(CBS) Eighteen-year-old Manuel Caceres signed up for the Army National Guard today.

He is part of a dramatic turnaround in what had been a losing battle to fill the ranks. With the National Guard serving — and dying — on the front lines in Iraq, those ranks had fallen to a new low by the summer of 2005, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports.

"We had to take some different actions because what we were doing was not working," said Col. Mike Jones, the Guard's head recruiter.

Jones now pays members of the Guard $2,000 for every recruit they can deliver to basic training.

"That absolutely turned the corner," Jones said. "We’ve had over 35,000 people brought into the National Guard in the last 19 months as a result of the recruit assistance program."

Tabitha White is a private in the Guard and now a part-time recruiter. She’ll get $1,000 for bringing Caceres in, and another $1,000 when he reports to boot camp.

For her, it's easy money.

"You can just walk into a store and you just stop somebody and tell them about the program," she said. "Very simple; it's just all about communication, about talking."

The Guard has also doubled the number of full-time recruiters to 5,000 and increased the enlistment bonus from $10,000 to $20,000. Surprisingly its ads emphasize the risks as much as the rewards.

One says: "We know the sacrifices. We know the consequences. We don't have a safe job and we're all willing to accept that."

"We're very candid that serving in the National Guard today is sometimes a dangerous business," Jones said. "Believe it or not, that message is selling."

It will have to keep selling because the Guard plans to add another 7,000 soldiers in the coming months.

© MMVII, CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Back To Top