COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Recruiting: Personnel Crunch
The few, the not-so-proud
Behnaz Abolmaali, Daily Texan
October 22, 2007
Since the war in Iraq began four-and-a-half years ago, poll numbers
show Americans increasingly in opposition, yet most of the public
seems to be mesmerized by a sense of indifference and uncertainly.
Maybe this is because we live in a time when the only people paying a
direct price for the decisions of our leaders are servicemen and
women and their families. While the military is undergoing
painstaking efforts to lure young people into service, loosening
qualifications and offering thousands in bonuses, a personal
experience leads me to conclude military recruiters are increasingly
aggressive and secretive in their tactics.
The Daily Texan filed two open records requests on July 14 in an
attempt to survey the Army and Marine Corps headquarters in
Washington D.C. on just how many students from the University of
Texas and from Austin high schools have been recruited into the
military during the last several years. Neither agency has properly
responded to the request, which also sought the Austin area
recruitment budget and documents outlining recruitment tactics and
guidelines at each school.
The law grants agencies up to 20 days to comply with Freedom of
Information Act requests, but blurry administrative issues such as
"shrinking budgets, downsizing [and] the complexity of certain
requests," as articulated in an e-mail from the Marines' FOIA Office
can lengthen that process. I finally received an envelope from the
Marines three months after the initial request, and it contained only
a third of the information sought. I felt it fair to denounce any
assumptions that the agency was acting in good faith. The Army,
however, did not respond.
The military spends billions each year on recruiting and advertising,
and much of its efforts are tailored toward high schools, in which
the military blends in as ubiquitously as college or career
representatives. Military recruiters entice students with cash
bonuses to go to school and tell them about the great things a career
in the military can entail: adventure, leadership and camaraderie.
(Though, less often included in the sales pitch is the possibility of
an early death.)
While the military has been rebuff in answering questions about its
recruitment numbers and tactics, one available Army document, the
2004 "School Recruiting Handbook," should make anyone look askance at
how the military operates in schools.
Effective contact with students "means having the Army perceived as a
positive career choice as soon as young people begin to think about
the future," the handbook states forthrightly. "If you wait until
they're seniors, it's probably too late."
The handbook, which is available through the Army's Web site, lists a
monthly calendar of school activities, sports seasons and holidays,
and urges recruiters to "attend as many school activities as
possible." It also suggests establishing rapport with school faculty
and administration, as well as using potential soldiers' high school
role models, such as class officers and student athletes, to gain
access to students.
The handbook urges delivering donuts and coffee to faculty to
facilitate classroom presentations, coordinating with school
officials to eat lunch in the school cafeteria "several times each
month" and offering to help school officials with summer school programs.
"The football team usually starts practicing in August," the handbook
states. "Contact the coach and volunteer to assist in leading
calisthenics or calling cadence during team runs.
"Many communities have Labor Day activities, parades, etc.," the
handbook goes on to say. "If your school has a color guard, offer to
train them in drill and ceremonies. Obtain a tactical vehicle from a
local United States Army Reserve troop program unit and drive it into
the parade with your future Soldiers riding along."
Across the country, scepticism regarding the military's tactics has
taken hold. Represented locally by Youth Activists of Austin and
Non-Military Options for Youth, the nation's counter-recruitment
movement's message is partially an outgrowth of the nation's
experience in Vietnam, as well as the recognition of the enormous
psychological toll war can inflict on young people.
Federal Freedom of Information Act laws exist to facilitate
government transparency and openness, which is essential to a
democratic society. The Iraq war remains a bloody and questionable
mission for the country and, as the military assiduously seeks out
young people to fight it, recruiters and military officers ought to
be honest and up-front about how they operate.
Give us our documents. It's the law.
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