HONOLULU — Thang Dang long felt close to the military, having grown up admiring an uncle who served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. Now the 17-year-old is a soldier himself, a member of the Hawaii Army National Guard since June.
"I always wanted to join the service, I just wasn't sure which one," said the high school senior. "It's a step for me to become a man."
The Hawaii Guard attracted 388 newly enlisted soldiers during the year ending last September. That's better than the annual average of 300 to 350. Nationally, about 69,000 people joined the Army Guard last fiscal year, up 40% from 49,000 in 2004.
The question is, will it last?
With the military rotating "citizen soldiers" through Iraq and Afghanistan every few years, experts are concerned the enthusiasm for the Guard may wane and fewer people will want to join and remain members.
"We shouldn't say, 'OK, the recruiting and retention numbers look OK, let's relax,' " said Christine Wormuth, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. "It's a fairly brittle situation."
The Guard has boosted recruitment in recent years by increasing the number of soldiers it dispatches to talk to potential citizen soldiers. The Guard also has launched a successful peer recruitment program that gives $2,000 to Guard members for each friend they introduce who eventually signs up.
The Guard also is boosting the financial rewards it offers to those who join. Guard members choosing particularly dangerous specialties like truck driving can now receive cash bonuses up to $20,000, double the $10,000 bonuses in 2005.
The money helps, of course, but Guard soldiers interviewed by the Associated Press said they joined primarily because they wanted to serve their nation and state.
Pfc. Kristina Lord, 18, of Pearl City said her mother was worried about her being sent to war. But Lord told her mother she would probably be deployed.
"We're in a time of war. It's a given," said Lord. "It's a risk that you're going to take."
The military relies heavily on National Guard troops for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It also has sent Guard members to the Horn of Africa and other less-noticed posts in the Bush administration's campaign against terrorism.
At one point in 2004, Guard and reserve troops, many of whom are part time and have civilian jobs when not deployed, made up 40% of U.S. forces in Iraq.
