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Fewer blacks, more Hispanics enlist in Corps

Dante Stevenson is not your typical incoming Marine recruit.

He’s looking for the same things as tens of thousands headed off to recruit depots at Parris Island, S.C., and San Diego this year: money for college, a chance to travel, an opportunity to defend his country and serve in America’s elite service. He’s articulate, polite and determined to chart a new course.

“It’s about education and discipline and the chance to go and do something with your life,” the Arlington, Va., man said. “I want to be the best I can possibly be.”

But at 25, he’s got several years on most of his soon-to-be boot camp comrades. He’s also raising a 6-year-old son. And he’s black.

Black enlistees have become an increasingly small percentage of Marine recruits, falling below 8 percent of Marine accessions in recent years and representing about 8 to 9 percent of all Marines in the junior enlisted ranks.

A June report from the Center for Naval Analyses on “Blacks and Hispanics in the Marine Corps,” obtained by Marine Corps Times, called the significant drop in blacks entering the Corps a “cause for leadership concern.” But Marine officials don’t seem to be frightened by the potential impact on the future force, and offer little in the way of suggestions on how it can lure more blacks into the Corps.

Shifting attitudes

The downward trend grows more complex when set against the success blacks enjoy in the service. They are retained at a substantially higher rate than any other group and represent more than 30 percent of all sergeant major positions, including the current and previous two Sergeants Major of the Marine Corps.

Sgt. Maj. Carlton Kent, Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps, played down the impact of the declining proportion of black Marine recruits.

“I don’t think it’s that serious of a trend,” Kent said in a recent interview. “I haven’t seen the study, so I can’t quote it, but I would tell you that we have had an increase of young blacks enlisting in the Marine Corps as compared to last year.

“I don’t know how high, but it’s a higher percentage than we had last year, so that’s a good news story.”

Kent is right about the numbers. For the second year in a row, the percentage of black accession has increased and is expected this year to be higher than at any point since 2003. But the system was broken long before then.

Julia Medrano represents the new face of minorities in the Corps. At 17 years old, the upcoming high school senior of El Salvador-born parents is part of a trend that has seen Hispanics become a larger section of the Corps — up to 17 percent by the most recent tally.

It’s not just the Corps that’s changing. Both the Army and the Coast Guard are experiencing similar trends of decreasing black accessions set against a climbing Hispanic population.

These trends don’t necessarily threaten to reverse the substantial gains the Corps has made at diversifying its force, but they do signal a pronounced shift of diversity that could have long-term ramifications on the future force. Smaller numbers of blacks joining the Corps over the past several years will make it more difficult to create diversity at the senior enlisted ranks decades from now.

Stevenson and Medrano were recruited out of a busy station in Alexandria, Va., not far from Washington, that sent 64 recruits to boot camp already this fiscal year.

The area is dense with minorities of all backgrounds. Blacks represent 27 percent of the residents in the immediate area, while Hispanics make up 19 percent of residents, according to data collected in the 2000 U.S. census. Nationwide, blacks and Hispanics are 12.3 percent and 12.5 percent of the population, respectively.

Yet photographs hanging in the station — of poolees prepping to ship off to boot camp soon — show only 5 blacks out of 36 potential Marines. That’s a higher percentage of black recruits than seen nationwide, but far less than the community percentages outside the recruiting station’s doors.

But it’s not for a lack of effort. The recruiters, by design, are a diverse lot themselves, with skills, experiences and attitudes most likely to attract young men and women eager to forge identities in the military. They say race and ethnicity are as important to recruiting efforts as knowing a potential recruit’s favorite sports team.

“It’s not like we’re going out looking for certain kinds of people to be Marines,” said Staff Sgt. Curtis Lynch, 32, of Enfield, N.C. “I’ve been here one-and-a-half years and we’re not doing anything different. We go to high schools that are very diverse and we talk to all kinds of people about what it takes and what it means to be a Marine.”

Why now?

There’s no doubt the face of the Corps is changing. But there’s little agreement as to why.

Statistics provided by the Corps show black enlisted recruits represented 9 percent of the active-duty and Reserve forces last year, up slightly from the roughly 8 percent the Corps had recruited in each of the previous four years.

Year over year, a 1 percent rise or decline does not represent a major trend, but the current spell of difficulties recruiting blacks is more pronounced when compared with historical data. In 1997, blacks represented about 14 percent of all accessions, down from more than 25 percent of all accessions in 1979.

And the problem is not confined to the enlisted side.

Last year, blacks made up less than 3 percent of all new Marine officers, down significantly from the 10 percent of new officers in 1998. In real terms, that equates to only 43 newly commissioned black second lieutenants last year, in a Corps racing toward 202,000 Marines.

University of Texas sociology professor John Butler, who earned a Bronze Star for Valor during the Vietnam War and left the Army as a sergeant, said the drop in black Marines and service members in general is due to the increasing opportunity for blacks to attend college.

“Colleges and universities are competing with the services like never before, especially for young black students,” Butler said.

Steven Wittle, deputy director for Marine Corps Recruiting Command, is quick to point out that Marine recruiters are a diverse lot. Blacks represent 22 percent of all recruiters, and 21 percent are Hispanic.

The command operates from a $249 million budget aimed at providing the Corps with men and women willing and able to serve on the front lines of America’s global war on terrorism.

“We are doing the same thing on the Hispanic side as we are doing on the African-American side,” Wittle said. “I really can’t give you an exact reason why these trends exist.”

Retired Master Gunnery Sgt. Joe Geeter, National President of Montford Point Marine Association — dedicated to preserving the legacy of the first group of black Marines who joined the Corps in 1942 — said the unpopularity of the war in Iraq in America’s black communities is a major factor.

“With the current administration’s policy, a lot of parents don’t want to send their children to fight in a war they don’t believe in,” Geeter said. “They have their own personal beliefs and they don’t want their sons to be involved in it.”

Stevenson echoed some of those concerns. “A lot of my friends and family have a one-tracked mind about the war. They think if you join the Marines that you are going straight to the war and that you are going to get shot,” he said. “But I’m more scared of staying here and doing nothing than going to the war.”

A different kind of diversity

As the number of black Marines drops, the number of Hispanics enlisting in the Corps has experienced a steady increase. Hispanics have represented at least 16 percent of all Marines since 2004, with an all-time high of 17 percent of Marines listing their ethnicity as Hispanic in 2007.

That’s up significantly from the 12 percent of Hispanic Marines in 1997 and only 6 percent in 1988, according to the CNA study.

Staff Sgt. Jorge Alfaro is a Hispanic recruiter at the Alexandria station. He speaks as much Spanish as he does English when talking with parents about the Corps.

“Hispanics are a proud people, and the Marines are very proud as well,” Alfaro said. “I think that has a lot to do with it.”

Medrano strives to become a surgeon, but first wants to test her mettle in the Corps. She knows she can also get money for college in another branch of service, but wants the unique challenge the Corps can offer.

Her parents were initially skittish about the enlistment, fearing she would serve in a combat zone. But they were swayed by her daughter’s determination and the recruiters’ pitch.

“I know what’s going on out there, but it still doesn’t hold me back,” she said. “They said as long as it was my dream, to go ahead and follow it.”

Butler said Hispanics are taking advantage of the military’s perceived equal opportunity culture.

“Hispanics are the new blacks,” Butler said. “They are looking for the opportunities. It’s the immigrants who are taking the new opportunities that blacks took in the past.”

Still recruiting well

Marines officials acknowledge that a host of factors outside their control — an unpopular and lengthy war and its attendant rising casualty list, more educational and employment opportunities, declining youth propensity toward military service and low support among so-called influencers — have conspired to create a challenging atmosphere for recruiters trolling high schools, shopping malls and county fairs to find a few good men and women.

Despite the problems and the demands of growing the Corps by about 29,000 Marines between 2002 and 2011, recruiters have exceeded goals in each of the past three years. In fact, if trends continue unabated, the Corps is likely to meet its goal of growing to 202,000 active-duty Marines two years early.

And for good reason.

The Corps is sending hundreds of additional recruiters into the field, equipped with tablet computers, government vehicles and $82 million worth of signing bonuses. The service is enhancing advertising with new commercials, which are aired more often than before, and expanding its pool of applicants by changing its policy on home-schooled applicants and other measures.

That’s a stark departure from just a few years ago, when bonuses totaled only $10 million per year and marketing relied to some degree on pre-9/11 ads.

Hundreds of technically inclined recruits, or would-be grunts willing to patrol the front lines for six years are eligible for up to $15,000 in bonuses, while recruits who agree to ship out on the Corps’ timeline can pick up an extra $5,000.

Lt. Col. Michael Zeliff, assistant chief of staff for marketing and advertising at Marine Corps Recruiting Command, said the Corps creates ads to target blacks, Hispanics and women. It allocates about 25 percent of its advertising budget — or roughly $35 million — to entice minorities to enlist. The Corps also places ads in specific publications to target certain demographics.

“We know different communities react differently to different ads,” he said. “To that end, we try to create ads that tap into each culture’s unique values and characteristics. There’s a different part of the Marine Corps story that resonates with different communities.”

He said the Corps also creates all-purpose advertisements that strive to incorporate the diversity of the Corps.

“One of the print executions that we came up with is a bunch of hands together from all different races and ethnicities,” he said. “It’s meant to be as inclusive as possible.”

But Marine officials denied that a recent commercial that debuted during Game 1 of the NBA Finals — showing a black recruit jumping into a swimming pool to conquer his fears, but emerging from the water as a Marine — was geared specifically to the black demographic.

The Corps’ aggressive overall recruiting campaign has helped the service meet its ambitious recruiting goals, but it has done little to stem the tide of decreasing black accessions outside of the modest gains in the past two years. And few inside the Corps have easy answers as to why.

“I wouldn’t consider it a problem,” Spackman said. “I consider it a goal.”

Kent said the Corps is still a place where blacks have tremendous opportunities for success.

“Regardless of what color you are, the Marine Corps will take you. Look at me. I am the sergeant major of the Marine Corps,” Kent said. “As a civilian, I never thought I would be the sergeant major of the Marine Corps, but the Marine Corps took me in, and treated me equal, just like any other Marine is treated.

“As long as you work hard in the Marine Corps, you can excel in the Marine Corps.”

That’s exactly what Stevenson is counting on.

“As long as you dedicate yourself, there’s no limit to what you can achieve in the Marines,” he said.

DISCUSS: Is there cause for concern?