For 20-year-old Mark Kosak, joining the military was an easy choice.

“I’ve always wanted to serve my country,” Kosak said. “They (the military) also pay for school and take care of you.”

Kosak is a part of the growing number of people enlisting in the Nevada National Guard.

“Right now we’re sitting at 3,600,” National Guard spokeswoman April Conway said. “In 2007, we were in the neighborhood of 3,200.”

Officials attribute the increase to a combination of factors. The growing population in Nevada, the fact that new legislation enables the National Guard to pay for member’s schooling and the increasing unemployment rate in the state have all lent to the increase.

“We requested to get new units to facilitate the growing number of people in Nevada a long time ago but the process to establish new units takes a long time,” Conway said. “We now have a new place to put units. The people are out there and they want to enlist and now we have the ability to enlist them.”

Conway explained that with the growing population comes a growing demand for the services offered by the Guard. “Nevada National Guardsmen are called in by the governor or federal government to provide relief during natural disasters and are involved in many other projects to protect citizens in the state,” Conway said.

“People receive job training with us,” recruiting officer Master Sgt. Luis Low said. “People who may have been laid off from a previous job can receive job training for free and even get paid to learn a new profession. Some people who want to train to be engineers or tech people come to train with us.”

The Air National Guard Security Forces are one subset of the Guard that provide training.

“Ultimately, I want to be a cop,” Kosak said. “I will receive the training I need while I’m serving in the Guard and can finish school at the same time.”

And Kosak isn’t alone.

“The rates of enlistment are higher in Nevada and the number of younger recruits is growing because a lot of students who are struggling to pay for school see the Guard as a way to cover their school costs,” Conway said. “In addition to a 100 percent tuition waiver, after basic training, enlistees are eligible for book and lab fee reimbursements.”

The majority of students enlisting to pay for school are ‘non-priors’ or people who have never enlisted before. Most of the people who have recently been enlisting, though, are ‘priors’ or people who have previously served with the Guard.

“Non-priors are coming in for hands-on training and waivers for tuition,” Low said. “I get a lot of people with prior service who are now out of a job and are looking for some part-time income.”

According to the United States Department of Labor, in December 2008, the unemployment rate in Nevada reached 9.1 percent, which was one of the highest rates in the country.

“I’ve noticed that people who may never have considered joining the military an option before are looking at it as an option if they’ve lost their job or need to get training to work in a new field,” Low said.

Not only have the number of enlistees increased in Nevada, but officials said the quality of recruits has also improved.

“We have gotten better recruits,” Low said. “There are a lot of people enlisting who have already gotten a college degree or are currently working on a degree.”

Sgt. Rebecca Holmes, who recently returned from her tour in Kyrgyzstan, was one of the recruits who joined after finishing with college.

“After graduating from college, I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do,” Holmes said. “I graduated with an undergraduate (degree) in information systems and found out that I could enlist and continue my training in computer systems while I served, so I found a recruiting officer nearby and got some more information.”

“With more people out of jobs and more younger people looking for ways to pay with school, there are a lot more people coming to us now,” Low said.