[Publib] Army and homeless

Sat Sep 15 18:04:31 EDT 2007

As someone said, why is this topic on Publib?

But since its life here continues, we may as well address some issues 
raised.

How safe is a war zone. Here is a useful statistic about violent death 
rates in Iraq. The annualized Iraqi civilian violent death rate is 27.5 
per 100,000, a lower rate than many places in the USA some of which are:

 - pre-Katrina New Orleans 53.1 per 100,000 population
 - Washington, D.C.; 45.9
 - Detroit, 41.8. .
 - Baltimore, 37.7
 - Atlanta, 34.9
 - St. Louis, 31.4
 - Oakland, CA 26.1
Stats are from Front Page Magazine at 
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID={31822083-2853-4381-8762-E444A1709B38}
and from 
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/speech/ia05_king/sp_20060503_stats.html..

Maybe it is safer to go into military service than to stay home in some 
parts of the country. With almost 1.5 million on active duty in our 
Armed Forces there is about one chance in seven or eight of those 
members arriving in a combat zone. We have about 160,000 to 180,000 
(latter anticipated soon according to today's news) in Iraq and about 
15,000 additional troops in the Middle East (including Afghanistan but 
under NATO operational control) for a total of almost 200,000 (tops). 
(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_of_the_United_States for 
these stats) So, maybe 1 out of 7.5 recruits would wind up in a combat 
zone. Don't forget, for every combat soldier/airman/seaman in the zone 
there are also a lot of support personnel required to keep things like 
logistics flowing. The probablity of landing in a combat zone goes down 
further when we add in the 1.3 million reserve and national guard forces 
that also contribute to the combat zone total bringing the rate down to 
about 1 out of 14 who might be assigned to a combat zone. Not a very 
high percentage at 7.2%.

Military Recruiters. The recruiters have a big incentive to NOT lie; it 
is called the Uniform Code of Military Justice. If convicted by a 
military court under the UCMJ, they would be fined,  reduced in rank and 
most likely out on the street themselves and that probably after some 
time in the "brig." I suspect if lying or dishonesty in recruiting  
happens, it is the exception rather than common practice. Also, a 
significant part of the noise about that may be selective hearing on the 
part of candidates when a lot of information is coming at them and they 
are excited about leaving home so they hear what they wanted to hear and 
did not pay attention to the other information. For more on recruiters 
see http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/joiningup/a/recruiter.htm. It is a 
sales job just as selling the library is a sales and marketing job; 
recruiters go to where they can make the sales and the buyer benefits 
from what they have to offer. The candidate has to be literate and with 
very very few exceptions must have a high school diploma or equivalent. 
(See http://usmilitary.about.com/od/joiningthemilitary/f/faqged.htm).

Of course it is not often that a recruiter can enlist a patriotic Pat 
Tillman from the NFL (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Tillman) for a 
begnning compensation package of about $25,022 per annum plus health 
care in kind (just loved those military medics poking around me for 25 
years). The package consists of a starting salary of $14,450 per annum 
(see http://usmilitary.about.com/od/2007paycharts/l/bl07enlbasepay1.htm) 
plus housing allowance (if living off base) of $7,212 (In the 
Brownsville, TX area; higher/lower in other places) and a subsistance 
(meals) allowance, when no military dining facility is available, of 
$3,360 per annum. However, realize that as a basic trainee, you belong 
to the drill instructor during basic training and you will not see the 
outside of the training base for three or so months and therefore are 
not eligible for housing and subsistance allowances. Generally the first 
year or two of service will have the military member living on base or 
on ship.

 From the latest statistics (see 
http://usmilitary.about.com/od/joiningthemilitary/a/07recruiting.htm) it 
looks to me as if the Services are meeting their recruiting goals:

> "All four of the DOD services exceeded their recruiting goals in 
> August 2007:
>
>     * Army: Recruited 10,126 out of a goal of 9,600 (106 percent)
>     * Navy: Recruited 4,194 out of a goal of 4,194 (100 percent)
>     * Marine Corps: Recruiting 4,700 out of a goal of 4,472 (105 percent)
>     * Air Force: Recruiting 3,128 out of a goal of 3,128 (100 percent)"
>

I don't recall hearing anything indicating that our Uncle Sam is 
officially trying to resolve the homeless problem with military service. 
If there is a documented source for that assertion, I would love to see it.

I would also be interested in learning how the military's beginning 
compensation package of $25,000 compares with that in other places. I 
see that the 2005 median income (certainly much higher than a beginning 
salary) for McAllen, TX is about $35,000 and for all of Texas is about 
$42,000 (source http://www.city-data.com/city/McAllen-Texas.html). And 
around that bridge in Minneapolis, where this post originally began, the 
median income is about $42,000 and for Minnesota it is $53,000 (source: 
http://www.city-data.com/city/Minneapolis-Minnesota.html). And out my 
way the median income is $49,600 for Elizabeth, Colorado and $50,600 for 
the statewide median (see 
http://www.city-data.com/city/Elizabeth-Colorado.html). And in the 
teaming metropolis of Paris, Tennessee ()population almost 10,000), the 
median income is $24,600 and for the state it is about $39,000. That 
kind of data may explain why we see more military members coming from 
less prosperous parts of the nation.

If you really want potential recruits to be well informed, you would 
better accomplish that by accepting the "propaganda" from the military 
services and complementing it with information from about.com such as is 
available at 
http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/generalinfo/a/military101.htm. It is very 
comprehensive and apprises the reader of just about everything that can 
happen if he or she is contemplating military service.

Perhaps with this, more than anyone really ever wanted to know about the 
military and homeless, we can finally assign this topic to the archives.

Fred Beisser
Trustee
www.elbertcountylibrary.org
Colorado

Kathleen Horan wrote:

> Amen to that sentiment, Susan.  Recruiters go after the most 
> vulnerable members of society and succeed in seducing them.  It makes 
> me furious when various reps from the armed forces come into the 
> library wanting me to display their propaganda. I politely tell them 
> no, we don't post anything that isn't educational or non-profit, and 
> these guys blink their puppy-dog eyes and insist with all sincerity 
> that the army/navy/marines/air force IS an education.  Sorry, I'd 
> rather promote an education wherein the student stands a lesser chance 
> of being shot or blown up or screwed up.  Local and national 
> government never know what to do with the homeless. Now they want 
> to eliminate through recruitment.  It's pathetic.
>  
>  
> Kathleen P. Horan, M.L.S.
> Branch Manager
> Palm View Branch Library
> McAllen, TX
> 956-688-3322
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org on behalf of Susan Dennis
> Sent: Sat 9/15/2007 10:57 AM
> To: publib at webjunction.org
> Subject: [Publib] Army and homeless
>
> I was also wondering what that had to do with library services.
>
> What bothers me in all these posts of praise is that they ignore the 
> elephant in the room. Great you get a lot of training, but oops, 
> there's that pesky war thing. So you join up (usually based on lies 
> many recruiters are known to tell) with promises of training and a 
> home and a chance for education. Then you find out that to earn it, 
> you have to risk life and limb and mental stability.
>
> If they want to take that chance and they are fully informed, great. 
> But it bothers me that the government is pursuing those who are more 
> desperate or less likely to be informed about the truth of military 
> recruiting or understand the contracts that they sign.
>
>
> Susan Dennis
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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