COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Recruiting: JROTC/ROTC
Lincoln High ground zero for recruiting debate
Justin Jouvenal, Examiner
November 13, 2005The packed gym at Abraham Lincoln High School in Parkside erupted into cheers Friday morning, but it wasn’t for the high school’s basketball team. The Lincoln Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) was on the court snapping through drills.
The drumming and marching were part of an annual Veteran’s Day drill contest between Lincoln and JROTC programs at six other city high schools. In addition to the cheering crowds, there was another visitor — a Navy recruiter who stood on the sidelines.
As San Francisco voters passed a measure Tuesday calling for the end of military recruiting in The City’s schools, new Pentagon figures shed light on recruitment patterns at The City’s high schools.
A database prepared by a group called the National Priorities Project shows at least 31 students were recruited from The City’s high schools in 2004 and Abraham Lincoln had by far the largest number of enlistees at 12.
Those numbers put Lincoln at the center of a debate over military recruiting in schools. One of the aspects of the debate is whether schools should have JROTC programs, which some critics say are a recruiting tool for the military.
Lincoln is home to one of the school district’s most established Army JROTC programs and its head, Col. Robert Powell, also serves as the head of JROTC for the district. The Army also has JROTC programs at Balboa, Washington, Lowell, Mission and Galileo high schools. The Navy has a JROTC program at Burton High School.
Powell said his mission is “citizen development,” not military recruitment. In fact, he said he goes out of his way to discuss the pros and cons of military service with his students — something he said recruiters often don’t do.
He said less than 1 percent of the roughly 1,500 students in JROTC join the military after high school.
Military analysts say the war in Iraq is largely to blame for serious recruiting problems the military had earlier this year, although for the last five months the Army has met its recruiting targets. Charles Moskos, a professor at Northwestern University and a recruitment expert, said the military needs to convince more upper-middle-class and wealthy people to join up.
“When I graduated from Princeton in 1956, there were 750 males in my class and 450 joined the military,” Moskos said. “Last year, eight people served.”
Several JROTC members on Friday said they were not planning to enlist.
“I like the JROTC because we are all here for a common purpose,” said Crystal Zhou, a Lowell High School student. “But I have no plans to join the military.”
This archive consists of a topically organized selection of
articles culled by members of the Counter-Recruitment List Serve from printed
publications and web sites. The archive is not complete. We have chosen
material relevant to the work of