Truth and Recruitment

This is from JoAnn Chamberlain:

IRAQ VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR
PRESENT
THE TRUTH ABOUT WHAT
RECRUITERS PROMISE
• “I can promise you won’t go to Iraq or Afghanistan because of your assigned Military Occupational
Specialty/Duty Station/branch of service/reserve or guard status/because I say so.”
Recruiters can promise this, but their word means nothing to the people who will actually decide
what the military does with you. Personnel from the Navy and Air Force are being pulled as
“Individual Mobilization Augmentees” to run convoys in Iraq after a two-week crash course. The
Marine Corps has even sent band members to Iraq for combat missions.
• “You can choose active duty or reserves and an enlistment period of two years, four years, or more,
depending on the commitment you want to make.”
Every contract is for a period of eight years including time in the inactive reserves. The contract you
sign is unilateral, meaning it only binds you, not the military. You can choose what that contract
says, but it does not stop the military from putting you on stop-loss or involuntarily extending you.
At least 120,000 military personnel have been affected by these policies since 9/11.
• “If you’re enlisted in the Delayed Entry Program (DEP) you can’t get out of serving.”
Recruiters will tell you that you will go to jail if you don’t go, but that’s just another lie. For more
information, go to www.girights.org or call 1.800.394.9544.
• “If you don’t like it, you can get out at any time with a ‘failure to adapt’ discharge.”
There are a variety of unpleasant ways to get out of the military, but “not liking it” is not one of
them. If you refuse to train, the drill sergeants will use any means available to keep you in. If the
command finally decides that discharge is the only option, the process may take months to complete.
• “You will get plenty of money to get a college degree when you get out of the military, as well as
numerous chances to get ahead on your education while still on active duty.”
On average, the Montgomery GI Bill will only cover 1/2 the cost of a public college and 1/5 the cost
of a private college. In order to get that money for college after you get off active duty, you have to
contribute money to the fund from the day they start paying you. So many servicemen are
disqualified from getting that money that the military makes money from the program.
• 28% of women report being raped while in the service. Many rapes go unreported.
• 5.6% of people who enter the GI Montgomery Bill use all the money available to them.
• 75% of Blacks and 67% of Latinos report experiencing racial prejudice in the service.
• Veterans aged 20 to 24 are unemployed at almost twice the rate of their peers who didn’t enlist.
• US war veterans are twice as likely to kill themselves as ordinary civilians.
• Only 12% males and 6% of females vets surveyed made any use of skill learned in the military.
• Vets are 3-5 times more likely to be homeless than non-veteran peers.
“Before you become a weapon of your democracy, ready to fight and kill and die in the
name of the United States of America, you need to have the utmost faith in that democracy.”
– Adam Kokesh, Iraq Veterans Against the War, USMC, Fallujah, Feb-Sep 2004
www.notyoursoldier.org www.warresisters.org www.afsc.org/youthmil www.beforeyouenlist.org/
IVAW􀀁PO Box 8296􀀁Philadelphia, PA 19101􀀁Tel: 215.241.7123􀀁Fax: 215.241.7177

Other Sources
http://www.beforeyouenlist.org/
http://www.notyoursoldier.org/
http://www.warresisters.org/
http://www.afsc.org/youthmil