'A better option'

The State

February 16, 2008

State's poorer counties prove fertile military recruiting area

DILLON -- Joining the Army seemed like the right thing to do for Carson Turner's 17-year-old son.

'The Army would be a better option for him than sticking around town and trying to find something,' Turner said.

Turner's son, Matt, is like many young people in Dillon County, where one in 10 workers is jobless.

In part due to the lack of local job prospects, the county's young people sign up to join the Army at a rate three times higher than the state average, an analysis of recruiting statistics shows.

Almost seven of every 1,000 young men and women in Dillon County join the active-duty Army, that analysis found. That compares with the S.C. average of slightly more than two enlistees per 1,000 youths.

Dillon County is a gold mine for Army recruiters.

The Pee Dee county ranks among the top 100 in the United States in the percentage of young people who enlist in the Army, according to National Priorities Project, a nonprofit research group that studies federal data.

But Dillon isn't alone.

The story is similar in other economically depressed S.C. counties.

Eight of the top 10 counties for Army recruiters -- ranked by enlistees per 1,000 young people -- have jobless rates higher than the state average of 6.6 percent.

The state's Pee Dee region including Dillon, in particular, is fertile territory. Chesterfield, Marion and Marlboro counties also rank among the top 10 S.C. counties in the rate of young people joining the Army.

Other high unemployment counties fill out almost all of the top 10 counties. Only two of the 10 -- Dorchester and Kershaw -- have jobless rates below the state average.

BLEAK PROSPECTS

The paint peeling from the storefronts of discount shops and payday-loan offices along Main Street are signs of Dillon County's economic woes.

The county's 24 percent poverty rate is twice the national average and well above the S.C. average of 15.6 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Education almost is as rare as jobs. Only 61 percent of Dillon's adults graduated from high school, well below the S.C. average of 76 percent, according to census statistics.

High school seniors graduating today face bleak job prospects in the county of 31,000, said Julie Von Frank, principal at Dillon High School.

Perdue Farms and Harbor Freight Tools -- which employ 1,000 and 350, respectively. -- are the county's top private-sector employers, Von Frank said. 'The good jobs are in Florence, Myrtle Beach or Lumberton (N.C).'

To find a job, about a third of the county's workers must travel outside Dillon to their place of employment.

Besides economics, there are cultural reasons why young people in the Pee Dee may be more likely to join the military, said Porter Lillis, a sociology professor at Francis Marion University in Florence.

'There's a familiarity with the military,' Lillis said. 'It's a rural area where outdoor work is not seen as onerous. People are raised with firearms and hunting. They're used to living out in the field.

'And we love football -- aggressive sports.'

WANTS AND NEEDS

Army recruiters visit Dillon County's high schools regularly.

Sometimes, they hang out around the cafeterias during lunch hour, meeting students and handing out brochures and business cards.

Other times, they make presentations to classes.

The military recruiters are treated like college recruiters, said Wesley Revels, Lake View High School's guidance counselor. 'Part of our responsibility is to create an awareness of work opportunities.'

Lake View, one of three Dillon County high schools, is a frequent destination of recruiters like Sgt. 1st Class Tates Langley.

Dressed in the Army's grayish-green, digitized-camouflage uniform, Langley recently lugged a backpack and thick, black attache case into an advanced composition class.

He placed a black-and-gold table cover over a desk, making sure the word 'Army' was centered on the front. Then, he placed brochures and pamphlets on the desktop.

'What do you know about the Army?' Langley asked.

'They fight wars.' 'They get shot at a lot.' 'You do a lot of push-ups,' students answered.

Langley didn't start with a pitch for the Army. Instead, he steered the class toward a discussion of setting life goals and coming up with a plan to achieve them.

On the classroom's electronic chalkboard, Langley wrote 'WANTS.' Under the word, he listed the student's answers.

'Car. More Money. More clothes. Big House. Jewelry.'

At the top of the next column, he wrote 'NEEDS.' Below

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