Uncle Sam Doesn't Always Want You: Message to Americans: Uncle Sam wants you to take a good look in the mirror before you think of enlisting in the armed forces. Sgt. First Class Eric Mager wishes his applicants would. Sgt. Mager, who helps run the San Francisco recruiting station for the Army National Guard, says he’s happy that there has been a flood of inquiries since Sept. 11. But most of those who want to enlist aren’t all the government wants them to be, Sgt. Mager and other recruiters say. Some are too old. Others are too out of shape or lack adequate education. As a result, while recruiters are working late nights and weekends to keep up with paperwork, the increase in inquiries hasn’t trickled down to enlistment numbers, says Cmdr. Steve Lowry, of the Navy Recruiting Command in Millington, Tenn. “We’re still waiting for people to break down the doors,” he says. The start of United States military actions in Afghanistan hasn’t led to a jump in recruitment, either. “There’s been minimal actual impact on recruiting,” says Douglas Smith of the United States Army Recruiting Command in Fort Knox, Ky. Sgt. Mager’s experience is typical. He and fellow recruiter Sgt. First Class Bajun Mavalwalla are struggling to keep up with the inquiries. But a visit to their recruiting station quickly indicates that an applicant who looks promising on paper looks less so in the flesh. The two sergeants are sitting at desks under the buzz of fluorescent lights when a would-be recruit walks in. He is a former Marine with 12 years’ active service and might fit nicely into a local unit that will ship out in January. But after Sgt. Mager weighs the applicant and pulls a tape measure around his waist, he tells him to lose 10 pounds and come back.