GRAND OL'ICON
Refurbed Times Squre recruiting post unfurled
The country’s most famous military recruiting center has a patriotic new look — right in time for Veterans Day.
The new Times Square Recruiting Station debuted Friday after a $2 million renovation, including a modernized interior and flashy, red, white and blue LED displays worthy of the Crossroads of the World.
“It’s certainly the most iconic recruiting station that the US military has,” Maj. Gen. Garrett Harencak told The Post.
“It’s the most historic and certainly has the most recognition among the thousands of recruiting offices around the world.”
A recruiting office for all four military services — Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines — has occupied the tiny traffic median where Broadway crosses Seventh Avenue since 1946, Harencak said.
While the new facility is only 520 square feet, it’s still the busiest walk-in recruiting center in the country. Some 2,600 Air Force prospects alone visit each year.
“It’s absolutely wonderful,” said Harencak, who commands US Air Force recruiting efforts worldwide.
“It fits now totally with all of Times Square — the screens and videos and LED lighting. It’s also much better for the recruiters who have to man it every day.”
The revamp includes a stateof-the-art security-camera system and improved, blast-proof glass, he noted — all nods to a still-unsolved 2008 pipe bombing at the facility.
Friday’s opening ceremony featured the requisite pomp and fanfare of a marching band, the swearing in of a new batch of 15 recruits and a ribbon-cutting by brass from the four armed services.
Harencak said he was honored to take part. Although now stationed in California, he grew up just seven miles away from Times Square in Elmwood Park, NJ.
Often, on childhood trips to the city, he’d see the old recruiting station as a beacon to a new life of service and adventure.
The new LED display of an American flag drew rave reviews from tourists.
“I was pretty excited to see it,” said Norma Rodriguez, 28, of Houston.
“You can see the flag from pretty far away. The colors are so bright. I think it’s great that it’s here in Times Square. It really means a lot at the end of the day to have it here.”