I suspect some do enlist right out of high school, but of the kids I know who have enlisted, MOST have done so after a year or two of trying work, school, or nothing at all.
I fell for the president's trick in the my use of the word "vast" you know, "...majority of my tax cuts, etc.."
High school recruiting is huge....Al
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Army Adventure Vans
They're Flashy. They're Dangerous. They're Targeting 500,000 students. They're Coming To A School Near You.
* Is the Army coming to your community? Find out the schedules for the Army Recruiting Vans.
The U.S. Army and Navy Recruiting Commands are deploying a powerful recruiting weapon -- and they're using America's schoolyards and classrooms to do it. The Army Cinema Vans, the Army Cinema Pods, the Army Adventure Van and the Navy Exhibit Centers are crisscrossing the country as we speak, with high-tech "educational" shows that glamorize military life.
What are the Recruiting Vans?
* Five Army Cinema Vans, each equipped with nine slide projectors and three screens.
* Six Multiple Exhibit Vehicles, these are equipped with state of the art DVD presentations and can be viewed in the vehicle or brought into the schools.
* Four Rockwalls, carries 6 recruiters, and is a rock climbing wall for youth.
* The Army Adventure Van & The Armor Experience, featuring an M-1 tank simulator, a Cobra helicopter simulator, and a "Weaponeer" -- an M-16 rifle simulator. The Weaponeer provides each student with a printout showing exactly where each "hit" tore through their depersonalized, but human, target.
* Four Air Force ROVers, specially refitted recreational vehicles wrapped in bold Air Force graphics and includes an F-16 minijet.
* Five Navy Exhibit Centers include a "Nuclear Power Van," and an "America's Sea Power Van."
Seven parking spaces long by two deep, the Vans provide, according to the Army, "educational multi-media shows." The Recruiting Commands, who control the vans, aim to keep them filled all day long with class after class of students. Local recruiters are always present at these "educational" events.
The Army's 17 vans visit a total of 2000 schools per year, propagandizing 380,000 "recruitable" students. The Navy and Air Force visits approximately 500 schools, including community colleges and vocational schools. Both vans stop by shopping malls, state fairs, racing events, rodeos - wherever young people can be found.
Two "National Science" vans, sponsored by the military and the National Science Center, also tour the country. In each case, the Pentagon's Recruiting Commands and local recruiters use school grounds, school facilities, and school time to glorify the armed forces and their version of history.
A Learning Experience?
The Army Recruiting Command advertises the vans as a "A Learning Experience." The Navy baldly calls them, "Recruiting Vans." But so-called academic slide shows are packaged with far more blatant advertisements for the U.S. military. The vans are designed to recruit, not to educate. "The vans zero in on our target market, and that's in high schools," explained Fred Zinchiak, Public Affairs Specialist in the Sacramento Army Recruiting Battalion.
The Cinema Van's so-called "academic" shows include We the People - "217 years of American history from the birth of the nation through Operation Desert Storm" - and Math. It All Starts Here, one of several shows explicitly geared to junior high school students. But the real intent of the Vans is to portray the military as a glamorous, painless "opportunity."
The Army slide shows feature Combat Arms - The Tough Choice, with 21 minutes of artillery, armor, and combat engineering, doubtless without the carnage that results when these weapons are actually used; Path to the Future, bringing to multi-media life the recruiters' empty promises about education and career training; and Path to Professionalism, a "guide on the transition from civilian to soldier," which glorifies a soldier's first year without mentioning the hazing, humiliation, and loss of civil rights endemic to basic training.
The Navy's videos include Steel Boats and Iron Men, Sea Warriors, Angels Over America, and, The Navy and You – Full Speed Ahead. |
