Twin sisters Patrice and Latrice Lyons of Roseville are joining the Army, lured by guaranteed income and benefits that will help them pay off college loans that exceed $100,000 apiece — and give them the opportunity for additional education at Uncle Sam’s expense.
The 30-year-old master’s degree graduates of Central Michigan University were on a far different career path — theater or human resources—when the hard realities of recession set in.
Now they’re among “older” folks looking to the military for secure jobs and financial aid because good private jobs are scarce.
Army and National Guard recruiting figures for Michigan suggest there are many others like the Lyons sisters. Interest in military service peaked here in 2006, remained strong the next couple of years and now appears to be growing again as the economic malaise deepens.
“It has been a struggle for us,” Latrice said. “The military gives you security and great benefits when it comes to food and health care.”
Staff Sgt. Harry Weaver, who is assigned to the Army’s Mount Clemens recruiting station, has seen more inquiries and signings among people in their middle years since the Army raised its enlistment age limit from 35 to 42 in 2006. Statistics are unavailable to prove his point, but Weaver said he’s seeing candidates “in their 40s and looking for something where they’d have benefits.
“They want to make sure they have a steady income,” he said.
That includes the Lyons sisters, who graduated from Detroit’s Denby High School, then earned undergraduate degrees in theater and master’s degrees in human resources at CMU.
They moved to California for a few years, but didn’t land human resources jobs they wanted and ended up working as management trainees for a rental car company. So they started considering the military and moved back to their mother’s home in Roseville.
“California was a pretty tough experience for us with the job market going up and down,” Patrice Lyons said. “You can find a job, but is it a good job, a career? Is there security?”
They will report to Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., next month for basic training and then move on to Fort Gordon, Ga., where Patrice will train as a microwave system maintenance operator and Latrice as a support systems specialist.
Latrice also is planning to earn an advance degree in business administration through online courses paid for by the Army. Her sister plans additional study, but hasn’t chosen a field yet.
“With the Army, it’s potentially a 9-5 workday and you work on your degree at night,” Latrice said.
They said their parents have supported their decision to join the military together.
“We’ll be in for four years, and then look at our options,” said Patrice. “If we like what we’re doing, we may stay.”
During the first quarter of this current fiscal year — October through December — the Army had 1,411 new active troops and reservists in Michigan and 14,278 across the country. That met 100-percent of the quarterly recruitment goal for the first time in five years, according to public affairs specialist Jake Joy of the district office in Lansing.
All 10 armed services branches met or exceeded their recruitment goals in the previous fiscal year, bolstering their ranks by nearly 325,000 members during late 2007 and the first nine months of 2008, the U.S. Department of Defense reported this month.
Pentagon officials attributed the surge to layoffs that have hit General Motors Corp., Target, Starbucks and other large companies, pushing the national unemployment rate above 7 percent and to more than 10.5 percent in Michigan.
It’s not lost on the new recruits that the armed forces not only have been immune to such job cuts, but also the basic monthly pay — while low compared to that for civilian jobs — was boosted 3.4 percent for 2009 and is scheduled to go up again in 2010.
Basic military pay for the first four months of active duty — in all service branches — is $1,294.50 a month. That comes to just over $15,500 a year, but it’s estimated to average a little more than $35,000 annually when benefits are included, military officials say.
Pay for a middle-ranking officer with four years of service comes to a little over $2,000 a month and benefits boost that to somewhere between $40,000 and $45,000.
Also available: signing bonuses of up $40,000 and as much as $65,000 toward higher education debt for four-year signees, plus military-paid additional study in degree programs.
In the Michigan National Guard, the attraction is that members can use military pay to supplement what they earn at civilian jobs, where pay freezes and out-of-pocket benefit cost increases have become common. They can add a few thousand dollars a year to their income by giving up the required one weekend a month, and two weeks each summer, to duty and training.
Sgt. Joe Frederich, a Lansing recruiter whose current rank earned him $325 on each of his monthly service weekends before he become a full-time National Guard member six months ago, attributed recent recruitment success to the desire to serve country and community.
But he acknowledged the added income helps with recruiting.
Under a new program, part-time National Guard members earn a $2,000 bonus for the signing of each new prospect they steer to recruiters.
“I can tell you, just from my own experience, it paid off a motorcycle,” Frederich said.
