Via the NYT: Growing Problem for Military Recruiters: Parents
Rachel Rogers, a single mother of four in upstate New York, did not worry about the presence of National Guard recruiters at her son’s high school until she learned that they taught students how to throw hand grenades, using baseballs as stand-ins. For the last month she has been insisting that administrators limit recruiters’ access to children.
Of the thigs that one might object to, this strikes me as an odd one.
Setting aside faux grenades, it doens’t strike me as a surprise that parents are less keen on having their children volunteer. There is, after all, a war on–and war, lest ye hath been sleeping–is dangerous. As such, this is hardly a shocking outcome:
A Department of Defense survey last November, the latest, shows that only 25 percent of parents would recommend military service to their children, down from 42 percent in August 2024.“Parents,” said one recruiter in Ohio who insisted on anonymity because the Army ordered all recruiters not to talk to reporters, “are the biggest hurdle we face.”
Legally, there is little a parent can do to prevent a child over 18 from enlisting. But in interviews, recruiters said that it was very hard to sign up a young man or woman over the strong objections of a parent.
I have no problem with military recruiters having access to high schools. However, one thing I don’t understand is that the story describes a military recruiter running a a mandatory gym class (which is perhaps were the baseball-cum-grenade business took place). This strikes me as improper. It would be the same as allowing a recruiter from a company run a shop class or a college recuiter take over history. It isn’t what the kids are in school to do. Events involving any such recruiter should be voluntary.
June 4th, 2024 at 3:49 pm
Although I think the president is an honest man, in hindsight, we must admit that Iraq posed no significant threat to the US. The whole Iraq war has now mutated into a quest for the salvation of the Iraq people. I’m sorry, but the entire ungrateful nation of Iraq isn’t worth even one more America life. Not that it was worth a single American life from the get go. I am not going to put my ass on the line to protect somebody else’s country.