Recruiters Losing The Battle At Home
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First, President Bush says he wants to increase the Army and Marines by 92,000. John McCain promised 100,000. Then Barack Obama gets on board with his proposal to add 65,000 soldiers to the Army, and 27,000 Marines. “Bolstering these forces is about more than meeting quotas. We must recruit the very best and invest in their capacity to succeed,” he said in his 2007 Foreign Affairs treatise.
But no one — including President-elect Obama — has ever ventured beyond the rhetoric to explain how they would make it happen — how anybody could make that happen given the Army has already gone through all sorts of denigrating contortions to make its quarterly goals. And it generally has, painstakenly, achieved those quotas over the last few years — but at what price? We know all about the lowered standards, deceptive come-ons and the big-ticket incentives to bring new people in and retain the rest. But now the rest of the country is finding out what military families have known all along: that recruiters are killing themselves — in some cases literally — to come through on bringing in one, two kids a month. Recent reports indicate that men and women who have survived the terrors of multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan are coming home to the private hell of the recruiting office.
The Army has appointed a brigadier general to investigate allegations that commanders of a Houston-based recruiting battalion tried to cover up a toxic leadership climate and low morale after a recent string of suicides, according to a letter obtained Thursday by the Chronicle. (snip)
(Texas Republican Representative John) Cornyn had asked (Army Secretary Pete) Geren to appoint an independent investigator after he heard from numerous recruiters, and their relatives, who said they had direct knowledge of serious problems in the Houston battalion. They accused the unit’s leadership of attempting to block investigating officers from meeting with material witnesses and “strongly suggesting” to subordinate officers that they should avoid portraying the chain of command in an unfavorable light, even if it meant lying in statements to authorities.
Cornyn said the constituents who contacted him also accused the battalion’s senior leadership of mass punishment, organized hazing and humiliating “counseling sessions,” in which recruiters who fail to fill their monthly quotas are insulted and threatened with being kicked out of the Army. (snip)
Three of the five suicides in the Houston battalion occurred within the past year and a half.
In March 2007, 25-year-old Sgt. Nils Aron Andersson shot himself to death in a Houston parking garage. Andersson, a two-tour Iraq veteran, was assigned to the Houston battalion’s Rosenberg station.
On Aug. 9, Staff Sgt. Larry G. Flores Jr., 26, hanged himself in his garage. Six weeks later, Sgt. 1st Class Patrick G. Henderson, 35, hanged himself in a shed behind his house. Both he and Flores belonged to the battalion’s Tyler Company. (snip)
Houston-based recruiters say they’re encouraged by the general’s investigation, but so far there’s little evidence that all the attention will improve their daily lives in a job considered one of the toughest in the Army, especially during wartime.
The report suggests these rural East Texas recruiters didn’t have easy access to mental health care — a deadly problem for many veterans living outside big population centers nationwide.
Sgt. 1st Class Bobby Dykes worked under Flores and was friends with Henderson. A few months after their suicides, he still rarely leaves the office before 8 p.m.
A veteran of Afghanistan, Dykes said he has more trouble dealing with the long hours and pressures of recruiting than he did with the dangers of combat.
“I have high hopes for change in the lifestyle out here, but progress thus far makes that possibility seem bleak at best,” Dykes said.
As Obama begins to seek out the counsel of would-be foreign interventionists waiting patiently in the Democratic rushes for a seat at the table, I will be among many waiting to see how his promises to “rebuild” the military will be fulfilled. And how it will be fulfilled.
Filed under: War
I would hazard to guess that Obama has no clue what he’s going to do when it comes to issues relating to the military.
http://rightklik.blogspot.com/
I doubt they’ll notice the difference. He might be better and can’t be worse, eh?
If the USA had a truly DEFENSIVE foreign policy like Canada or Mexico does, instead of its empire of globe-straddling bases it wouldn’t need half the troops it has now, let alone another 100,000 poor naive kids who are going to be sucked into the mincemeat of the military-industrial-congressional complex.
Andy Lyons is incorrect about Canada’s foreign policy; it is one of toadying to its masters in Washington D.C., which is why thousands of Canadian troops are fighting in the Kandahar district of Afghanistan — a place where Canada has NO business to be and ZERO “national interest”.
Look to Switzerland for a true defence policy. Or try Costa Rica’s policy on the military.
Bring all the Imperial Stormtroopers home. The US has lost all their wars overseas, save the remaining troops for defending the US instead of occupying other innocewnt people’s countries. Recruiter suicides are caused by the guilt of recruiters knowing their recruits will die not a lost and immoral cause.
We have too many fatcats in this country who think patriotism is wearing a flag lapel pin and calling those who disagree with them traitors. Bring back the draft and then we’ll see how patriotic they are.Even if they weasel out again, raise the taxes on them so they can pay for this empire.
The draft. Brilliant. Like the fatcats won’t find a way out like they always do ala Cheney, or Limbaugh, etc. etc.
No US Missiles for Poland. Everyone knows that Poland is a Russian satelilite. Bring back the GULAGS!!!!
Bring back the GULAGS!!!!
Rudolpho Jose Pons
Ah yes! Scratch a conservative, and look what you find. A statist, and not a smart one at that. Mr. Pons, your vote for McCain was a vote for the GULAGS. And I don’t think bringing back mass political imprisonment will garner bi-partisan support. It’s strictly a Republican platform. Of course, GULAGS would be a good place to put all the witches Ms. Palin finds when she is elected.
The solution is for these vets to stand up to their chain of command for the horribly degrading treatment.
It is a good thing I got out after my stint as an army ranger.
If a sgt or some such took it as his personal mission to denigrate me and destroy my reputation when I was honestly doing the best job possible, then killing myself wouldn’t be the issue, me and that sgt would have an up close and personal talk away from witnesses and cameras, and he would be lucky to walk away.
Remember, allowing the abusive people to keep abusing just beings in more victims, don’t kill yourself, kill your oppressor.
I am totally against the Bush Policies and what his puppet McCain would have brought.
I voted for President Elect Obama, he will finally stop our imperialist expansion.
Of course, there is always a troglodyte like “Jason” to muck things up, and repeat the party line to make himself feel better about the fact that women find him repulsive.
As a 1964 U.S. Army length of service military retiree who served this deceitful, thankless, and unforgiving nation during and over three major engagements on the “low” draft-era pay and non-existent allowances AND THEN BETRAYED on retired pay along with 432,000 cohorts AFTER we had had given this deceitful nation the best years of our lives I now have to laugh at all the whining. I NOW PAY ALL OF MY HEALTH CARE IN MY ’80s. What a nation?
Go to only Congress-declared wars. When you go to war, do two things:
Activate the draft
Raise taxes to pay for the war.
Everyone in the country should bear their part of the burden, expense and heartbreak of war. Do not send only those kids who have no better choice, and have been bought off with large bribes, as we are doing now.