Albany, Mo. -- The National Guard armory that sits atop a high hill in this town of 1,900 residents is pretty quiet these days.

About 70 of its citizen soldiers who drill in the two-story red-brick building are in Germany training for a peacekeeping mission in Kosovo. Thirty more members recently returned from a tour in Afghanistan. A few others served in Iraq.

Almost everyone in the county, one of Missouri's least populated, knows someone who serves in the armory's Guard unit. "It's a pretty tight-knit family of people here," said Jim Boothe, principal of Albany High School. "(The armory is) a big part of our community, and it's been that way as long as I can remember."

A lack of economic opportunity often drives people to enlist in the armed forces, especially in rural areas. The trend holds true in Gentry County, population 6,500. The county had one of the highest Army recruitment rates in Missouri from 2004 through last year, according to a Post-Dispatch analysis.

For young people who face a future on the farm or in a local factory, the enlistment bonuses, college assistance and other incentives the National Guard offers can be a powerful inducement to serve.

"Really, it was the benefits," said Dallas Atkison, 25, referring to his decision this year to enlist. "Around here, there's opportunities, but they're not real big."


More than that, people here say, it's a sense of pride and family tradition that prompt many to enlist with the hometown unit. In many cases, sons have followed fathers, brothers have followed brothers, cousins have followed cousins.


That's what Nathan Adams did.


Adams, 18, plans to enroll at the University of Missouri in the fall. But he said money for school and a chance for adventure were only part of the reason he joined.


"I'm looking forward to serving with my dad," said Adams, whose father is deployed with the Guard unit to Kosovo. "I'd feel really proud to serve my country with my father."


It's partly on the strength of those family ties, the central role the armory plays in the community and a relentless recruiter that Gentry ranks second in Missouri for producing soldiers for the Army. Only Pulaski County, home of Fort Leonard Wood, produces more recruits on a per-capita basis.


"We have credibility in these local communities," said Sgt. 1st Class Bobby G. Smith, an Albany native who has spent the last three years trolling schools, restaurants and even Wal-Mart in search of National Guard recruits. "They see what we're doing, the difference we're making. ... They want to do what so many before them have done."


The spirit to serve is strong here. When the armory's unit, Battery A, 1st Battalion, 129th Field Artillery, deployed in April, people lined the nearby street to see the two buses off.


"These small communities have an incredible amount of patriotism," Smith said. "I think the National Guard has given them an opportunity to exercise some of that patriotism."


Boothe, the high school principal, said he can't imagine Albany without the armory and the soldiers who train there. "It would be like taking a piece out of the pie," he said.


And, Boothe said, without the supplemental income that local Guard members receive, some would no longer earn enough to stay in the area Per-capita income in the county is $23,234, more than $6,000 below the state average.


Despite the war's lengthy duration, Smith, 35, said he isn't finding it more difficult to recruit. In many cases, Smith said, he's recruiting children of people with whom he went to high school. That gives him instant credibility, he said, even with parents who worry their child could end up in Iraq or Afghanistan. He reminds them that deployment doesn't always translate to combat.


"It's a possibility," he said. "We've got the American flag on our shoulder and the U.S. Army on our chest. That's part of why you join."


But he also stresses the benefits of serving in the Guard.


"With the active-duty Army, you enlist and you're (deployed)," he said. "When you enlist into the Guard, you come home. ... And people see that."


Adams said he and his father haven't talked about heading to a war zone, though he knows it could happen.


"We don't look forward to it," he said. "I'm not going to go volunteer for it. But, if my country needs me, I'll go."


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Kevin Crowe reported from St. Louis.