Services Work to Boost Number of Hispanic Recruits

 

 By Staff Sgt. Kathleen T. Rhem, USA
 
American Forces Press Service


 WASHINGTON, Sept. 15, 2000 -- As America becomes more diverse, 
 the military services are working hard to keep pace and offer 
 opportunities for everyone.
 
 The services are working particularly hard to increase the 
 number of Hispanic recruits. The Army, for instance, added more 
 than $10 million to its recruiting budget this year for 
 advertising aimed at Hispanic audiences, said Army Maj. Kathleen 
 Johnson, chief of the Army Recruiting Command's Local 
 Advertising and Promotions Division at Fort Knox, Ky.
 
 All the services are targeting advertising to markets with high 
 Hispanic populations. They're running ads in Spanish and English 
 in publications with high Hispanic readership, as well as 
 running Spanish ads on several major Spanish-speaking television 
 networks in the United States and Puerto Rico.
 
 Military recruiting representatives noted the Spanish-language 
 ads aren't necessarily targeting the potential recruits, most of 
 whom have fine English skills. Rather, they're intended for 
 family members and educators who influence young peoples' 
 decisions to join a military service.
 
 "We're more likely to encounter 'influencers' -- moms, dads, 
 coaches, educators -- who communicate predominantly in Spanish," 
 said Master Sgt. Tom Clements, a spokesman for Air Force 
 Recruiting Service at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas. "Annual 
 surveys of our basic trainees say the vast majority of our 
 recruits still discuss their options with family members," he 
 added, highlighting the importance of reaching both the 
 influencers and potential recruits.
 
 Most of the people entering the military today were educated in 
 American schools, but that's not necessarily the case among 
 their parents and older family members, said Marine Staff Sgt. 
 Bruce Katz, advertising chief for Marine Corps Recruiting 
 Command at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va.
 
 The Army also advertises in Spanish "to be respectful of the 
 Hispanic culture," Johnson added. In addition, some of the 
 services have Spanish-language versions of their recruiting 
 pamphlets and literature, and all literature is "designed to 
 show our cultural mix," said Master Sgt. Juan Demiranda, an Air 
 Force Recruiting Command account executive.
 
 Service representatives also participate in conferences of major 
 Hispanic professional and cultural organizations. They give 
 presentations, and they set up booths so interested individuals 
 can meet with Hispanic service members and learn about 
 opportunities in the military. 
 
 Military representatives also participate in the annual 
 conferences of such organizations as the League of United Latin 
 American Citizens, the Hispanic Engineering National Achievement 
 Awards Convention, the United Council of LaRaza and the Mexican 
 American Engineers Society.
 
 "Through our involvement with these organizations and the 
 opportunities through their national conferences and 
 conventions, the Marine Corps is able to present what it has to 
 offer a young American of Hispanic descent," Katz said. His Air 
 Force and Army counterparts echoed the sentiment.
 
 "The Army is proud to attempt to connect to the American public 
 at this grass-roots level," Johnson said.
 
 The Army, going even further than the other services to attract 
 nonnative-English speakers, helps some recruits learn basic 
 English before they report to basic training. Most are from 
 Puerto Rico, but Army Capt. Ed Weissing, commander of Company E, 
 Defense Language Institute English Language Center at Lackland 
 Air Force Base, Texas, said the center currently has students 
 who speak Korean and even Ukrainian.
 
 Weissing explained the program’s purpose is to improve recruits’ 
 English skills to the level they need to be successful in 
 military basic and technical training. He said the program’s 500 
 students per year take an average of 14 weeks' training to reach 
 that level of competency.
 
 The other services require recruits to be fluent in English 
 before enlistment. "So many of our career fields are so very 
 technical that English proficiency is really very important," 
 the Air Force's Clements said.
 
 The Marine Corps' Katz noted that once recruits are accepted for 
 enlistment, "they're going to be communicated to in English."
 
 The Army and Navy also try to place available Spanish-speaking 
 recruiters into vacancies in areas with high populations of 
 Spanish speakers. "Our recruiters say it's always more effective 
 to be able to communicate well with somebody," Johnson said. 
 "When you're dealing with influencers it really helps to be able 
 to speak their language."
 
 Hispanic Americans comprise 11.7 percent of the population. The 
 services' efforts are paying off in numbers and increased 
 diversity of the force. 
 
 The Navy and Marine Corps lead the pack. So far in fiscal 2000, 
 15.5 percent and 14.9 percent of their recruits, respectively, 
 have been Hispanic. Hispanics have totaled 10.6 percent of this 
 year’s Army recruits. The Air Force lags slightly at 7.4 
 percent. 
 
 "The Air Force could be doing a little better, but the 
 encouraging news is we've about doubled our percentage of 
 Hispanic recruits in the past seven or eight years," Clements 
 said.
 
 

	Percentages of U.S. military recruits who are of Hispanic descent to date in fiscal year 2000. About 11.7 percent of the American population is of Hispanic descent.

Printer-friendly Version

Email A Copy