Perspective: Guard enlists younger help in its drive for recruits

WASHINGTON -- A young man with flashing eyes and an infectious grin -- a non-stop charmer -- Dolton Goolcharan may hold part of the answer to the nation's military recruiting problem.

Goolcharan is a 21-year-old immigrant from Trinidad and a private first class in the Maryland National Guard. He is also a conspicuous success in a new initiative that pays soldiers to scour the streets for recruits and persuade them to sign up.

It has always been difficult to find people willing to serve, and doubly so during wartime. Now, President Bush wants the military to add more troops, perhaps as many as 70,000, a daunting challenge, say Pentagon officials and military staffing specialists.

The military traditionally has relied on servicemen and women assigned to recruiting offices across the country, where they work through phone books, set up booths at high school career days and make "cold calls" to graduating seniors in the unrelenting hunt for new troops.

But young men like Goolcharan have big advantages over these recruiters. They mingle easily with their peers, unlike traditional recruiters, who are often older by half a decade or more. They are cheaper, because they work on their own time and use their own resources, and don't require office space, cars or telephones. And because they are selecting other youths who will serve in their own units, they are more picky about who they will enlist.

The incentive: They get paid $2,000 for each prospective soldier they find who completes basic training.

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