{"id":1799,"date":"2005-02-10T16:54:58","date_gmt":"2005-02-10T23:54:58","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2005-02-10T16:54:58","modified_gmt":"2005-02-10T23:54:58","slug":"recruiting-shenanigans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2005\/02\/10\/recruiting-shenanigans\/","title":{"rendered":"Recruiting SHENANIGANS"},"content":{"rendered":"

St. Petersburg Times
\nMom ferrets out truth on Guard duty <\/a><\/p>\n

By HOWARD TROXLER, Times Columnist
\ntroxler@sptimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Published February 10, 2005 <\/p>\n

Laramie Misner was surprised when her daughter Kelsie, a 17-year-old
\nsenior at Dunedin High School, came home on the evening of Jan. 7 saying
\nshe wanted to join the Florida National Guard. <\/p>\n

Misner listened with growing worry when Kelsie told her that a Guard
\nrecruiter had visited school that day. Kelsie said the recruiter
\npromised not only that the Guard would pay college tuition, but also
\nthat she would not have to leave Florida. <\/p>\n

It is absolutely true the Florida National Guard will pay college
\ntuition at a Florida school.
\nBut it is absolutely not the case that recruits can be guaranteed to
\nremain in Florida or even the United States. At this moment, 700 to 800
\nof Florida’s almost 10,000 Guard members are serving honorably in Iraq,
\nAfghanistan and Kuwait. <\/p>\n

Yet other students at Dunedin High School thought they heard the
\nrecruiter say this, too, and some of them signed up. If you are 18 you
\ncan sign for yourself, but if you’re 17 your folks have to sign too. <\/p>\n

Kelsie was pretty sure her Mom was wrong. That’s understandable – whom
\nshould a 17-year-old believe, after all, Mom or a complete stranger? So
\nMisner gathered news articles about deployments. Knowing the recruiter
\nneeded her signature too, Misner was ready for his followup call. She
\nput Kelsie on the extension to listen in. <\/p>\n

“I said to the guy, “Did you honestly tell those kids they would not
\nhave to go to Iraq?’ ” Misner says. She mentioned the articles she had
\ngathered. She says his reply was: “The papers get the National Guard
\nmixed up with the reserves.” <\/p>\n

Then she started quoting items about Guard units being activated and
\nshipped out. “Well,” he said, “there are a few that are going … it
\nhappens on rare occasions.” At this point, Misner noticed Kelsie’s eyes
\ngrowing wider. <\/p>\n

Misner did not let the matter slide, but visited Dunedin High School,
\ncomplained, and traded e-mails with principal Mildred Reed. Reed told
\nher she would inform Guard recruiters “that my expectation is that they
\ngive realistic presentations.” <\/p>\n

Misner thought about this awhile longer and called me. “I’m not coming
\nout on this because I am against war or anything else,” she said. “I’m
\nhere because I think that recruiter flat-out lied to those kids.” <\/p>\n

Obviously this does not reflect the recruiter’s side of the story. My
\nmessages to the local offices of the Florida National Guard were not
\nreturned. But I was able to speak with a spokesman for the Guard at the
\nstate level, Lt. Col. Ron Tittle in Jacksonville. <\/p>\n

I told Tittle I didn’t know what the recruiters said, only what people
\nbelieved they heard.
\nMaybe, I suggested, the recruiters said almost nobody has to go. Tittle
\ngave what seemed a responsible reply: If the students heard the promise,
\nthen they heard it – “Perception is reality” – and the Guard needs to
\nmake sure what recruiters are saying. <\/p>\n

“When they join the Guard,” Tittle said, “there is always the chance
\nthey could go overseas … wherever we may be called to active duty.”
\nThe Guard obviously hopes to sign up recruits but strongly believes that
\nrecruits be fully informed of the implication of their decisions, Tittle
\nsaid. <\/p>\n

I asked Linda Lerner, a member of the Pinellas School Board, what policy
\nexists on military recruiting visits. She reported it is a welcome and
\ncommon practice, often arranged at the local school level, whether in
\njob fairs or individual visits. <\/p>\n

It turns out that under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, military
\nand college recruiters are entitled to the names, addresses and
\ntelephone numbers of high school students. Parents must sign a written
\nnotice to keep their child off the list. <\/p>\n

This account is not in any way intended to discourage young people from
\nconsidering the Florida National Guard or military service in general.
\nThe benefits of regular salary and college tuition are real. It is a way
\nto serve our nation with honor. <\/p>\n

But as Laramie Misner points out, the least we can do for 17- and
\n18-year-olds making this choice is to make sure they have a full and
\nhonest understanding of the implications. Not all of them have a mother
\nquite so involved. Her stubbornness and willingness to speak out on this
\nsubject strike me as especially American. <\/p>\n

\u00a9 Copyright 2005 St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

St. Petersburg Times Mom ferrets out truth on Guard duty By HOWARD TROXLER, Times Columnist troxler@sptimes.com Published February 10, 2005 Laramie Misner was surprised when her daughter Kelsie, a 17-year-old senior at Dunedin High School, came home on the evening of Jan. 7 saying she wanted to join the Florida National Guard. Misner listened with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[676],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-antiwar-movement"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1799\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1799"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}