Top Military Recruitment Lies

[marmar]

from Seven Stories Press, via AlterNet:



Top Military Recruitment Lies

By Aimee Allison and David Solnit, Seven Stories Press. Posted September 20, 2007.


The new book Army of None reveals the scummy truth about the military recruitment complex.



Editor's Note: The following is excerpted from Army of None: Strategies to Counter Military Recruitment, End War and Build a Better World published by Seven Stories Press, August 2007. Reprinted here by permission of publisher. Copyright © 2007 Aimee Allison and David Solnit

Top military recruitment facts

1. Recruiters lie. According the New York Times, nearly one of five United States Army recruiters was under investigation in 2004 for offenses varying from "threats and coercion to false promises that applicants would not be sent to Iraq." One veteran recruiter told a reporter for the Albany Times Union, "I've been recruiting for years, and I don't know one recruiter who wasn't dishonest about it. I did it myself."

2. The military contract guarantees nothing. The Department of Defense's own enlistment/re-enlistment document states, "Laws and regulations that govern military personnel may change without notice to me. Such changes may affect my status, pay allowances, benefits and responsibilities as a member of the Armed Forces REGARDLESS of the provisions of this enlistment/re-enlistment document" (DD Form4/1, 1998, Sec.9.5b).

3. Advertised signing bonuses are bogus. Bonuses are often thought of as gifts, but they're not. They're like loans: If an enlistee leaves the military before his or her agreed term of service, he or she will be forced to repay the bonus. Besides, Army data shows that the top bonus of $20,000 was given to only 6 percent of the 47,7272 enlistees who signed up for active duty.

4. The military won't make you financially secure. Military members are no strangers to financial strain: 48 percent report having financial difficulty, approximately 33 percent of homeless men in the United States are veterans, and nearly 200,000 veterans are homeless on any given night.

5. Money for college ($71,424 in the bank?). If you expect the military to pay for college, better read the fine print. Among recruits who sign up for the Montgomery GI Bill, 65 percent receive no money for college, and only 15 percent ever receive a college degree. The maximum Montgomery GI Bill benefit is $37,224, and even this 37K is hard to get: To join, you must first put in a nonrefundable $1,200 deposit that has to be paid to the military during the first year of service. To receive the $37K, you must also be an active-duty member who has completed at least a three-year service agreement and is attending a four-year college full time. Benefits are significantly lower if you are going to school part-time or attending a two-year college. If you receive a less than honorable discharge (as one in four do), leave the military early (as one in three do), or later decide not to go to college, the military will keep your deposit and give you nothing. Note: The $71,424 advertised by the Army and $86,000 by the Navy includes benefits from the Amy or Navy College Fund, respectively. Fewer than 10 percent of all recruits earn money from the Army College Fund, which is specifically designed to lure recruits into hard-to-fill positions. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/62945 /

[PA Democrat]

1. Kick for the truth.

"Before You Enlist" You Tube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fkkdoDOIJM

[marmar]

2. Thanks for the YouTube link!

n/t

[TornadoTN]

3. And I got blasted from some here in my Anti-Gamestop thread today

That points out that the military is using the store and a upcoming release of a game to push recruitment. I decried the tactics and some rushed out to tell me that I was insane.

Thanks for the link as well!

[PA Democrat]

4. DU has its regular

keyboard commandos. They LOVE recruitment of other people and other people's kids. Perhaps they'd feel differently if they experienced it first hand.

[TornadoTN]

6. Apparently. It's pretty disgusting. nt

[BlooInBloo]

5. K&R.

[Solon]

7. I was told that I wouldn't have to go to boot camp...

I wasn't exactly enamored with the Military, and I was 19 at the time, and had a recruiter harass me for months while going to Community College. He said I would go into "Military Intelligence" or something along those lines, I told him that was an oxymoron and to go away.

[mvccd1000]

8. My recruiters didn't lie.

I got the job I signed up for, and I put my $1,200 into the GI Bill and collected over $800 a month while I was getting my IT degree after I got out. My military experience also helped my get my dream job testing prototype cars for one of the Big 3, which I did for seven years. Personally, I recommend the experience to all 18-year olds. There are enough of 'em who need it!

You might as well say your cell phone company lied; heck, their contract is far more obfuscated than the military contract, and they're much more likely to change the terms on you. Benefits aren't very good, either. :)

[marmar]

9. "cell phone company lied; heck, their contract is far more obfuscated than the military contract,"

Maybe so, but you're not going to get your head blown off in a war based on lies from signing a cell phone contract.

[mvccd1000]

10. Do you really think anyone would believe...

... a recruiter who said they wouldn't have to go to war? I left for boot camp about a week before Saddam invaded Kuwait. There hadn't been a major conflict in years before that, so wouldn't you know that would be my luck; start a war as soon as I'm in the club? The reaction when we were told that we would be deploying? Cheers. You don't sign up for the military and not expect to fight, regardless of the world situation at the moment.

[marmar]

11. But did you expect to be sent on a war, the reasons for which would be fabricated?

I can't imagine too many recruits expect that.

[mvccd1000]

12. No, but then...

... I don't know how many members of the military believe that. I'm a former member, and I don't believe it. I currently work with a LOT of active duty people, and I haven't heard any of them believe that.

It's certainly a topic that still up for debate. I would not say it's settled by any means.

On edit: I won't go any further with that argument, as it's headed off topic. Just making the point that most soldiers that I run into do not believe they are sent to war under false pretenses. Therefore, the recruiters could not be lying about that part. My .02, anyway.

I'm off to bed, so I won't be able to continue this tonight.

[gratuitous]

14. Except that a cell phone contract . . .

Except that with a cell phone contract, there are responsibilities on both of the parties involved, and if the cell phone company unilaterally abrogates the terms of the contract, you can get relief in court. If the government unilaterally changes the terms of its agreement with a wily 18-year-old, there is no recourse. And the consequences for blowing off a cell phone contract are a mite less serious than deciding that you don't want to "serve" a government that willfully deceives teen-agers, tortures citizens and foreigners alike, and launches wholesale attacks on civilian populations that can't fight back and can't get away.

[tabasco]

13. I remember when I joined the Army in New Orleans back in 1981.

The recruiter was truthful with me. I used all of the college money.

You definitely don't get rich in the Army, ESPECIALLY when you consider the hours you put in.

I was in the infantry and worked an average of 16 hours a day.

Before Bush I would have recommended a military career to any young person.

Now I warn young people away from the military and I will do so until we restore a responsible government