places such as Iraq and Afghanistan.