Targeting teens for troops

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.news-journal.com/news/content/shared/news/stories/GUARD_TEENS_0109_COX.html;COXnetJSessionID=BgAO3cxh0YGkALWTCKsCs8TXb5nwQ182lZ4M9pTlBLMpa7vkuPb0!-1499367609?urac=n&urvf=11052483988640.06982290937442726

ATLANTA — Sprawled beneath an olive-green camouflage net snapping like a bullwhip in cold, blustery winds, Senae Hobson, a petite 17-year-old, shivers in a T-shirt behind a .50-caliber machine gun, hardly able to straddle the huge weapon.

Smiling timidly, she listens as a burly veteran sergeant named Ray McCommons, 35, — warmly clad in an Army field jacket — tells her how to operate the gun. Nearby, other teenagers, baby-faced boys mostly, nervously await their turn, many flexing their bravado in sleeveless shirts.

"This is cool," whispers Hobson, who'll graduate in May, then head straight to basic combat training at Fort Jackson, S.C. "It's been my goal to be a soldier."

In fact, she's already one, having signed on the dotted line with her mother's permission just after turning 17 last September. Like hundreds of other Georgia youngsters in the National Guard's ramped-up Recruit Sustainment Program, she's already legally committed herself to at least six years in the military. Though she won't go to basic until after she graduates, she's already collecting pay for the monthly meetings she's required to attend until then.

And the pay is far better than most 17-year-olds could earn flipping burgers. snip

And some say the Guard is digging too deep by going after high schoolers. snip

"It's sadly unfortunate," says Leslie Cagan, head of New York-based United for Peace, a coalition of about 1,000 peace groups. "We're very concerned about these programs designed to lure in young people. . . . The bottom line is, it's really an economic draft."

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[bluestateguy]

1. A truth in recruiting law

Here's what I propose.

Recruiters must tell possible recruits the truth about the military. If they do not, it can be grounds for voiding the enlistee's contract.

Second, I would require that all recruits under the age of 21 be required to get the signature of a lawyer. The lawyer, who would not be affilliated with the government in any way, would sign a statement certifiying that he or she explained the various provisions of the enlistment contract to the person, his/her rights and the military's rights under the contract. Too many young people, kids really, with no experience with contracts are hoodwinked into signing their lives away and they don't know what they are getting themselves into.

[TreasonousBastard]

2. Actually, the DEP "contract"...

isn't really enforceable. If the kid signs up under Delayed Enlistment, he doesn't really have to show up at all on the due date. Even then, there are ways to get out within the first 180 days of service.

Recruiters lie all the time and no one does anything about it, but if the lie is on paper, the enlistment doesn't count.

Guard rules are different.

[BanzaiBonnie]

3. It's like

making a contract with the devil!

[NNN0LHI]

5. Make the enlistee and the parents spend a day at Walter Reed...

...hospital in D.C. doing volunteer working with the amputees coming back from Iraq before anyone can sign anything. That should take care of that.

Don

[saigon68]

32. They won't do that

These folks would come here and help us overthrow the bush criminals

[johnfunk]

30. "Sucker the little children to come to me...

... so that they kin be cannon fodder for Bechtel, Halliburton, Exxon-Mobil and all of my other patrons! The media calls them patriots. I call 'em my pawns!"
-- The Chimperor

[Lisabtrucking]

4. I already warned my son about this crap.

I told him don't let them intimidate you, just tell them your not going to die for that fu*ki*g idiots lie.
They just better stay away from my kid.
He's smart and wont be tricked into any of that bull crap.

[NNN0LHI]

6. Careful. I know some recruiters personally

The ones I know can sell refrigerators to Eskimo's.

Don

[Lisabtrucking]

8. Na, My son can't wait to tell them to talk to me first. He's like me

so I'm not to worried. Now my daughter is another story, but she wont be 17 until 2008, and maybe we will have someone sane in office then.

[infusionman]

16. What about signing up for selective service?

[OneBlueSky]

7. finding new cannon fodder seems to be the in thing . . .

among recruiters . . . the questions is -- how quickly can they get them sufficiently trained and shipped over to Iraq? . . . not long, I would guess . . .

[1monster]

13. This is nothing new. The recruiters came around to all the high schools

in my area back during the Vietnam War. I remember sitting through a Marine recruiting assembly when I was a freshman in junior high... I've heard, although not seen evidence yet, that the military is starting to target middle schoolers now, making contact with the kids on a regular basis until they are old enough to sign.

Just remember, that when your child enters high school, immediately write a letter to the principal that you are disallowing the high school to provide personal information on your child to the military. Otherwise, by law, the shcool is required to give he military info on your child.

[saigon68]

15. These troops are PIMPS AND PROSTITUES FOR DEATH

Criminals one and all

[AirAmFan]

20. You're right--the 17-year-olds down to middle-schoolers being signed up

by the US military are child prostitutes, and the recruiters who target them are the worst kind of pimps. Just like the low lifes who are kidnaping tsunami victims.

Now our military are acting just like third-world drug gangs--recruiting children to die or to come back as cold-blooded killers.

[tx_dem41]

21. Where are "middle schoolers" being signed up? n/t

[Just Me]

31. "Join the Army" stickers plastered on stop signs at schools,...

,...here in rural WV. Who the hell would do that?

I took my son out one night to pull those suckers off,...each and every one of them. One week later, they were back up!!!

[pinniped]

9. Ya, I'm sure firing a .50 cal. M2 machine-gun may seem...

cool when no one's firing back at you.

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

10. I see it every few weeks at my school

Air Force, Marines, Navy, Army, National Guard... all setting up a table outside the cafeteria every few weeks. Giving out candy, t-shirts, pens, pencils, stickers, notebooks - all to make an impression on the undecided senior or junior who walks by just to grab a slice of pizza. They stalk the hallways for prime candidates. They know who they are looking for. The next Marine, the next pilot, the next whatever. He (and they give first glance to the males) must be unsuspecting, a little rough around the edges, and doesn't have to be the strongest (that's what basic training is for, kids!).

Up until recently, my friend Amanda was going to go straight into the Army out of college. She, whose family is probably only slightly above the poverty line, had known since she was in 8th grade... that like her brothers before her, she would go into duty for our nation. Several months ago the decision was made on her part to not go into the Army straight out of high school. She will be furthering her education at the local community college. After two years, she will either reconsider the army, get a job, or attend a state school. I am so proud of all the growing up that she has done in the past year.

[Guns Aximbo]

11. my 13 year old son is getting calls...

from recruiters. His high schoolsells the names of all their students to the military recruiters. I've called them and threatened them because it is illegal for them to contact him unitil he's 18.

They have complied but now we get brochures in the mail. I toss them out before he even see's them, but I'll tell you it really makes me angry.

[MattNC]

23. it's not illegal n/t

[Systematic Chaos]

12. When I was 17 or 18 back in 1985-6

They would always seem to call me early in the morning when I'd been up late the previous night (which was often). So, they'd end up wasting their time trying to convince someone who sounded (but I wasn't - never drank) totally hungover to join the military.

After about 3 minutes of sleepy mumbling they would take the hint. :)

[infusionman]

17. I remember an army ad that said...

"We do more before 7:00am than you do all day!"

That right there should tell you to have second thoughts.

[AlbizuX]

14. what makes these children any better....

than the Arab kids brought up to hate their enemies?

If we call those kids terrorists, we should start taking a second look at OUR kids. When a kid says, "I've always wanted to be a soldier", our society screwed up somewhere...

[tx_dem41]

24. Removing ourselves from the present situation...

(which I realize is difficult to do), there is nothing wrong with being a soldier and wanting to defend our country (in principle). I mean you do believe in some form of military, don't you?

[AlbizuX]

26. i don't think kids should aspire it to it...

I believe a military is necessary for defense...but, until the American armed forces are restructured toward a "defense" focus and our imperial outposts all across the world scaled back, I looked down at the idea of militarism as a perfectly natural and normal aspiration.

Wanting to join a nation's killing forces shouldn't be an aspiration of people..no matter how much people try to gloss over that fact with appeals to patriotism and love of country.

These kids get fed that "defend the country" crap..when the United States hasn't had a legitimate defense of country war in ages.

I take Einstein's pacifist approach...he hated those who aspired to become soldiers...thought them to be unthinking drones.

[tx_dem41]

29. I agree with a lot of the sentiment of your post...

...just don't be mistaken that all are "unthinking drones".

[tx_dem41]

18. Wow...someone's been drinking some extra-strength Kool-Aid. n/t

[infusionman]

19. My Son...

Turns 18 on Jan 13th. He was already approached several times for recruitment, plus he was "Reminded" to fill out his selective card so we can apply for scholarship funds for college.

[infusionman]

22. Kick

[MasonJar]

25. The recruiters hang around high schools. I know this because I

teach high school English. It is deplorable. Promise the moon and deliver nothing should be their motto. Remember Farenheit 9/11.

[AlbizuX]

27. if recruiters would be honest,

they should show images of dead American soldiers abroad...rather than the Gi JoE, special effects commercials that promise everything.

[genieroze]

28. Hey, get away from my child. What is this, the every child blown away act?