Analysis: Enlist Or Else

Uncle Sam seems to have sunk to a new depth lately in an effort to recruit young soldiers. This has angered Portland teen-age boys and has made them even more disillusioned about the countryís armed forces.

Some kids say they were verbally abused by recruiters, who called them ìfucking bumsî and ìworthless kidsî when they refused to join up. They say recruiters offered them rides from school, work or home to discuss their future plans at recruiting offices

While itís typical for kids nearing high school graduation to get phone calls from the military promising money, great benefits and travel, not every Portland teen is impressed.

Lee Woods, 19, is all too familiar with these shenanigans. After enlisting in the Army and then changing his mind, Woods said he was subjected to intense verbal abuse.

ìThey told me I would be a fucking bum if I didnít join the Army,î the Portland teen said. ìAfter I took their verbal abuse, they sent me out in the January cold with no ride home.î Woods said he tried to get out of enlisting over the phone, but was told heíd have to come down to the recruitment office to do so, face to face. A recruiter picked him up at his house, drove him to the South Portland office and demanded a reason for changing his mind.

ìThey just wouldnít give up. I gave them a reason for not enlisting and explained why I didnít want to be a part of the Army, but that wasnít good enough for them. They wanted to humiliate me,î said Woods. This is when he said recruiters told him he was a worthless individual and had no future without the Army.

Other teens have similar stories. Like Mike OíConnor. The 20-year-old Portlander said recruiters called his house relentlessly, even after he had notified them several times that he was not interested in the armed forces. ìThey were calling three to five times a week,î said OíConnor. ìI actually had to go down to the office and tell them that I didnít want to enlist, but I think that made things worse.î He said recruiters kept annoying him via telephone anyway.

ìTheyíre very forceful and insulting if you express no interest,î said Chris Milligan, 18, of Portland. ìYou get to the point where you set up meetings with these people just to get them off the phone.î

Brian Houdlette, a 20-year-old Portland resident, said he too received insulting phone calls from recruiters when he failed to show up for his meeting. ìThey believed I was making the wrong choices with my life,î said Houdlette. ìI think they were just pissed I didnít show up though.î

Officers will often try to sell the military like a used car salesman peddles his iffy wares. ìThey seemed to talk about the money, jobs and benefits you could get from the Army,î said Milligan. ìBut they never mention what it takes to get all those benefits. Youíre only getting half the story.î The typical phone call involves recruiters listing off numerous student loans, ROTC and financial aid programs but rarely addresses the disadvantages of being in the military.

ìI watched a [promotional] movie they sent me,î said Milligan. ìIt had nothing to do with being in the military at all. It looked like it was all fun and games.î What the movie failed to show were some of the by-products of war: bombs being dropped on kids, soldiers dying and a whole slew of homeless veterans who were once promised financial incentives.

Another Portland teen, who asked to be anonymous, recalled the same kind of propaganda. ìThey promised me $500 for eight hours of computer work,î he said. ìIt seemed like something I really wanted to do, but I knew there was something he wasnít telling me, so I was hesitant.î The minimum two-year commitment, intense basic training and an uncertain future were not mentioned.

With all the talk about financial incentives, youíd think the U.S. military is more a jobs program than our national defense. www.objector.org, a Web site dedicated to making youths aware of the questionable recruiting strategies used by the military, states that one-third of all homeless people in the United States are veterans. In addition, the site reports that two-thirds of all recruits never get any college funding from the military, while only 15 percent graduate with a four-year degree.

Messages left at local recruiting offices were not returned by CBWís deadline. But the facts kept coming in from the teens.

ìI told them I was financially able to go to college and that I didnít need assistance from the military,î said Houdlette. ìHe [the recruiter] persisted that I should join. It was kind of insulting that he didnít think I was capable of making my own decisions.î

Houdlette felt like a price was being placed on his future. ìThey of-fered me up to $30,000 for enlisting,î he said. ìThatís not the typical in-and-out incentive. $30,000 means youíll be there for a long time, so I just looked right through that statement.î

ìI understand we need an Army,î said Woods. ìBut to humiliate me by calling me a fucking bum and then throwing me out with no ride home is kind of a ridiculous recruiting technique. Donít you think?î