U.S. Army: OZZFEST Attendees Make 'Great Soldiers'
July 24, 2005William Weir of The Hartford Courant is reporting that the U.S. Marine recruiters have set up shop amid the T-shirt, tattoo and body-piercing booths at this year's Ozzfest. It's the first year the Army has officially come to the festival, but Sgt. Robert Nerkowski Jr. is a five-time Ozzfest veteran. Events like this, he says, show that joining the military doesn't mean the end of fun. "We're a bunch of rockers, too. People think we're a bunch of robots."
The U.S. Army, the biggest of all the military branches, has a goal of 80,000 new enlistees by the end of September. By the end of June, the Army was more than 6,000 short of the 54,935 enlistees it needed to stay on pace, and more than 2,000 short of its goal of 15,554 Army Reservists.
"The kids who go to these shows make great soldiers," says Nerkowski, who works in the Hartford recruiting office. Reel in that energy, he says, and "undisciplined kids can make great leaders."
As he does at every Ozzfest, Raymond Magden stops by the booth to talk. The 20-year-old Waterbury resident, who came mainly to see ROB ZOMBIE and MUDVAYNE, is thinking about joining within the next year. He doesn't agree with the president's reasons for invading Iraq but ultimately believes the war is for a good cause.
"I'm not scared about going over," Magden says, before giving it some thought. "I am a little bit scared, but I also feel it is a duty because they do so much to protect us."
Read the entire article at Courant.com.
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