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Promises aside, read the contract
BALTIMORE -
When high school students consider enlisting in the military to earn that promised $70,000 for college, they should read the contract — carefully. This advice comes not only from anti-military groups, but also from the man in charge of recruitment in Maryland for the U.S. Army National Guard. “Recruiters can say one thing, but we go over the contracts with everyone,” said Lt. Col. Nate Crum, of the Fifth Regiment Armory in Baltimore. “It serves no purpose to exaggerate, because you could spend 40 hours working on a person and then have them change their minds. We tell recruiters to tell prospective applicants that there’s a good chance they’re going to be deployed.” Sometimes recruiters can’t keep their promises, including one plastered on Guard pamphlets — “Get your degree tuition free” — because the actual amount of funding that recruits receive depends on how well they score on military entrance exams, what schools offer as tuition cuts and other stipulations. When an Examiner reporter asked an Army recruiter based in Columbia about the chances of going to Iraq, he said recruits could avoid that by choosing a certain type of job, such as one stationed on a boat. Recruiters often cannot keep the promises of college money and avoiding war, said peace activist Scott Key, a professor in the School of Education at Fresno Pacific University in Fresno, Calif. And more teenagers are hearing these promises because the federal No Child Left Behind Act requires public schools to provide military access to students. “Recruiters promise cash bonuses, good salaries and benefits, job training and money for college,” Key wrote in a 2006 newsletter for Rethinking Schools, a school reform group. “Some recruiters go further, promising enlistees excitement and travel, choice of jobs and locations and anything else to convince someone to sign up. There are cases where recruiters promise enlistees that they will not have to go to Iraq.” FAST FACTS » About 35 percent of recruits receive education benefits from the military. » The military spends more than $3 billion a year on advertising and recruiters. » Recent veterans will earn between 11 percent and 19 percent less than nonveterans from comparable socioeconomic backgrounds. » The current unemployment rate for young veterans, ages 20 to 24, is more than 15 percent, nearly twice the national average for that age group. » Number of Army National Guard fatalities since the war in Iraq in 2003 for the nation: 423 » Number of Maryland fatalities in the Army National Guard since 2003: 5 Sources: Government Accountability Office, Department of Labor, Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors, labor policy specialist Stephen Barley; icasualties.org |
