MIAMI: Sergeant Michael Bass strode into the Smoothie King, taking off his cap to reveal his sharp army buzz cut. 'Good morning, ladies,' he smiled to two young women behind the counter of the health drink store.

With easy charm and a lilting southern accent, Bass asked if they needed help with funding their college studies. Then he handed the girls his business card with the slogan, 'An Army of One'.

"Just give me a call. We can help you out," he said. As he left, one of the girls stopped giggling to stare at the card. "I target a shop like that because it attracts healthy people who like to work out," Bass said, "and the army has one heck of an exercise programme."

It is a scene Bass repeats scores of times in the malls, schools and fast-food outlets of Miami. In army slang it is 'prospecting' and 'hitting the mother lode' is signing someone up for Uncle Sam.

But recruiting is now tougher than ever. The grim shadow of the war in Iraq is never far away. With 5,000 US soldiers wounded and more than 850 killed, selling the army is also selling the prospect of going to war - and perhaps not coming back.

Iraq has already stretched America's military machine. Reservists and National Guard units have been called up in increasing numbers. Last week, 5,600 inactive reservists were involuntarily recalled to duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, a controversial move that showed the desperate need for extra troops.

There have also been huge problems with re-enlisting soldiers returning from Iraq. At bases across America re-enlistment numbers have dropped sharply. Put simply, the need for new recruits has rarely been greater.

Yet recruiting numbers are on course to meet the target number of 77,000 new soldiers this year. The story behind the success is of tireless pounding of the streets, huge incentives to sign up and the familiar tale of the army offering a way out of some of America's poorest neighbourhoods.

At Miami's downtown recruiting station, whose patch covers the city's benighted inner city, Sergeant Vivian Fraim walked in wearing a sweatshirt and running shorts. She has been training three times a week with one of her new recruits, Anderson Deliford, to make sure he passes his physical exam. He has just succeeded.

Deliford will leave for basic training this week. Fraim has guided him every step of the way and, though he is only joining the reserves, she has told him he could still end up in Iraq.

Iraq has made Fraim's job harder. When she calls potential recruits she often hears the same message. "They listen to you, but say no because of what's going on. They say they like the idea, but not until Iraq is over," she said.

That is one reason why recruits such as Deliford get such careful and personal treatment. For Deliford the army is a way out of a tough part of town. Though just 23, he and his wife have three children to care for. Jobs are scarce and funding a college degree almost impossible - until the army stepped in. In returning for signing up, Deliford will get free tuition and a $10,000 bonus.

A major part of the recruiter's spiel in Miami is about the problems associated with any major US city. Crime is high in the inner city and downtown is full of empty lots, with streets prowled by the homeless. Sergeant Everett Best is brazen about crime levels when potential recruits worry about going to Iraq.

"I tell them straight up. Miami is the biggest war zone we've got," he said. "Every time you turn on the TV we see someone shot." Bass uses simple figures. Nine people from southern Florida have died in Iraq, compared with 338 murders in the region last year: "They have a better chance in the army than on the streets of Miami."

Recruits get cash bonuses, which are higher for those taking up combat roles. Veterans get priority placement in precious government jobs. For many Americans, the army offers the only realistic way of funding their education. Outside Fraim's downtown recruiting station a billboard lists the tens of thousands of dollars of college aid available.

But there are exceptions. Emily Lugo, 18, went to one of Miami's best schools, Palmetto High. It is in Bass's recruiting patch, but he says its wealth makes it a 'very difficult' place to recruit. But Lugo, a petite teenager of Cuban descent, has signed up for the military police. She was inspired rather than intimidated by Iraq.

"I want to see some action," she grinned. "My father straight out hates it. With my mom, when I tell her that I want to go to Iraq, she just walks away saying, 'I don't want to hear this'."

Last week as recruits prepared to ship out to basic training, Miami newspapers carried a front-page picture of US soldier Matthew Maupin. An Iraqi insurgent group claimed to have executed the young reservist after capturing him in an attack on a convoy.

They produced a grainy video apparently showing him being shot in the head in front of an open grave. Such images shock the most ardent recruits. -Dawn/The Observer News Service.