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Obama calls on Americans to enlist

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama included a pitch to enlist in the military in a speech here Wednesday about the need for Americans to be volunteers in all walks of life.

Speaking before an audience that included military veterans, families of current service members and at least one military officer in uniform, Obama said Americans expected a call to serve after the 9/11 terrorist attacks “but the call never came.”

Obama said he has met thousands of people who joined the military after 9/11, but the burden of serving the U.S. “has fallen exclusively ... on the backs of people in the military and their families, even though they have not received the care and support they deserve.”

Part of Obama’s national security plan calls for a 65,000-person increase in the Army and a 27,000 increase in the Marine Corps.

“We need to ease the burden on our troops while meeting the challenges of the 21st Century,” he said. “That is why I will call on a new generation of Americans to join our military.”

But, in a related call that might diminish the number of people headed to military recruiters, Obama also said he wanted to increase the size of AmeriCorps, the program for domestic national service, to 250,000 people — a proposal that drew more applause than his call for military recruits from the audience at the campus of the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. AmeriCorps has just 75,000 slots for volunteers today.

Obama aides said they did not see the AmeriCorps programs as competition with the military because AmeriCorps is open to people of all ages, and Obama proposes an aggressive program to recruit veterans who have already served in the military. Additionally, aides said that pay and benefits for service members, including the newly improved veterans’ educational benefits program, are far more generous than anything promised to volunteers for domestic service.

Obama also said that as president, he would try to ease the burden of military service, with his boost in personnel levels a key part of that plan.

“There is no challenge greater than the defense of our nation and our values,” he said.

“A call to service must be backed by a sacred trust with anyone who puts on the uniform of the United States,” he said. “A young person joining our military must know that we will only send them into harm’s way when we absolutely must,” he said.

Obama pledged that “we will provide them with the equipment needed to complete their mission safely, and deployments that allow adequate time back home. They must see that we will care for our military families while they are deployed and that we are providing our veterans with the support, benefits and opportunity that they have earned when they return home.”

DISCUSS: Will a promise of “sacred trust” increase recruiting?