Schools point out teens to Military Recruiters--Teens aren't Happy

The Newark Star Ledger ^ | 03.04.03

[TheFilter]

Your daughter sounds awesome!

I grew up in a military town (Colorado Springs) and I don't think the recruiters there had much trouble making their quotas, with all of the sons and daughters of Army and Air Force folk about. I remember a military recruitment assembly (not required attendance) which presented the benefits well.

I did receive literature in the mail, but I also had three grocery sacks full of college pamphlets and glossy catalogues too (I test well).

I actually chose the Air Force for myself after getting an associates degree at 19. And yes, at MEPS the Marines tried to "turn" me! Perhaps they needed more women.

It's a shame when students are NOT offered the military as an option. For people from low-income homes, especially, it offers great opportunities for collegiate and career success.

[ReaganCowboy]

Want to get crossed off their lists? Tell them you have asthma and are on Ritalyn, and ask if your Lasik surgery disqualifies you.

[Riley]

Want to get crossed off their lists? Tell them you have asthma and are on Ritalyn, and ask if your Lasik surgery disqualifies you.

I was in the Corps twenty years ago. I went by when I was recuperating from open heart surgery a couple of years ago, stuck my head in the recruiter's office, and asked if they thought they could get a prior-service a waiver for a 5x bypass.

I still chuckle at the stunned look that the Gunny gave me. :-)

[ladylib]

In one school district, you don't get into the yearbook unless you agree to have recruiters call you.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0301prelude-recruiting01.html

Why the ACLU isn't all over this is a surprise to me.

[stanz]

I hear they have a quota to fill and that is why they are so persistent.

[ccmay]

Poor baby was on the phone for "like" a half hour

Look, a fact of modern life is that you have to forget some of what you learned was proper etiquette, like not hanging up on people. If I treated telemarketers the way I treat my mom when she calls, I'd never get off the phone. If this poor little high school nancy-boy can't take the initiative to slam down the phone, what kind of soldier will he make anyway?

-ccm

[homeschool mama]

Wonderful post...and great screen name! LOL

Each week my daughter is making cookies for recruiting offices in our town. This last week was Army, next week it'll be Navy/Marines, and so on. The recruiters don't have it easy...there's stress and expectations involved, sometimes no different than a hard tack marketing position in the civilian world.

Many folks in our families are/were military and we're proud of them.

Bless you for making a monumental decision with wisdom and clarity of mind. You're priceless!

[TADSLOS]

Recruiters do have quotas. The system is set up exactly like any other private sales company in terms of marketing and sales. Each recruiter has to "meet mission" by recruiting an average number of recruits over time (usually measured by month/quarter/year). This is how performance is measured for the recruiter, the recruiting station, company, battalion, brigade and recruiting command overall. Incentives are offered to certain prospects in the way of bonuses for qualifying and/or signing up for certain military occupational skills, and of course, set aside funding for college education. This is the way filling and maintaining the all volunteer force works.

Advertising, cold calling, and personal interviews are the methods used to turn prospects into recruits and maintain military force end strength numbers. The hard cold fact is that very few 17 and 18 year olds initiate the process by a call or walk into a recruiting station on their own volition. Recruiters have to plant the seed, be persistent and follow up on most potential recruits who, due to their age and general immaturity, tend to live in the present and remain vague about their future. I know there are exceptions, but not enough to allow the services to count on to meet end strength. Recruiters are selected based on their maturity, performance, experience and schooling. They are trained on how to perform their jobs and are charged with being their respective service representatives in the local communities. Some are better at it than others, just like in any field.

The alternative is a draft, which, by it's nature is compulsory. Which would you prefer, a persistent recruiter on the phone that you have the option to say no to or a draft notice instructing your son (and probably your daughter this time around) to report to an inprocessing center?

After 24 years of military service which began leading a mix of draftees and volunteers and continued through the all volunteer force it is today, I can unequivocally tell you that the all volunteer force is a much, much more effective one for training, fighting and winning our wars.

Incidentally, I can empathazise with those who get those calls and "junk mail. My oldest son was inundated with recruiting efforts in his senior year of high school and we still get two or three pieces of recruiting literature a week addressed to him , even though he is a contracted ROTC cadet in his sophomore year. My youngest son will begin getting his calls and letters sometime late next year and it's his choice to make. He can hang up on them if he wants to.

[Colt .45]

As a former Navy recruiter, I was assigned recruiting in Westminster, Colorado in 1991-1993. The area I covered also included the Peoples Republic of Boulder. Needless to say, I got a lot of rejections by using the phone and learned that most kids would rather leech off their parents to attend a year of college, than to do something meaningful for themselves like serving their country. These losers are the same ones you see out wearing the cammy pants in the local mall. I used to talk with them and catch all kinds of flak just for being in uniform ... nothing new for me, I caught that kind of crap in high school ROTC during the Vietnam War, and when I first signed up in 1974. To make a long story short, most of these upper middle class kids don't give two sh*ts about anything as long as Mommy and Daddy will pay their way. Its the less well off teens that usually come to the military for a job, but have more of a sense of what honor and duty stand for.

The only thing the more financially well to do care about is their money, their material goods (Nintendo game-boys, cars, latest fashions, etc.), their status, and the freedom to be able to go to work ... if they have enough responsibility to hold down a job. It is off of the blood, sweat and tears of those who serve ( and have served ) that these parasites are free to be able to do and have the things they enjoy. They are truly indicative of what is wrong with this nation's society, no responsibility, no sense of duty or honor ... just selfish interests.

I am proud that I gave 20 years to the defense of this great nation, I am only ashamed that it was turds like this who benefited from it.

Duty is the most sublime word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less. - Robert E. Lee

[Colt .45]

Yep, I can tell that you don't ascribe to the "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country" crowd. Just think where we'd be if our Founding Fathers and Revolutionary War veterans would've had the same ideals?!

Remember .... its not the lawyer or judge who gave you freedom of speech ... its the veteran.

Its not the publisher, or journalist who gave you freedom of press ... its the veteran!

And lastly ... sadly ...

Its not the ACLU or Congress, but the veteran , who's served honorably under that flag, fought under that flag, and too often buried ... under that flag, that gives you the freedom to burn that flag!

PS. I am a veteran.

[I_dmc]

I believe 23 states have a "Do Not Call List" law, with more to come.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Why can't they just pass out literature. As for the kid, if he doesn't want to be bothered then "thank you sir, but no thanks. Goodbye" should be sufficient.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I still think its easier to blow off military recruitors than to stop the AOL solicitaions......

The mention of AOL gave me an idea: why can't the recruiters pass out CD-ROMs with commercials on them? Almost every kid has access to a computer nowadays. They can look at it at their leisure.

[learner]

Colt, I am curious as to how recruiters are compensated. We are currently dealing with them with a young man who is interested in the Navy. The recruiters seem highly motivated to the point of almost scaring him away.
Thanks in advance

[Coleus]

Thanks for your service. Have you gone on the Freeper foxhole link? It's a great link portraying veteran service and our major battles.

Yea, those kids are the same by me. They think being cool is by dressing up like gangsta rappers with the loose baggy pants (prison garb) and all the other accoutrements.

It's funny, their parents fled the cities when the minorities moved in only to have their suburban children dress up and talk and act like drug dealers and gang bangers, so much for MTV.

[Coleus]

If this poor little high school nancy-boy can't take the initiative to slam down the phone, what kind of soldier will he make anyway? >>

True.

[ReaganCowboy]

Oh contraire!

I too am a veteran, and I still am serving on active military duty.

My advice is that too get off a recruiter's list, merely use those things that the military cannot accept.

I don't want to serve with the unwilling soldier. He will get me or my men killed. Frankly, I do not like the idea of conscription, or of a draft. If you won't fight willingly, then don't fight.

And then raise the hell out of veteran's benefits, to the detriment of those who will not serve their country in any capacity.

None of my ancestors were ever drafted -- and we haven't missed a war yet, if we had a man of military service age that was physically able to participate. One was in the South Carolina militia during the Revoluntionary War.

The veteran has not given me the freedom of speech, nor of the press, nor freedom to burn a flag. God gave me those freedoms; veteran's, like my soldier and sailor ancestors, merely showed up to do the Lord's will. And no veteran of an army on earth will take away my freedoms either.

I'll be buried under a flag no doubt -- but the eulogy will be Christian. I like soldiers, but I love God. Even in His Old Testament, He allowed the newlywed, the new business owner, and the cowardly to go home.

Hope all who read this will think about my position, as opposed to snapping off a reply.

[Colt .45]

Tell the young man that if he wants to make a difference in the world .... GO! JOIN!

As for recruiters being compensated, they receive a special pay for "arduous duty" ... because that is exactly what recruiting is ... Arduous. Heres some hypothetical people that all figure into the mix. Putting up with the "little Johnny Wingnut" going through all of his indecision, and Mr. & Mrs. Wingnut trying to talk him out of the service. His high school girl friend Sally Rottencrotch crying on his shoulder because she doesn't want him to go, and he not realizing that if he doesn't go there is no guarantee she'll be around the next year anyway. His buddy Jimmy Flangehead trying to get him into college so that Jimmy will have someone to party hearty with that freshman year. And if little Johnny Wingnut goes to college and gets into the party scene, he'll neglect his studies because its the first time away from Mommy and Daddy and he's testing his wings. Then he flunks out of college, or drops out because he can't cut it. With college Johnny Wingnut faces two choices, (#1) Work on the books and work after school to have money to live on which means (little or no social life ... i.e. GIRLS), (#2) Party hearty have that social life and neglect studies (well you know the rest). BUT if little Johnny Wingnut decides to go the Military route, he cans still get money for college, go to college while he's in, and advance as far as he wishes to go. But that is all dependent on him as the military will provide him with the stuff as long as he fulfills his obligations to the service. Most first timers won't attend school in their first term, some will have the ability but choose not to.

But if you talk intelligently to the kid, you as parents, friends, mentors, can point him on the path to a very rewarding career. The service is what you make of it. It can be the best of times, or the worst of times ... but he is the one that would write the script. If he's not afraid of a little discipline, then I would encourage him to go. He will learn more than you can imagine, and be a "somebody" doing something to help make the world a better place.

I am proud of my 20 years of service. I have learned many things I would've never learned if I'd stayed at home. Plus I can say with pride that I helped defeat Soviet Russia and end the Cold War. I missed a few Christmases at home (or other holidays), spent time away from my wife .... but in the end the world is a little bit safer than before. And I helped to do it. Tell him to give four years, he has nothing to lose and everything to gain.

[learner]

Thanks for the reply, but I think you misread me. I was in the Navy as were my father and brother.The young man I mentioned wants to join also and is not being disuaded by us.
I was curious as to how the recruiters are compensated. I mentioned that their agression is almost scaring him away.That has caused me to wonder what sort of incentive pay they are receiving.
Thanks in advance.

[Colt .45]

The aggressiveness of the recruiters could be because they are under pressure to make "mission". Just tell him that other pressures come into play for the recruiters and that it is nothing against him personally. The recruiter probably has his Recruiter in Charge (RINC) and his Zone Supervisor breathing down his neck wanting to know if they can count on this kid to join. Tell the kid that if he really wants to join, then go ahead and commit. But tell him to take the aggressiveness with a grain of salt. The recruiters are not receiving any monetary bonuses if he joins or doesn't. They are just trying to keep from getting yelled at by their superiors is all. They are also probably trying to keep him enthusiatic about joining.