December 30th, 2007 1:24 pm
By Robin Mero / Morning News
BENTONVILLE, AR -- Lucretia Radloff used a fat black marker to pen the Navy's 11 General Orders of the Sentry across her pink bedroom walls.
When she leaves for basic training in June, the 17-year-old enlistee must be ready to recite them from memory -- anywhere, anytime, to anyone who asks.
A tiny brunette with delicate features, Radloff wanted to be a seaman since junior high school. She sat recently across a table from her mother in Starbucks, drinking a sugary coffee, shoulders draped with her boyfriend's letterman jacket.
So determined was Radloff to join the Navy after high school, she convinced her parents to sign early enlistment papers a year before her 18th birthday. Once a month now, she goes to a delayed entry program -- or "DEP" -- meeting, with dozens of recruits, called "deppers." They loudly recite those orders. They submit to hundreds of push-ups. They learn when and who to salute (each time upon encountering an officer outside, or once on ship first thing in the morning).
[ ... ]
Tony Corbett said his boys inherited his adventurous spirit.
"We have a saying in our family, 'If you're not living on the edge, you're leaving too much room.'"
AT A GLANCE
Service With A Smile
Reasons cited for joining the military by enlistees in the U.S. Navy Delayed Entry Response Program in Rogers.
* An education
* Make some good money
* I want to fly
* To accelerate my life
* Get out of Arkansas
* Better myself
* Travel
* Life experiences
* Get my life straight
* My dad was in the military
* To do something different
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10617
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