So.. It was thirty-eight years ago today my recruiter said to me - Hey, let's take a little drive down to Baltimore. You can get a physical. We'll make sure you are eligible to join the Navy. Next thing I know - the classifier is telling me - After Basic Training you'll love Naval Technical Training Center, Meridian, MS. Then it came. They lined us up, an official came in the room. Raise your right hand, said he. Oh! What a shock. Best thing ever happened to me! I'd do it allagain, in a heartbeat as they say. There was no need to lie. Those moments did so much to facilitate me living the Examined Life.
Lie? Navy recruiters? Why, whatever would make you think that? Factoid: the infamous "press gangs" that seized, meaning "impressed", British subjects into the Royal Navy in the 18th and early 19th centuries were interested only in experienced seamen. It took about three years in the Age of Sail to train a competent able seaman (but just a few months to train an infantryman). Read Melville's "Billy Budd" for a quick introduction.
Having first-hand experience at this, I would contend that military recruiters almost never lie. They do sell, however. That means emphasizing those aspects of joining the military that appeal to a particular prospect while not discussing a lot about what does not. But straight-up lie? It's not part of the process, and for good reason. There is no way a recruiter can communicate in depth all of the complexities and challenges of joining in and serving in the military. But lie? It happens, but I think it is very rare. I remember about a week into basic training thinking that my recruiter sure didn't tell me about all of this! But several years later we were stationed at the same base--he was a senior master sergeant and I was a first lieutenant by then. We got along extremely well, and I have fond memories of him to this day. (Thanks, Ted!) Most of what makes up "My recruiter lied to me" is selective hearing. A material lie could be the basis for providing a recruit an entry level discharge (sort of like an annulment). I never saw that happen in my four years as a training officer at Lackland AFB, four more teaching AFROTC, and several years as a commander after that. I hear a lot of complaining about recruiters and lies, but the funny thing is I never, ever heard a material misrepresentation. I must have missed those.
I once passed a recruiter on the street who looked utterly deflated when I told him I had no interest in joining the armed forces. I felt like I had let my own father down.
I know this is well-intentioned, but that particular phrase is often used online when one doesn't have a retort. You're told instead to "just relax." Well, I AM relaxed. I'm sure I typed that post with the same speed and key pressure as any other. But that complaint is so common, so prevalent, that it gives the military a black eye, so I felt it merited a response.
It probably wasn't an Air Force recruiter. We've missed our recruiting goal in just two years: 1980 and 1999. (The Reserve and Air National Guard have struggled more.) We don't recruit. We select.
I refer to my own post of June 7, 2022 https://www.degreeinfo.com/index.php?threads/shun-the-fool.61184/#post-570001
2022 may be the third year: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/military/every-branch-us-military-struggling-meet-2022-recruiting-goals-officia-rcna35078
Yeah, I saw that. It's a tough human capital market still. Increasingly, too, joining the military is really out of the norm for our society. I enlisted right after Vietnam and knew a lot guys who joined the Air Force to avoid the draft and then stayed because they liked it. My grandfather fought in WWII and my dad fought in Vietnam. For their generations, military service was rather normal. Now, something like one percent of households have someone in them who served. I wouldn't be surprised to see the Air Force pull it out in the end.
We did some kind of nasty stuff to our service people during the Bush Wars too. Repeated deployments into combat zones (even for reservists) damages people long term. Enlisting after seeing that might not be too attractive.
And there's the steady erosion in veterans' benefits. My GI Bill educational benefit was amazingly better after never getting shot at than these new veterans get. It's wrong, damn it.
