[Publib] Fwd: More on Military Recruitment in High Schools

Mon Oct 27 16:39:36 EDT 2008

As a believer in a free market economy and a conservative, I have to 
agree with your conclusions about the value of military service. The US 
Air Force sent me to a technical school and started me off on the right 
foot (I was not marching where one starts with the left foot)  and then 
my first supervisor encouraged me to get a bachelor's degree. USAF paid 
75% of my tuition if I continued to pass my night classes and then when 
I got down to only one year of credits to go, they sent me on a special 
program to finish the degree in a discipline they needed....computer 
science and accounting. Had a great travel program along the way over 25 
years and also earned an MBA.

Your thoughts about the small percentage of military who are working in 
a direct combat role is correct. In the USAF it is generally only the 
pilots (needing a degree to fly those wonderful flying machines) and 
then mostly fighter pilots as opposed to transporters carrying freight 
and passengers. Of course the Army and Marines have a higher probability 
of seeing combat first hand. In the Navy mostly pilots and a few others. 
One can make the right choices and not see combat if that is the desire.

I have to second your thoughts on the under utilization of vocational 
training for skilled trades. In the USA we give it too little respect in 
the USA. A college/university degree is suitable for a small percentage 
of our population....way over rated in may respects. While "Joe the 
Plumber" may not be earning $250K per annum, he along with a master 
electrician will do well. And even better when they buy the 
business....A high school classmate of mine is/was an electrician and 
has done extremely well even though some classmates looked down on his 
apprenticeship program years ago.

Fred

backwage at aol.com wrote:
> The problem is deeper than it seems.  The awful reality is that kids 
> can't find work without experience and they have limited skills.  The 
> military can at least offer them a job and some training.  Plenty of 
> folks think that the military is this aggressive machine making cannon 
> fodder of our youth.  The reality is that only a very small proportion 
> of the kids will see battle--they are statistically safer than if they 
> worked in construction, for example.  The motivation of the 
> anti-recruitment folk is animus toward the military and war--an animus 
> which I share, in spades.  But I would suggest that they confront the 
> real enemy here, which is the college-or-nothing philosophy which 
> dominates educational counseling, and the general lack of vocational 
> education for the vast majority of students who will never attend a 
> university.  My friends the liberal elite have scorned honest 
> employment for so long, in favor of "management" and "self-developme 
> nt" that they shiver to think of anybody doing anything useful under 
> the direction of another person.  As a socialist, I think we need a 
> setup exactly like the military, minus the guns and war, to draft and 
> train kids--including those bound for college.  We need national 
> service.  We need basic skills training.  We do not need Homer and 
> Shakespeare, and most folks don't want them, no matter what those of 
> us who know the one from the other might think or want.  But I know 
> for sure that my liberal pals would poop popsicles before they let 
> little Muffy go off to serve with all those ordinary folk--in a 
> barracks, no less!
>
> A personal note:  The navy took me at seventeen.  Colleges thought me 
> too dumb or too unqualified, based on those standard tests.  My high 
> school journalism teacher wouldn't give me a recommendation because he 
> thought I couldn't write.  I got a lot out of the service:  skill, 
> confidence, the time and space to grow up.  General Motors didn't come 
> to my school and ask if I wanted to learn a trade.  Neither did Xerox; 
> nor did Harvard come to dinner at my house. 
>
> I have hesitated over the years to write that folks who have not been 
> in the military don't know what they're talking about.  They don't.  
> There, I wrote it.  Sign me an anti-war, left-wing veteran happy to 
> have had the chance to get something out of my government for a little 
> honest work.
>
> M. McGrorty
>
>     I'm so glad you brought up the matter of recruitment abuses in
>     schools.
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mary K Chelton <mchelton at optonline.net>
> To: ya-yaac at ala.org; aaslforum at ala.org; publib at webjunction.org
> Sent: Mon, 27 Oct 2008 12:27 pm
> Subject: [Publib] Fwd: More on Military Recruitment in High Schools
>
>
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>> *From: *Shorecam at aol.com <mailto:Shorecam at aol.com>
>> *Date: *October 27, 2008 12:51:03 PM EDT
>> *To: *mchelton at optonline.net <mailto:mchelton at optonline.net>
>> *Subject: **Recruitment*
>>
>> Dear Mary K,
>>  
>>  
>> I'm so glad you brought up the matter of recruitment abuses in 
>> schools. One of the articles in the new book Marc Aronson and I just 
>> did for Candlewick Press, /War Is...Soldiers, Survivors, and 
>> Storytellers Talk about War/, is a revelation by a teacher of some 
>> shocking stuff about this, starting with the fact that to get No 
>> Child Left Behind funds, schools must agree to allow military 
>> recruiters access to students, including their addresses and phone 
>> numbers.
>>  
>>  
>> And--  There is a marvelous book focused just on recruitment, from 
>> Seven Stories Press: Army of None by Aimee Allison. It has lots of 
>> information about how to confront the recruitment pressures and 
>> protect kids. Also, American Friends Service Committee's website has 
>> a hotline on recruitment abuses as well as helpful brochures.
>>  
>> Please share this information with your network, and let me know if 
>> you need more.
>>  
>> Patty Campbell
>>
>>
>
> =
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