Recruiters try to balance safety, accessibility

Military recruiters in Hawaii, as elsewhere in the nation, face a dilemma following the killing of five service members in Tennessee last week: how to provide additional security to unarmed offices that thrive on public contact.

The head of U.S. Northern Command, which has a role in safeguarding military facilities, on Sunday mandated minor security changes for recruiting centers such as closing office blinds, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Pentagon ordered the military services to examine additional security steps that can be taken. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, meanwhile, directed his state’s National Guard to arm personnel at its facilities and recruiting offices.

But in Hawaii as elsewhere, many of the recruiting offices are at shopping centers and are as open and welcoming to the public as other storefronts. As such they are designed to maximize foot traffic, not security.

Capt. Russell Osterfeld, commander of the U.S. Army Honolulu Recruiting Company, with five recruiting centers on Oahu, said he has taken “additional security measures” that he can’t specify.

“There are certain different measures that we take, and that (closing the blinds) has been one of them in the past,” Osterfeld said. “It’s different vantage points, it’s the different placement of things — just not always giving the same routine.”

A Kuwaiti-born U.S. citizen, Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez, shot up a recruiting center in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Thursday and then killed five service members at a Navy Reserve center.

But Osterfeld, who said there are 48 Army recruiters in Hawaii, notes that “we still have to keep business going the same that any other business would.”

“I’m sure that it does weigh on (recruiters’) minds, (but) we have to conduct business the way we always do,” Osterfeld said. “Obviously, something like (the Tennessee shootings) happens, it has to be at the forefront, just so you are more observant to your surroundings and don’t take our safety for granted.”

That also means “rehearsing all our drills” in the event something does happen, he said. The active-duty Army and Army Reserve typically sign up a slightly more than 600 recruits annually, Osterfeld said.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno said Friday that federal military recruiters aren’t armed, and raised worry about accidental discharges should they be.

The Navy confirmed an incident in the Atlanta area where a recruiter accidentally shot himself in the leg with his personal .45-caliber handgun while discussing the Tennessee shootings with one of his recruits.

A handful of state governors have now signed directives allowing National Guard troops to carry firearms on base.

Jodi Leong, a spokeswoman for Gov. David Ige, said there are currently no plans to “enhance security measures at the (Hawaii) National Guard and its recruiting centers.”

Florida Gov. Rick Scott over the weekend ordered that its National Guard recruiters be relocated to armories where security is generally greater.

Hawaii National Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Chuck Anthony said the Army and Air Guard have seven recruiting offices on Oahu, with three at storefronts and four attached to an armory. Most of the neighbor island recruiting centers are based at armories, he said.

“The (storefront) recruiting centers are intended to be welcoming to allow people to come in,” Anthony noted.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.