Skepticism is a good thing.

Rachel Rogers, a single mother of four in upstate New York, did not worry about the presence of National Guard recruiters at her son's high school until she learned that they taught students how to throw hand grenades, using baseballs as stand-ins. For the last month she has been insisting that administrators limit recruiters' access to children.

Orlando Terrazas, a former truck river in Southern California, said he was struck when his son told him that recruiters were promising students jobs as musicians. Mr. Terrazas has been trying since September to hang posters at his son's public school to counter the military's message.

So begins a long Times article entitled "Growing Problem for Military Recruiters: Parents." It documents how many local PTA/PTSA groups are passing resolutions to protest the unreasonable amount of access recruiters to have to schools-- and some of the recruiters' more questionable tactics. Stories like those described above, in which recruiters make empty promises to students (jobs as musicians?) or try to seduce them with flashy demonstrations (throwing grenades?) are becoming more and more frequent as the military continues to miss its recruiting goals. YAA has learned from speaking with Nonmilitary Options for Youth that recruiters will often purposely manipulate the facts to hide from recruits the possibility that they might be sent to war, as shown in this exchange between war resister Ryan Johnson and 'Democracy Now!' host Amy Goodman:

AMY GOODMAN: And what did they tell you?

RYAN JOHNSON: Well, they, you know, they promised everything. They said that, you know, I could get a big bonus for joining, and they have non-combat jobs, so, you know, there's no -- there's a less likely chance of going to Iraq or anything like that. And --

AMY GOODMAN: Did they say you would go to Iraq?

RYAN JOHNSON: Well, actually my father is deceased, and I told them that, and they said, “Oh, well, you know, since your father's deceased, you won't have to go, because there is a clause that says that if you have a family member that is deceased, you won't have to go.” But that’s only if it’s after you join the military they died and they had to have died in combat. They didn't tell me that. So I was under the impression that I wouldn't go.

AMY GOODMAN: And what did you think you would be doing?

RYAN JOHNSON: Well, the job that I was signed up for was warehouse worker, so being a warehouse worker I figured I wouldn't really be seeing combat in Iraq anyway. That’s how they made it sound.

Later on in the interview, Johnson says that the main reason he joined the military was to get the $40,000 bonus for to help pay for college tuition. However, he was denied permission to go to college because of the deployment to Iraq that the Army sprung on him. "And your commander has to okay for you to go to college. But no one was being okayed to go to college because we were just so busy with the deployment."

As the military continues to become more desperate in its search for new recruits, students should be seriously skeptical of whatever claims a recruiter may make. The Army recruiters' handbook (PDF) specifically directs recruiters to go after students who cannot afford to go to college, and to become involved with those who play sports, including football, track, baseball, and basketball. Of the "college recruitment market" itself, the handbook says, "This market is an excellent source of potential Army enlistments due to the high percentage of students who drop out of college, particularly during the first 2 years." Recruiters are instructed to hone in on each student's vulnerabilites and inclinations and exploit them to their advantage, making the military appear to be the best possible option for the future.

This is never the case, of course. There are always other paths to take. For more information, check out Nonmiliary Options for Youth.