U.S. Army recruiter Sgt. Michael Payne shows brochures to a group of students at Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High School in Hialeah, Fla.

U.S. Army recruiter Sgt. Michael Payne, left, talks to Alejandro Gomez, 18, at Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High School in Hialeah, Fla. Gomez reports to the Marines in September.

When the man in the crisp, green uniform first approached Isis Rodriguez during lunch break at Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High School in Hialeah, Fla., recently, the aspiring architect shook her head.

"Not me," said Rodriguez, who graduated in June. "I'm going to college."

"How are you going to pay for it," asked Sgt. Michael Payne, a recruiting officer with the U.S. Army.

Rodriguez raised an eyebrow, pursed her lips - and took a closer look at a brochure as friends encouraged her to explore enlisting.

If she does, she will join tens of thousands of high school students nationwide signing up for the armed forces at a steady rate, despite mounting casualties overseas, long deployments, a prison abuse scandal and criticism of the U.S. military presence in Iraq.

Since the peak time for recruiting - graduation season - recruiting stations across America have said the war in Iraq has had no significant effect on efforts to bring new young men and women into the fold.

"We have not seen an effect," said U.S. Marine Sgt. David Salazar, a recruiter in Florida's Broward County.

"There has been more apprehension expressed on the part of the parents," Salazar said. "But we have consistently met our recruitment goals."

The goal for South Florida and Puerto Rico is between 1,000 and 1,200 a year, he added. In 2003, there were a few more than 1,200 local recruits, he said - "a slight increase from the mid-1100s the year before."

This reflects the national trend of meeting or exceeding recruiting goals in recent years.

Similarly, the war is having little effect on recruiting and retention within the three major Reserve and National Guard units in Florida, representatives of the services said. There has been no need to increase signing bonuses to entice new recruits, they said.

Lt. Cmdr. Jane Campbell, a Pentagon spokeswoman, is not surprised by the number of young people still signing up for the active military.

"It is because there is a quality in the young men and women of America today. For the past weeks, we have been reflecting on the greatest generation," Campbell said, referring to the World War II generation. "But people don't realize what the young men and women of today are doing. Right now, there is a palpable commitment to service. I think it's something very impressive in this generation."

Between Oct. 1 and March 31, the first half of the fiscal year, nearly 82,000 new recruits signed up for all branches of the military. The goal for the full year is 183,163. The six-month total doesn't include the peak recruiting time around the end of the school year, and military officials say they are on track to meet their annual goals.

"By this time, those who have made the decision to further their education have done so and have put in their applications and have received scholarships," Salazar said. "And those who have not, I guess, prepared as well, are looking for other options."

But for Alejandro Gomez - a would-be finance major accepted to both Florida International University and Florida Atlantic University - the idea is not going to college.

"It would be the same thing as high school. Classes, classes, classes," said Gomez, 18, another graduating senior at Hialeah-Miami Lakes. "I want something different."

Gomez, who reports to boot camp in September, is among at least 10 Hialeah-Miami Lakes seniors joining the Marines.

Sgt. Jeison Manzifortich, who convinced them as well as seven students at Hialeah High to sign up, says furthering their education is just one of enlistees' many motivations.

"They always want to know if they can get something else, like leadership experience."

Still, he said, they always ask if they'll be sent to Iraq.

"I cannot lie to them. There's no way to sugarcoat it," he said. "We tell them that when you are a Marine, you may have to face that situation."

Harvey Spigler, a spokesman for the Army recruiting station in Miami, said that while parents may be more reluctant now to hand over their teenagers than they were before the war, the recruits themselves are more gung-ho than ever.

"What we seem to be finding is that most of the students and young adults are more patriotic today than they have been," said Spigler, who oversees recruiting in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

"Most of the people who do join, they understand the risks that are involved. Many of them really have a desire to stand up and be counted."

That description would fit Lana Mariur as well as the "Accelerate your life" Navy T-shirt she wore recently.

The Florida Career College student says the war only solidified her desire to serve.

"It makes me want to go for it more," the 19-year-old Hollywood, Fla., resident said. "There's going to be a possibility of me experiencing more. I want to see the world."

Her trip to Great Lakes, Ill. - where she starts boot camp July 8 - is the first leg of that journey. Mariur, who has long wanted to work in the medical field, will be trained as a medical corpsman.

"I'm excited about the thrill of healing people with limited supplies," she said. "It's a challenge that I like."

Navy recruiter Mark Randolph said Mariur reflects a growing trend of recruits joining the service to seek training and experience in a specific occupation or position.

"Most of the kids who come to enlist already have been on our Web site," Randolph said. "They come in here with specific questions about the position they want, not about the war."

He isn't surprised recruits keep coming in the midst of war.

"For the most part, kids understand what freedom means and the price that you have to pay for those freedoms," he said.

It doesn't mean new recruits are not afraid.

"There's a little part of me that's scared," Mariur said. "Of not seeing my family as often as I'd like, of not knowing if I'm ready to be on my own. But it's the only way to find out."

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