File:USMC-14669.jpg

English: Capt. Selden B. Hale, a U.S. Marine from Amarillo, Texas, has spent the past eight months spearheading similar Iraqi Army enlistment screenings throughout Al Anbar Province. Most recently, Hale, a recruiter advisor to Iraq's Ministry of Defense, and his team of Iraqi doctors and government officials have traveled Al Anbar, from towns like Al Qa'im near the Syrian border, to larger cities like Fallujah and Ramadi, to screen hundreds more of Iraqi men to fill several more Iraqi Army boot camp classes. During a May 8 recruiting drive in this region of about 30,000, 189 men showed up to enlist and 78 were accepted. Of the nearly 1,000 Iraqi soldiers, mostly Sunni, who graduated from the first Iraqi Army basic training course in Habbiniyah April 30, Hale said he recruited �a good portion� of them. It's part of the Iraqi Government's attempt to keep the national Army mixed with Iraqis from a variety of religious sects, said Hale. �We want a national Army,� said Hale, who used to be a Marine Corps recruiter in Maryland several years ago. �We want all of Iraq represented in the armed forces of Iraq. For these people, (terrorism) is very real � they've seen people die and know first hand the effects of terrorism,� The 31-year-old recently left Iraq after an eight month deployment to return to his parent command, 12th Marine Regiment, in Okinawa, Japan.