Saluting a Tough Job (new HBO doc on recruiters)

[MountainLaurel]

The sales pitch is a tough one: Leave your family and your home, go through a grueling training program and then ship off to war -- where you could come home without all your parts, or not come home at all.

For Sgt. 1st Class Clay Usie, recruiting young men and women to join the Army is the "hardest job in America today." Support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has eroded, parents and teachers and coaches are less likely to recommend the military as a career and fewer than three in 10 young Americans are qualified to join.

But Usie, who believes his job is critical to defending the nation, turns recruiting into a lifestyle, rising at 5 a.m. to lift weights with candidates and to run with teenagers who struggle to make it two miles. Usie is not only one of the nation's best recruiters -- he is also a friend, a mentor, a cheerleader, a drill sergeant and, beneath it all, a salesman.

"The Recruiter," an HBO documentary that premieres tonight, follows Usie as he works in his home town of Houma, La. It is a touching portrait of a man dedicated to serving his country but also a starkly honest view of the nation's struggle with military service in a time of war.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/27/AR2008072701979.html