Local and national armed forces representatives say more young men and women have been joining the armed forces since the Persian Gulf War began.

Maj. Doug Hart, public affairs officer for the Department of Defense in Washington, D.C., attributed the increase to a recent surge of patriotism.

During the last three months of 1990, the Army expected 25,700 new volunteers and received 26,900; the Navy wanted 17,100 and received 17,200; the Marines wanted 8,100 and received 8,200; and the Air Force met its goal of 7,400 new recruits, Hart said.

The total number of recruits for the quarter was 59,700, an increase of 4,500 over the same period in 1989, he said.

Although figures are not available for this year, Hart said he expects recruitment to continue increasing.

Local recruiters said interest in the Army, Air Force and Marines has increased since the Jan. 16 assault on Iraq.

Army recruiter Sgt. Victor Legloahec said most of the area volunteers who have joined the Army since January are former service personel who want to get involved in the conflict.

Legloahec said soldiers want to use their training in real combat.

"This is their job. It's a dirty rotten job, but somebody's got to do it," Legloahec said.

Numbers for Air Force volunteers are about usual, recruiting staff Sgt. Michael Mayo said.

"I don't have a lot of people coming in here to run off to Saudia Arabia," Mayo said.

Recruiting efforts at the University and in the State College school district have also not been affected by the war.

"There's been absolutely no change," said Lt. Cmdr. Dan Else, University Recruiting Officer for the Navy and Marine Corps ROTC.

The State College Area Senior High School only allows one career day in November and a follow-up visit for each of the four services, said Ron Faris, a counselor at the school.

There is not a lot of recruitment activity because high school students are usually under 18, he said, adding that students have not expressed a fear of being drafted.

"They're concerned (about the war), but not to the point that it's affecting their lives," Faris said.

No one in ROTC programs or interested in joining has expressed concerns that they could be "called up" because of their participation in ROTC, the recruiters said. Recruiting officers for University ROTC programs said neither the number of candidates nor new members has changed.

"I thought there would be a big impact (on the number of people remaining in ROTC), but there wasn't," said Colonel Kurt Shatz, University recruiting officer for Army ROTC.

Shatz is the representative for the University, eight commonwealth campuses and Lock Haven University. He said the number of volunteers has not changed since he took over the position last August.

The numbers are the same because ROTC candidates have little chance to be called up for duty in the Persian Gulf, Else said. The program takes too long to complete for ROTC members to be called to active duty, he said.

Candidates go through four years of schooling before they are commissioned and up to two years of additional training before joining the regular service, Else said.