[Peace-discuss] Counter-recruiters

[C. G. Estabrook]

[From USA Today [sic], an account of how to counter the recruiters. --CGE]

	'Counter-recruiters' shadowing the military
	By Rick Hampson
	USA TODAY

NEW YORK -- The Marines didn't have to recruit Greg McCullough. He signed
a promise to enlist last year, while he was still in high school. But now
McCullough has had second thoughts, and he's talking to a different kind
of recruiter.

Jim Murphy is a "counter-recruiter," one of a small but growing number of
opponents of the Iraq war who say they want to compete with military
recruiters for the hearts and minds of young people. 

"I don't tell kids not to join the military," says Murphy, 59, a member of
Veterans for Peace. "I tell them: 'Have a plan for your future. Because if
you don't, the military has a plan for you.'"

Since the advent of the all-volunteer military three decades ago, the
armed services have used an array of tools, from recruiting in schools to
TV advertising, to successfully sell careers in the military. But with
ground troops in Iraq still under fire, the Army and Marines are
struggling to get enough enlistments.

The armed services need many recruits each year -- the Army and Army
Reserve alone need more than 100,000 -- and less than 10% come knocking on
the door. The rest must be recruited.

Anti-war activists such as Murphy charge that to fill their quotas, some
military recruiters make promises they can't guarantee, such as money for
college or training in a particular specialty, and give misleading
descriptions of military life.

Murphy says high school graduates don't need to join the military to learn
a skill, pay for college, see the world or learn discipline.

Building a network

Counter-recruiters formed a national network at meetings in Philadelphia
in the summers of 2003 and 2004. They range from Vietnam War veterans,
such as Murphy, to high school students trained to talk to their peers
about enlistment.

The American Friends Service Committee, one of several peace groups
opposed to what it calls "militarization of youth,"  has prepared a
brochure titled Do You Know Enough to Enlist?  In a tip of the hat to the
opposition, it's deliberately designed to look like a military recruiting
brochure.

Using a 1986 federal appeals court decision that supported the rights of
draft registration opponents to equal access to students, the Los Angeles
Unified School District teachers union has helped get counter-recruiting
into some schools regularly visited by military recruiters in the nation's
second largest public district. The counter-recruiters make public address
announcements, distribute literature, show documentaries and give
classroom presentations.

In the San Francisco area, members of a group called the Raging Grannies
dress up in flamboyant old-lady attire (big hats, long, flowered dresses)
and visit high schools. They offer a selection of political buttons and
make their pitch while students are choosing. Sometimes the Grannies sing
peace songs and dance.

"When you kick up your heels, it gets their attention," says Ruth
Robertson, a 52-year-old Granny.

But in most places, the contest between military recruiters and
counter-recruiters is a mismatch. The former are full-time, uniformed
servicemembers; the latter are volunteers working on a small budget, if
any.

While military recruiters often enjoy free rein in high schools, anti-war
activists say it's difficult just to get in the door.

Off school grounds

Eric Peters is an anti-war organizer in Chicago, where most public high
schools have Junior ROTC programs. He says some administrators think
counter-recruiters are unpatriotic, and others fear parental or public
criticism. As a result, his group must distribute fliers off school
grounds.

"Where the need is greatest, it's hard to find groups committed to go into
schools," says Bob Henschen of the Houston Action Committee for Youth and
Non-Military Options.  He says it's so hard to get permission to enter
schools that he won't say where his group has access. He says he's afraid
publicity would jeopardize the arrangement.

Nationally, says Maj. Dave Griesmer, spokesman for the Marines' national
recruiting command, counter-recruiters aren't much of a factor: "We don't
spend a lot of time thinking about these people."

A change of mind

Jim Murphy does not look like a recruiter of any kind. His untucked shirt
covers a pot belly, his gray hair reaches his shoulders, and he favors
blue jeans and windbreakers. But he has two credentials for
counter-recruiting: He's a high school administrator who knows how to talk
to kids, and he's an Air Force veteran who served in Vietnam in the
mid-1960s.

When Greg McCullough met Murphy, he had already joined the Marines'
Delayed Entry Program, which allows high school students to sign up for
the Corps before graduation.

McCullough seemed a perfect candidate. He was a member of the Junior ROTC
honor guard at his Brooklyn high school. He loved everything about the
Marines, from the lore to the uniform. After being rebuffed twice because
he was too young, McCullough passed a physical and an entrance exam last
June.

But McCullough says he has concluded, after talking with Murphy and other
veterans, that military life is not for him.

For one thing, Murphy helped convince him that he could go to college to
pursue his interest in criminal justice, and that there was no guarantee
he'd get his request for assignment to military police. For another, he's
worried about combat in Iraq.

Murphy told him that even for Americans from the most violent
neighborhoods, combat is a shock. "It's gonna change you forever, and not
necessarily positively. Think of all the civilians killed in Fallujah.
You're gonna see something like that for the rest of your life," he told
him.

"Poor kids listen to recruiters because they're scared about what's going
to happen to them," Murphy says. "They know they need to get out of the
neighborhood, but they're afraid to leave the corner. In the military,
they know they won't have to make any decisions for four years, and
they'll make their parents proud."

But McCullough had signed up for the Delayed Entry Program, which the
Marines told him was a binding commitment, and which Murphy told him was
not.

Murphy gave him a form letter to send to the commander of the Marine
recruiting station, saying he'd changed his mind and was going to college.
Murphy told McCullough that the armed services don't consider recruits to
have joined until they go to basic training -- "until they shave your
head,"  as he put it.

People like Murphy annoy Maj. J.J. Dill, commander of Marine recruiters in
metro New York. "These counter-recruiters don't know what they're talking
about," he says. "But saying that we're tricking and lying, that certainly
has an impact on a young person. A lot of them are influenced by these
counter-recruiters or by negative media coverage (of Iraq)."

Discussing their concerns

When he gets a form letter like the one Murphy recommends, he says, "We
call the recruit in and talk about it: 'What's your concern? What's
changed?' We generally have a good success rate at turning them around."
But, he adds, "We're not going to force anybody to go to (basic) training.
I will discharge them."

McCullough, 19, knows he'll get the call, but says it won't do any good.
He's going to attend John Jay College and major in international criminal
justice and Arabic.

He says he appreciates Murphy's assistance: "Jim showed me the options."

This school year, Murphy says he'll counsel about 20 students. He's proud
of his record -- he says that four years ago he got six students to change
their minds about joining the Marines.

But, he adds, "I don't always win. I lose a kid for every one I get into
college or a union (training) program. I've got one in Iraq right now."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-03-07-counter-recruiters_x.htm