The Miami Herald:
As the South Florida real estate market disintegrated and the number of jobless rose, 40-year-old Jorge Gil Muela made a young man’s decision.
The five-foot-seven, 235-pound property appraiser walked into a recruiting center in a Kendall strip mall to join the Army. He was told to shed 50 pounds. It’s a small price, he said, for the job security and pay, family health insurance and new career as a cargo handler.
Muela’s tale shows how the financial crisis may be subtly aiding the Army, which struggled to meet its recruitment goals in 2004 and 2005.
Muela was able to become ”GI Jorge” because Congress in 2006 raised the Army’s age cap from 35 to 42.
Analysts anticipate that these hard times may help build a more mature, discerning Army less reliant on bonuses and waivers for would-be soldiers with health issues or criminal records.
”Since the economy has gone into the tanks, the recruiting environment has gotten a lot better,” says Andrew F. Krepinevich Jr., president of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington policy research group.
Photo by Army.mil.