I'm an army brat and enlisted at the age of 18.

There is a reason you are made to sign a contract, and there is a reason why they will try to ruin your life if you do not finish it out. If not for those things, the amount of people who would stay in after the first week would be very few people.

Considering this fact, the claim that recruiters don't lie or stretch the truth in order to get people enlisted is a joke.

Even the little videos the army gives are a lie. I'll give an example. I am an ex-tanker. When I joined up, they had these videos. In one video it showed this tank jumping over this hill and it looked really cool.

Now, if you were to do that in real life, your crew would be jumping all over you. Those kinds of things hurt and tear up the tank. Nobody actually does that. Tanks do not have seat belts. Having your face and body slammed into things is not fun.

And it wasn't like I was mad about it or anything, it's a pretty minor thing. Even without the video I would have joined and I would have picked the same job. But that is the manner in which people are lied to.

For the record, I have been out of the army for over 10 years and not once has anyone ever asked to see my DD214.

Why not let murderers and rapists in?
I mean, seriously...if anyone needs to learn discipline, control, self worth, and self empowerment, it would be those types of people. People rarely do hard felonys just for fun...the types of crimes your talking about are often due to some fundamental issue with them that a bit of military service and training would benefit from...way more than prison time (I personally believe most of the prison system should be converted optionally to military service instead...make a person better in a institution verses just goto "criminal college" prison).

Along with that, I imagine theirs plenty of dumbarses in the military, which makes for good stock troops...otherwise, they would have probably ended up some washout in society...at least in the military they are taught some valueable trades and feel good about themselves.

I think the military is a brilliant option, and yes, some very bright individuals are in there (alot of geeks want the clearance one day to work on the top secret stuff.).
I think its the direction the military is ordered to take which is a issue at times of course...but to blame a recruiter for the military is like blaming the application for working at McDonalds.

was this actually a issue?

the point is still to train peopel to kill though right?
i mean, wouldnt want any confusion surrounding that aspect of military life.

This post isn't aimed at you because I don't know you and you seem to be someone who's just doing their job and defending against those who bad mouth recruiters. That being said, the high opinion I had of the military has gone down over the past 10-15 years. I have been a paramedic for over 20 years. Back in the 90's during the first war in Iraq, I felt the call to serve. I had at the time about 5 years under my belt, working both in the urban drug war environment with lots of trauma and action as well as rural areas. I wanted to be a flight paramedic and work the front lines on a medevac. I called several recruiters and found that I was inelidgible because I had a GED. Never mind the fact that I had gotten my GED on my own, then went to EMT school followed by Paramedic school. on my own, after self motivating. I was very upset about it all, but figured instead of serving my country in camo uniform, I would continue to serve my country and my community in an EMS uniform.
Now here we are in this war. I have a daughter who just graduated and earlier this year she made the decision that she wanted to join the navy and serve her country. She enrolled in JROTC at her school, studied her butt off and then went with her recruiter, another girl and 4 boys to take their ASVAB test. She ended up getting the highest score of all the kids she went with but still failed by 2 points and was very depressed. She said she would just study a little harder and try again. That is until he found out that the boys who had taken their test with her were going to be inducted this summer. How could that be she said, I scored higher than anybody. Well come to find out that girls have to score something like 15-20 points higher on the same test than the boys. She and I are furious about this. In a country where there are supposed to be equal rights under the law, where sexism, misogony, and other machismo behaviour is frowned on and outlawed. A country where our military has fought for these rights imposes on the military a rule that would get any employer sued. She will not take the test again, and as far as she and I am concerned, the military is as big of a joke as the politicians who are ruining everything. How ridiculous.You don't have to be an idiot to get in, you just don't have to be as smart as a girl. Alot of these guys are coming back from the war and becoming law enforcement officers and taking other jobs that give them alot of responsibility and authority. They should have to be smarter, not dumber. And you can throw all your excuses at me about combat positions and not needing brains to pull a trigger, etc. But I am outraged that our government actively engages in discrimination based on sex, and that my daughter, who is a smart, talented, patriotic, and motivated cannot serve in the military but some dumb ass who wants to go blow stuff up and come back to a municipal job with great benefits pension and authority gets welcomed with open arms. My daughters whole paradigm of thinking has shifted because of your bosses. She has become disillusioned, very angry, and will probably never support any endeavor you guys get involved with. And why should she? Even though she was smarter than any of the people testing with her, she didn't get accepted while they did. The dumb guys get to serve with pride and the girls are sent home feeling like the dunces. Why don't you guys just issue the girls who do pass the test camoflage cheerleader outfits and just send them to the front lines with coffee and donuts for the boys.
Mission Accomplished!

[edit on 6/19/09 by Chillidog1]

So now some would attack those that follow orders. Those who if ordered would defend us from whatever enemy might threaten our security. Those that would defend us to the death and have.
Do you have a right to your opinion? Of course. Do I? Oh yea, and i will express it here for the first time.
I have never posted a comment here before but i cant be silent here on this post. I just hope that some of the responses i read were just some showing off and pineing for attention and these are not there true feelings. I was a navy recruiter myself, a very successful one. I also seved in the middle east in 90. Did i question the reasoning for going, yes. Did i question my orders, not a chance.
Do recruiters lie lol. How would we lie? If a prospective recruit asked me if they may be in a combat situation i would ask them if they know what the military is for. Most only hear what they want and believe what they want. I however told them chances are 99% you will be in a combat situation at some point. Personally if they have to ask a question like that, they aren't ready to enlist.
I've ranted long enough. the main thing i want to get across is the person in the trenches, on the ship or on a plane is there to do a job and keep we at home secure. The present war may not be right but keep in mind that at some point there will be one. Those same men and women will be there, doing there jobs.

Thank you for your post. I believe most of what you stated. I have several relatives who are in the Navy, quite out standing people. And many either EX or retired Navy people who again are good professional people.

I believe the "bad" recruiting I have read about is in the Army. I have seen a number of criminal incidents involving Army people, some being former gang members. I do not believe I have seen any Naval incidents involving criminal activity. Not that it doesn't happen, I just don't think it is very frequent in the Navy.

Thanks again for your post!

Originally posted by TXRabbit
Thank you for taking the time to explain your thoughts and feelings on your job and your duty. I will see if I can get our close, personal friend who is a parent to 2 older teens - 1 with severe Azburgers (sp) Syndrome and the other with extreme ADHD complex to come to the forum to relay her thoughts on the onslaught of recruiter activity to her household.

I should have also mentioned that these kids mentioned in my first post were targeted because their names were on the "No Child Left Behind" list. Yes - the gov gave recruiters the names/contact info for children with special needs.

Classy....

Originally posted by slowhand1742

The present war may not be right but keep in mind that at some point there will be one.

DING DING DING DING!!! We have a winner here folks!! This poster has just summed up the entire argument against armed forces in one sentence. Whether or not we like it, there WILL be another war. And who creates these wars? The ones with the most to gain out of it monetarily. THATS what today's wars are all about: Money and who gets it.

Originally posted by wylekat

We are probably one of the few organizations left in the country who are not required to adhere to the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Trust me- there's a lot more than a few!

As for the 'intelligence' of recruits- When I signed up, I took the pre ASVAB- came out in record time with a score so high, the recruiters sent me right back in, and stood there and watched while I repeated the feat! I had 'scored so high, and finished so fast', they said, they swore I was cheating.

A test I took much later while in I scored- once again- REAL high. Oddly enough, the results of that test disappeared into a black hole, never to be seen again. I asked around, I tried to find out what happened to my results- and no one knew. This kept me from a job so amazing, technical, and everything else- that it has kept me eternally suspicious of what happened with the results.....

Let me answer that question for you buddy. You dont have to reply yes or no to this ok. Have you ever been charged, cited, held, or detained, for any law violation (to include traffic) regardless weather or not the charge was dismissed?

Are you married? do you have kids? how many?

Have you ever been seen by a medical physician for any injury, illness or ailiment?

Have you ever had an offense related to Drugs, alcohol, or Domestic violence?

Is your vision less than 20/20? are you red-green color blind?

Do you have a HS diploma, or a GED?

Have you ever recieved counseling in any shape or form?

These are just a few questions that can affect weather or not you can enlist. One misunderstanding that people have is it doesnt matter how good someone does on the asvab. You still have to meet the physical qualification for it and the job HAS to be available. Other things come into play also. for instance if you have a GED and you do really well on the ASVAB, but you require a moral waiver because of your law violations, you cant enlist. There is a lot of regulations on what we can process and what we cant. BTW that little paper you get with your tests results mean nothing, everything is tracked online digitally.