<font color=8fbc8f>Well now, in news that is not released to the press, things appear different from this side of the fence.

It all started about two months ago. The big people with influential powers were asking our guys, (school house) how they could better assist, yada, yada. Well it's no secret there is a war going on and soldiers assigned here as instructors are getting to become farther and fewer between, placing an ever increasing load on us, the contract instructors. Well, not to big of a deal, but if I wanted to maintain 60 hour work weeks I would have *NOT* retired! Anyhow, our military boss said we need more soldiers.

So, low and behold, we go from 52% strength of soldiers to 100% in a matter of 72 days. Now, one must consider these guys are *NOT* seasoned, trained, or have been through *ALL* of the courses one needs to complete prior to instructing at the "School House" level. But, we *ARE* at 100% none the less!
Yesterday at lunch one of these new guys received an "A-Gram" 'Official Army E-mail', calling him back to 'recruiter duty'. Reporting to location "X" at government expense NLT: 28 1200hrs. Jul 07. Additionally, his message also contained a mission ratio! By COB yesterday, our higher headquarters had requested all prior detailed recruiters to report to their location for follow -up briefings. As of this morning all five of our previous detailed recruiters had been called back to duty. So, it becomes clear as mud why we went from 52% to 100% strength. As of next Monday morning, we will return to 57% strength through 15 OCT 2007.

What does all this mean? It becomes clear the Army is behind, and *may* miss the recruiting mark for fiscal year if something drastic does not happen soon, fast, and with perseverance. All of our guys were released from detail over five years ago, when they were; *Young, Energetic, and Concerned* about making mission. Now they are mid-late career, 4 over 15yrs, 1 at 19, and the youngster at 11, all have been deployed at least twice in the last four years, and have 96 hours to prepare their families for them to depart non-return for 60 plus days. Notice deployments are usually planned several months in advance, No-notice exercises usually give the soldier 5 working days to tie up loose ends, how can recruiting command have so much power? Yes, that really means these five guys will depart Saturday morning going back out on recruiter detail until mid-October!

If you know anybody interested in joining the United States Army, contact me via PM, and I will assist them with help in achieving contact with one of these five fellow instructors, soon to be re-detailed recruiters. </font>

Ah, the ever honorable army recuiting tactics. :rolleyes:

What's the latest strategy these days Felix? Free Video games, target the mentally ill, the poor or uneducated? Maybe a few little white lies about service obligations?

I have no respect for those who knowingly lie and deceive simply to achieve "the numbers." There is nothing glamourous about serving and dying for a country that doesn't care about you.

There's nothing glamourous about serving and dying at all, but it was never about glamour. Honour seems closer to the mark, but there's nothing honourable about doing someone else's dirty work either.

If numbers are down, a better way to raise them would be to be assess and act on WHY they are down.

I reckon that's the key ;)

There is nothing "cool" about joining the military anymore, the add's make me want to join even less these days :(

Come on, it is not that bad. [img]smile.gif[/img]
You join the military sometimes to give and contribute to the society. Besides, the military almost always changes you to the better.

I don't know about honor, but numbers are needed to achieve certain goals. I for one, am proud to serve my country, even if there is no war in Finland right now. Should one arise, I'd be lying if I said I'd gladly die for a cause bigger than myself, but standing by watching everything I love destroyed is not something I could cope with either.

Hm.. some decades ago, recruitment posters held slogans like 'your country needs you. Now, they're all along the line of 'The Army: Be All You can Be!'. I think that says it all.

There's a difference between fighting a war to defend your home and country, and fighting someone elses war. The US has a habit of sending soldiers to die for no reason.

Some vets would argue that dying in combat is preferable to living with the memories. Either way, live or die, you will very soon be forgotten about once you have outlived your usefulness. Trust me.

Somehow, I don't feel so bad about this... Why is it? Oh, that's right.
http://www.sldn.org/templates/dadt/r...45&record=3864
http://www.sldn.org/binary-data/SLDN..._file/3864.pdf

When an organization is throwing away members, any number of members, I don't see how it can complain about not having enough members.

There's a difference between fighting a war to defend your home and country, and fighting someone elses war. The US has a habit of sending soldiers to die for no reason.

Some vets would argue that dying in combat is preferable to living with the memories. Either way, live or die, you will very soon be forgotten about once you have outlived your usefulness. Trust me. </font>[/QUOTE]While it is a grim truth, I totally agree. And god help you if you say it to some people because for some reason they see it as attacking the sacrifices made by soldiers, rather than the governments intent. When in fact it is actually sympathizing with those who give their lives in "the wrong fight". No-one is attacking the people, they are trying to help them. But this in itself is kind of a new mentality, a smear-tactic used via the media that tried to ridicule anyone who dares object. I guess the ideal situation for them would be people who follow them without question. I know there's another word for that...

Always ask questions. Why are we here? Why are we doing this? Does this reflect "who we are"? Otherwise we just become pawns to some guy behind a desk. This is one reason I give to the recruitment officers you see in my area. That I don't want to be an instrument toward a potentially meaningless death that is soley based on the dictation of the government.