With that goal in mind, the military is doing some interesting things.

Student lists

Among the most controversial is the requirement in the No Child Left Behind Act for public schools to provide student lists.

Of 55 Utah high schools that responded to a Morning News survey, 96 percent said at least one arm of the military had requested such lists from them this school year — and 63 percent said all branches had.

Information released can be extensive. The Washington County School District says it provides "Student's name, address (to include Internet address), phone number, date of birth, grade level, extracurricular participation, awards or honors, photograph, video or digital images, height and weight (if a member of an athletic team), previous school attended, dates of attendance and parent's name."

Federal law requires schools to notify parents annually that they can opt out of releasing such information. But one of every nine schools surveyed said they did not know that and therefore did not alert students.

Even schools that did warn parents varied in how well they delivered that message. Many said it was handled by adding a line in the student handbook or with a mention at student orientation. Others sent letters home.

Riverton High School made it easy to opt out by checking a prominent box on registration forms — and had a whopping 1,628 students opt out this year, said school registrar Joan Hodges.

No other school came close to that. North Sanpete High School reported that 120 opted out; Payson High School said 70 did; Bear River High School had 31; Granger High School had 30; and no other schools responding statewide had more than a handful.

Comments added by some principals on questionnaires showed that incorrect information about opting out discouraged some students from doing so.

Some said students reversed decisions to opt out when told that meant their names also would not appear in student directories nor be given to college recruiters. However, the law allows students to opt out of releasing data just to the military without also preventing those other types of releases. Several principals apparently did not realize that.

Bradney with the Marines said he prefers that people without interest opt out.

"You're helping me refine my lists. If you tell me someone's not interested, that's fine. It just frees up the time that I would have spent calling that individual."