[Publib] Army and homeless

Mon Sep 17 13:43:25 EDT 2007

Having a child in the military who had his best friend killed twenty
feet away from him (they are both USMC helicopter pilots), I get pretty
upset about everything that involves Iraq. Nothing like getting an email
from your son saying that he visited his friend in the morgue, and he
helped carry his flag draped body onto a helicopter. 

One stat I don't think has been mentioned, but perhaps I missed a post,
was the fact that 100,000 Iraqis are leaving the country each month. It
apparently has doubled since the surge. Does that happen in California?
Those Fox News talking points disgust me. There will always be accidents
and murders, and certainly young males are the most affected.  If we
want to reduce those murders, there are things we can do better, but
there is never the money for that, unless it involves Iraq apparently,
and then there is a no-bid overabundance, and if you are against it, you
don't support the troops. 

The Bush gang started this unnecessary war and in my mind, all the blood
is on their hands. If you want to hawk this war, please look at your own
son or daughter or niece or neighbor. If the cause is not great enough
for them to die or be permanently maimed for, don't ask others to do it.

 A woman on AOL told me a few days ago, that her grandson was going to
be deployed in October for 18 months. I didn't think that was even
possible, but she insists that is what he said. He has already been to
Afghanistan once, and to Iraq where he would have been killed had his
SGT not asked him to get some bandaids from the truck to take them
elsewhere. The hummer was subsequently blown up and he only got hit with
scrap metal, while two others in the truck were killed. 

I work in a town of 35,000 and I can tell you that we had 4 deaths from
Iraq in one year. Considering how few are actually in the military -
that is an amazing statistic. And we do not average 4 murders per year. 

Ok, I always have to add my two cents, and I just cannot believe what
our country has become. Sorry for the ranting.

Adelaide Rowe

Head of Youth Services

Elk Grove Village Public Library

1001 Wellington

Elk Grove Village, IL 60007

847-439-0447 ext. 252 or 267

arowe at egvpl.org

-----Original Message-----
From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Fred Beisser
Sent: Saturday, September 15, 2007 5:05 PM
To: Kathleen Horan
Cc: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Publib] Army and homeless

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
<http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=%7b31822083-2853-43
81-8762-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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