Army sent slick recruiting mailer to my college-graduated daughter!

[Lena inRI]

Today my college-graduated daughter received a flashy fold-out Army recruiting mailing from Fort Knox HDQ, opening out at least 2 1/2 ft with the following sales pitches:
-earn spending $ while serving part-time
-100% tutition assistance up to $4,500/yr or loan repayment help
-earn up to $20,000 for school under Montgomery GI Bill/Reserve Education Kicker
-Serve as little as one weekend/month and two weeks annual training

HaaaaaaaaHaaaaaaaaaaaaa! They've got to be KIDDING!!!!

Sonofabetcha! Does this p*ss us off for:
-fact that in her address label, my daughter's alma mater University is typed meaning the Army has full access to university data bases for WOMEN who are not required to register at 18.

-Army not using the PR money for this pointless recruiting blitz to protect Humvees with armor. How many unprotected dead soldiers = thousands of these slick mailers!

I'm seething with raw hatred for these Bush imbeciles!!!!

:mad:

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Ah, the "Private Benjamin" PR to get her to enlist.

"Where are the condos?"

[Neecy]

2. they must be running low on officer fodder

My nephew is graduating from college on Friday, and they've really ramped up their recruiting frenzy. He's getting phone calls now at his parent's house from the Navy and Air Force, plus the slick mailings. This from a young man who has NEVER shown the slightest interest in enlisting. I wonder why the sudden interest in recruiting out of universities?

[Xithras]

3. Note to college students/parents: You can opt-out of this sort of stuff

I work at a college, and hear this complaint frequently.

Federal laws (FERPA/1974) restrict the dissemination of student academic records but make an exception for "directory" information (student's name, address, telephone number, date and place of birth, honors and awards, and dates of attendance). Directory information can be given to ANY interested third party without your previous consent, and is usually requested yearly by military recruiters when they begin compiling their mailing lists. You were notified of this, along with the opt-out procedure, back when you applied to the university, but it was probably buried in the fine print of some easily overlookable page and went unnoticed (many schools sell these lists to marketers, so they are an alternative revenue stream and they want as many students as possible in them).

If you don't want to be placed on these lists, just contact your student services office and find out what the FERPA Disclosure Opt-Out procedure is.

There are two things to be aware of now, however.
1. Schools can, and most do, place restrictions on how much time you have to opt-out. My own college says that only currently active students can opt-out...graduates who come back later and request opt-outs are out of luck. Some colleges and universities put a 5-8 year limit (from the time of admission), while others put 30-60 DAY limits. YMMV, so call and find out what their policy is.

2. Be aware that many major employers hire outside firms to verify that awards, diplomas, and degrees claimed by applicants are real and not fictitious. Most of these firms simply verify claimed degrees against the public directories, so opting out of the lists may occasionally result in a potential employer being told that your degree is not real (most, MOST, background firms will contact the university directly to verify a degree when they fail to turn it up in a directory search, but some of the cheaper or less thorough firms have been known to skip this step and simply tell the employer that the claimed degree is fictitious).

It's your call, but IMO EVERYONE should opt-out of these lists.

[Blue Diadem]

5. Also for high school too.

My daughter received a paper for my kindergarten aged granddaughter which allowed/disallowed any private information to be given out. It also mentioned on the form that if you chose privacy, recruiters wouldn't get the information for high school age children. If I remember correctly, there was a date it had to be filed by..early November maybe.

[Kingshakabobo]

4. -Serve as little as one weekend/month and two weeks annual training

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Is there anyone with an IQ over 40 that would fall for this one anymore?

"-Serve as little as one weekend/month and two weeks annual training"

my ass