SOUTH PORTLAND (AP) – Military recruiters in Maine and nationwide are having a tough time reaching their goals despite increased signing bonuses and relaxed age limits and education requirements.

And with U.S. casualties mounting in Iraq, the job isn’t getting any easier, said Staff Sgt. James Gilbert, who spends hours calling potential recruits and is used to rejection.

Gilbert, who works in the Army’s South Portland recruiting station, is feeling a growing frustration over the decline in enlistments.

“If there was no war, guaranteed, the Army would be overflowed,” Gilbert said. “But now the marks have hit 1,000, 1,500, 2,000, 2,100 dead. It’s just common sense that no one wants to join the military these days.”

Last fiscal year, the Army fell 6,600 troops short of its goal of 80,000 enlistees, according to a Congressional Budget Office report.

To boost the numbers, recruiters have been added, bonuses have been increased, the maximum enlistment age for reservists has been raised from 34 to 39, and restrictions have been relaxed on enlisting high school dropouts.

Recruiters have been crucial to maintaining the ranks of U.S. armed forces since the military draft ended in 1973. But as more high school students go to college, it has become harder to convince them to join the military, said David Segal, a University of Maryland sociologist who studies military recruiting.

The war in Iraq only adds to the difficulty, especially for ground combat, he said.

“Recruiters today for the Army and the Marine Corps have about the toughest jobs that there are in the military,” Segal said. “They are not making the numbers, and I don’t see that improving tremendously over the next year.”

Gilbert, 33, signed up for the military in 1990. He is now a full-time reservist and has been a recruiter since last March.

As such, he spends much of his time going over recent high school graduates’ phone numbers and visiting high schools to talk with students.

He spends hours making introductory calls, and while some people are polite, he’s become accustomed to rejection.

“Don’t call here,” he said, mimicking a reaction he often hears. “You’re a blank, blank, blank.”

Visiting high schools isn’t much easier, and some school districts are taking steps to limit visits by military recruiters.

The Portland School Committee recently voted to restrict military recruiters to seven high school visits a year. That move followed the district’s decision to let students opt off a list that a 2001 federal law requires schools to give recruiters.

Gilbert sounded optimistic before a recent visit to South Portland High School, where he had previously enlisted a self-described “band geek” with hopes of joining an Army band. It helps the recruitment process when a student enlists.

“Usually it snowballs to our advantage,” he said.

But Gilbert wasn’t too happy with the reception he got at the school.

He hoped there would be an announcement about his visit, but he was told that didn’t happen. And he wanted to set up in the cafeteria, where he could interact with more students, but instead was assigned to the career center.

The career center’s walls were covered with pennants from colleges such as Colby, Northeastern and Cornell, with only a small corner dedicated to students’ military service options.

Gilbert said his recruiting station was nearing the end of a tough period.

For the recruiting month that ended last week, the station’s seven recruiters had a quota of 12 contracts – but ended up with just one.

But the next recruiting month looks more promising, Gilbert said, noting the station exceeded its quota for the period that ended in December.