Scores of young men and women who applied to enlist in the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) on Monday turned up at the El Wak Stadium in Accra as the recruitment exercise into the military kicked off in earnest. Some of the applicants who spoke to the GNA said they were anxiously waiting for their turn to go through the processes and expressed the hope that they would be selected. "I know getting into the Army is difficult, but with the qualification I have, I can be selected," one applicant said. "I'm nervous right now, even though it is not my turn," another confessed to GNA. Yet another applicant said: "I'm confident I will be picked for the body selection after the selection." Some of the youth in the crowd claimed although they had qualified for enlistment, they had not been shortlisted. Those who received their invitation letters to go through the process were made to check their names from the register that was available at the El Wak Stadium. Those whose names were found in the book were allowed after cross-checking while those who did not find their names were not allowed to begin the process. Lt. Col. Seidu Abass, Commanding Officer of the 66 Artillery Regiment, who is in charge of the exercise in the Greater Accra Region, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that this year, 1,700 candidates had been shortlisted for the Army, 200 for the Navy and 167 for the Air Force. The exercise, which is expected to last for one week, would include documentation, body selection and aptitude test. He said after the recruitment and screening exercise, there would be an interview session for the selected candidates to be handled by the Defence Intelligence and the Department of Public Relations of the GAF. On whether the candidates had passion for the profession they had chosen, Lt. Col. Seidu said that would be determined by the interview panel and when the real training exercise began. In order to ensure that the applicants did not provide fake information about themselves to the service, he said, management had plans to visit schools and homes of the applicants and the West Africa Examination Council. They would also talk to the friends of applicants to verify information they had provided. Source: GNA