Don’t Trust Soldiers Under 30

I received some interesting email in response to my column.

Andrew wrote:

I would like to share my military recruitment story with you, as it contains a number of parallels to your recent column. During the summer of 2001, I was stuck in a rut in a dead-end job, and I was considering the Army as an alternative, mostly because of the prospect of having my student loans repaid after 3 years of service (I was 27 at the time, with $25,000 in outstanding student loans). The first time I talked with the recruiter, we went over my MOS options based on my background. A few days later, they called me back and asked if I was interested in taking the ASVAB that afternoon. I accepted, and was promptly shipped off to the local National Guard Armory.
After the test (and I use that term loosely) was complete, my recruiter drove me back to the recruiting office where I had left my car. They already had my test scores, and I got the full-court press just like you did, offering me anything and everything to sign that paper. I told them I needed a few days to think it over, at which point they started to ratchet up the pressure. If I had been less mature, I might have given in. Instead, I told them that I would settle for nothing other than training as an Air Traffic Control Operator. They told me it wasn’t a problem.
Sounds great, except that I talked to an Air Force recruiter the next day, inquiring about ATCO with their branch. After going over my background, he informed me that I wouldn’t be accepted into ATCO training with any branch of the military because of a charge of marijuana possession that had occurred a few days after my 19th birthday. I had let the Army know about it the first time I talked to the recruiter and his supervisor, and they were more than willing to let me go through basic before telling me that I had to choose something else. When I went back to the Army recruiting office and asked them, they couldn’t give me a straight answer about why they lied to me. I told them to go to hell. Two months later, a few planes flew into the World Trade Center, and I was really glad that the police had caught me eight years previously.
Please feel free to share any of this story as you see fit. People need to know that military recruiters are paid bonuses based on their ability to provide warm bodies to basic, and most could really care less about what it takes to meet their quota.
In closing, thank you for writing the things that need to be said, even if most people don’t want to hear it. I look forward to your columns every week. Keep up the good work.

A cautionary tale. Caveat recruitor.

Bradford writes:

Ted, The very reason the military wants 18 year olds is that war is a complete waste of life. Guess why the religious right fights so hard to prevent abortion, touts abstention, knowing full well that young people have had sex since time began? They are in the pocket of the government and military, which need tax-revenue-producing warm bodies and warm bodies for their wars. George W. Bush’s family was smart in supporting George W’s dishonorable AWOL behavior while erasing his records and rewriting his personal history to make him out to be a hero. They know the game. If you’re dumb and poor enough to buy the lies about glory and democracy, you deserve a burial plot in a government graveyard. Oh, some naive youngsters plant little American flags on your grave once a year. With that and the price of a fare, a dead body…well, a live body can get a ride on public transportation if the workers aren’t on strike.
When future wars are undeclared by traitorous despots like George W. Bush and Dick ‘DICK’ Cheney, Americans shouldn’t go. Let the Southern Baptist cock suckers and the John Ashcrofts and Dick Cheneys and Rush Limbaughs and Sylverster Stallones go and fight their wars. We can stay home and screw THEIR girlfriends for a change!!! Dear John, How I hate to write…

“Larry” (name kept anonymous at my initative) says it all:

Ted, I wrote to you from Iraq a couple of years ago. I’m happy to report that I wasn’t injured and only one of the soldiers in my battalion was wounded, none killed. The one wounded got hit in the gut and is fine now. We were amazingly lucky. I want to thank you for your columns. Though I often disagreed with you in the finer points and approaches, I found your opinions and their expression a welcome counter-balance to what is force-fed to soldiers in war.
I am writing also to say that your recent column was right on the money. I joined at 28, having run out of acceptable options, having made too many of the wrong mistakes. A tremendous amount of taxpayer dollars and Army sergeants’ and officers’ time is spent taking care of children in uniform. We have to teach them on subjects ranging from safe sex, responsible drinking, and avoiding drugs to brushing their teeth, cleaning their rooms and washing their clothes. Many of these kids were called ‘crack babies’ when they were born, and many didn’t grow up with parents. They are ready for anything other than adult responsibility and a professional career. We teach them the basics and how to follow orders, and they never think far beyond that. Most will stay and become the leaders of the future Army, a fact I find frightening.
Raising the minimum age of enlistment to the late 20s would eliminate a great many problems the Army encounters every day. We would have more responsible soldiers who cost less to maintain and could be better counted upon to refuse illegal orders. The improved decisions they would make would save lives.
Though it’ll never happen, it would be great for all of us.