For the last three years, the U.S. Navy has taken a big beating in the Puerto Rican media because of the dispute over the use of Vieques island as a navy bombing range. Before Vieques became a big deal, one in every 300 new navy recruits was from Puerto Rico. Since then, the number of Puerto Rican recruits has doubled (to two in 300). Local journalists investigating the odd trend found that high school students certainly saw all the media coverage about Vierques, and most were, like the majority of Puerto Ricans, enraged over the issue. But many of these kids had not paid much attention to the navy before (the army had always been the big draw for young Puerto Ricans). Most students now have access to the internet, and most of the new recruits admitted that when they checked the navy out on the net, they were impressed (Vieques aside). And more enlisted or volunteered for officer training. It's another example of the old saying, "there's no such thing as bad publicity as long as they spell your name right."