Friday, July 8, 2005 | 9:09 a.m.
Despite an Internet effort to drum up opposition, several hundred of the nation's most ambitious young Republicans convened Thursday with little controversy.
Activists of a loosely organized campaign called "Operation Yellow Elephant" had threatened to protest the Young Republican National Convention at Mandalay Bay this week.
They argue that Young Republicans who support the war in Iraq should enlist in the military, especially given recent lags in recruiting.
Their motto: Sign up or shut up.
Activist Karl Olson, a New York resident, said he recently tried to sign up for the Army but was turned away because he's 44 years old. Younger Republicans, however, could help fight their cause, he said.
"If our president cannot persuade his strongest supporters to serve when our country desperately needs them, then how will he ever be successful to persuade the entire country?" Olson asks.
But Reno resident Nathan Taylor, chairman of the Young Republican National Convention, said he made it clear to critics that hotel security would keep the critics out.
"There will be no protests here," Taylor said. "Mandalay Bay is private property."
The theme of the convention is "Supporting our Troops, Honoring the Fallen."
Taylor bristled at assertions that Young Republicans aren't participating in the war.
He estimated that about 40 percent of the 600 people attending the national convention either had served in the military or are in the process of signing up.
Taylor said he wanted to enlist but couldn't because of two recent lung surgeries.
Audra Shay, 33, served eight years in the Army and was a co-chairwoman representing Louisiana at the convention.
"Enlisting is a personal decision that you have to make," she said. "The military is about combat and it's about war. That's what you have to do, you have to search within yourself."
Col. Frank Ryan, who moderated a panel of veterans who recently returned from service overseas, told participants in the convention that those who haven't enlisted should actively support the war on terrorism while at home.
Keeping up the support for President Bush's initiatives against terrorism is vitally important now, he said.
"We up here need you to be active politically," he said.
A delegate from Florida, 27-year-old David Fletcher, said he participates in the Young Republicans because he thinks it's important for young people to get involved in politics.
But while Fletcher said he fully supports the war in Iraq, he said he has not enlisted and doesn't have plans to enlist.
When asked why, he said, "I'd rather not answer that question."
Pentagon representatives have recently said that recruiting is the most challenging it has been in decades.
All branches of the military have experienced recruiting shortfalls for active and reserve troops except the Air Force Reserve, according to the Defense Department Web site.
The Young Republicans include people ages 18 to 40, though Taylor said the median age of people in the group is between 25 and 35 years old.
Republican Party leaders have increasingly turned to the group to organize grass-roots efforts, especially among voters ages 18 to 29 years old.
That's the only age group that President Bush lost in 2004, said Frank Fahrenkopf, a former Republican National Party chairman and current president of the American Gaming Association.
Fahrenkopf told the group at a luncheon Thursday that young voters are becoming an increasingly critical voting block as Republicans and Democrats battle for the few remaining swing votes in the country.
"This party cannot afford to allow that segment of the population to become Democrat and vote Democrat," Fahrenkopf said.
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