Matt Oslie hasn't decided if he wants to join the military. But, thanks to a National Guard recruiting event, he got to play soldier for a day Saturday, handling a sniper rifle and engaging in paintball combat against other teens.
"That'd be one of the reasons I'd join if I did, just for the excitement," said Oslie, a high school junior from Hawley, Minn.
More than 40 teenagers and young adults, most of them high school students, flocked to the Moorhead Armory on Saturday afternoon for the Minnesota Army National Guard's paintball event.
Sgt. Aaron Borgerding, a Moorhead-based Guard recruiter, said the event allows recruiters to meet face-to-face with potential recruits and explain firsthand what Guard members do.
It's also the latest example of how Guard recruiters have been forced to get more creative to attract new soldiers and overcome public negativity about the war in Iraq.
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"When you need to draw interest and the times are a little tougher like this, you need to come up with new ideas," Borgerding said.
Last week, President Bush announced that 21,500 additional troops will be sent to Iraq, and the Pentagon lifted the 24-month active duty limit for Guard members in the Iraq and Afghan wars.
Tours of duty were extended by up to 125 days for 2,600 Minnesota Guard troops; about 500 of those are from the Moorhead-based 2-136 Combined Arms Battalion.
Along with the paintball battles - which used rubber pellets to avoid splattering the armory gym - Saturday's event also gave participants the chance to handle Army weaponry. Spc. Kyle Busack, of Rochester, explained the basics of a .50-caliber sniper rifle and 9 mm Beretta pistol.
"Something like this is actually what got me to join," Busack said of the event.
Participants also got to inspect a Humvee and an armored personnel carrier.
But most were there for the paintball. When Bob Suchon of All-Terrain Paintball asked who hadn't played the sport, only five participants raised their hands. Suchon, who operates a paintball field near Frazee, has also assisted in the Guard's paintball training exercises at Camp Ripley.
Josh Hajek, a junior from Kindred, N.D., wearing a camouflage shirt, said he has "kind of thought about" joining the Guard, and that Saturday's event "makes everything look pretty sweet."
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"I still don't want to go to Iraq," he added.
Ray Rasmussen, another Hawley junior who was on the "Twisted Octane" paintball team with Oslie, said he also is undecided about whether his future will include military service.
"It kind of puts the interest in the back of your head," he said of Saturday's event.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Mike Nowatzki at (701) 241-5528
