Army recruitment numbers down in Central Oregon

Enrollment at the Bend Army Recruiting Center has seen a steady decline — in 2015, for example, falling to less than half the number seen in 2009.

A staffer at the center said Monday there are numerous misconceptions about the Army in Central Oregon that aren’t as common in other places.

“That’s our biggest obstacle, really, is just trying to get people in the door to speak to them,” Staff Sgt. Taylor Collins said. “A lot of people assume as soon as they come in the door, we’re throwing paperwork at them and saying, ‘Hey look — it’s time to go. You’re leaving for basic training next week.'”

The Army makes a lot of trips to high schools, and Collins said a lot of students in the area are scared away by what he calls a common misunderstanding.

“The biggest misconception that we find out here is that people assume that it’s college or the Army, and that it can’t be both of them,” he said. “And that’s not true at all.”

Collins explained that the Army encourages recruits to further their education, in part because it betters their chances of promotion.

Another reason for the decline in recruits, they said, was the general scale-back of the military by the Obama administration. But Collins we may be seeing a change.

Each year, the office has to meet a benchmark number of new recruits set by the federal government, and the number for 2017 is over 20 percent higher than last year.