COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Counter-Military: General
Group counters military recruitment
By Anne Williams, The Register-Guard
May 25, 2004
Vietnam War veteran Tim Jones knows how hard it is to convince brash young teens of their vulnerability.The 54-year-old was one of those kinds of teens himself. At 18, he couldn't wait to get out of high school and enlist, eager to fight alongside fellow patriots to help bring democracy to South Vietnam.
"I played football. I was a big guy - send me!" he remembers thinking.
After a rocket-propelled grenade tore through his right leg and sent him to a veterans hospital for a lengthy recovery, his thinking changed.
Now Jones, a forklift driver who still suffers chronic pain and partial disability, is eager to tell his story to any would-be recruits who are willing to listen. He's volunteering with a group called the Committee for Countering Military Recruitment, a joint project of the Community Alliance of Lane County and Eugene PeaceWorks.
The committee's chief aim is to give young people information about military service that they rarely get from recruiters, said Carol Van Houten, a longtime CALC volunteer who is coordinating the effort.
For instance, she said, the military can change the terms of service and may exaggerate benefits - the available college money, for example - while downplaying risks and hardships. Recruiters also might neglect to mention, she said, that enlistees have a window of time after signing when they can change their minds.
"We're not opposed to military service," she said. "We just want youth to have complete informa- tion."
It's been standard practice by most Oregon high schools to allow recruiters from various branches of the military access to campus; under the Bush administration's education law, No Child Left Behind, it's now mandatory. No Child Left Behind also requires schools to release student directory information to the military unless a parent opts out.
(In Eugene, more than 2,000 high school students - about one-third - have opted out, partly because of efforts by Van Houten's group to raise awareness.)
Sgt. 1st Class Larry Kadoun, U.S. Army recruiting station commander for Eugene and Springfield, said he had seen the committee's literature, and disputed much of what it says.
"I feel that they're inaccurate," he said, referring specifically to the group's assertions about college money.
Kadoun said recruiters are trained to respond to individually expressed concerns.
"I traditionally tell people that it's very hard for me to express all the pros and cons that I can think of in the Army to a person," he said. "Everybody's concerns and values and outlook on everything is going to be different."
On a recent visit to Creswell High School, Van Houten and Jones sat at a cafeteria table under a banner that read: "Thinking of military service? Get ALL the facts!" Only a handful of students stopped by to ask questions or pick up one of the simple black-and-white brochures on display.
"We don't always know when we've reached somebody on that topic," said Van Houten, a retired social worker who has been actively protesting the war in Iraq. "If we reach one at a visit, that feels very successful."
Some military recruiters do as Van Houten's committee does, setting up an information table during lunch or other noninstructional times. Others schedule availability to meet with students in career or counseling centers.
Local high school principals said the arrangement works well.
"It's like having a college come," said Churchill High School Principal John Sappington, who says he's never witnessed recruiters being pushy or disingenuous.
While all local schools have taken Van Houten's pamphlets, a few schools have been circumspect about granting additional access. While Cottage Grove High School has posted the group's flyers and even advertised a committee-sponsored art contest, the school has said no to a visit.
"One of the things is we provide access mainly to people who offer career-related options, like colleges," counselor Michele Portmann said. She said she checked signals with other local schools and found many shared that position.
Creswell High Principal Jan Ophus has welcomed the committee, but doesn't believe it's had much of an impact.
"This is a pretty conservative, patriotic little community," he said.
During Van Houten's recent visit, about a half-dozen students stopped by the table, mostly out of curiosity. Among them was senior Jake Goodwin, a varsity football player who doesn't appreciate military recruiters.
"If I'm interested, I'll come to them," said Goodwin, who recalled being approached by Marine recruiter recently at a park.
Other students said they have no problem with either recruiters or Van Houten's group. Freshman Andrew Hastings said he's interested in joining the military, and doubts he'd be swayed by either the group's flyers or the mounting death toll among soldiers in Iraq.
"If I was in that position, I'd go with what God wanted for me," he said.
Meanwhile, Army recruiters said numbers have held steady throughout the war with Iraq until recently. In the fiscal year ending in September 2003, the Army signed up 917 new enlistees in greater Oregon, spokesman Gary Stauffer said. Through mid-May, that number stands at 466.
"They're down a little, and the primary reason is we don't have as many recruiters assigned to us," he said. "They're doing other things."
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