LAT:Joining Up to Dodge Dead End("Heartland" recruiting surpassing goals)

[DeepModem Mom]

Joining Up to Dodge a Dead End
With no hope of a good job or money for college, many heartland teens are enlisting in the military in search of economic security.

By P.J. Huffstutter, Times Staff Writer


....As the conflict in Iraq heads toward a third year, military recruiters across the country are falling short in their efforts to fill the ranks. But those in struggling heartland towns like Glenwood are making their numbers.

Different reasons draw the teenagers into service: pride in following a family tradition, a sense of honor in defending their country, an overwhelming need to find a focus for their future. In the end, the primary draw tends to be economic security.

Even if they don't agree with the war, financial worries outweigh political opinions. And that has helped recruiters here enormously.

National Guard officials say they are surpassing their recruitment goals in Iowa, although recruits know they are likely to be sent to the Middle East. The Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps say they are meeting their goals. The Army has fallen short, but recruitment numbers have steadily risen each month since May 2004, said Army Lt. Col. Marisa A. Tanner, commander for the Des Moines Recruiting Battalion.

Although their job continues to be difficult, recruiters said, they are having unexpected success in other rural regions in the Midwest and in parts of the South. They cite a sluggish economy coupled with long-standing town traditions of serving in the military....


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-na-recruit8jun08,0,3018532,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[K8-EEE]

1. No Wonder BushCo Thinks Outsourcing is GOOD....

...they need outsourcing and crappy Walmart jobs to take over as much as possible so the military would be a lot of people's only option.

[bleedingheart]

2. it used to be the inner cities that would send their impoverished youth

to fight but then they learned the hard way that the military isn't the panacea they had thought it would be.

[Selatius]

4. They still try and target inner-city areas

Have you seen military recruiters hit up rich, affluent neighborhoods?

[maxrandb]

13. Well Maybe if the Military

didn't have Rush Limbaugh on Armed Forces Radio :grr:

telling those inner-city kids that their parents are "communist, heathen, socialist, American-hating, lazy, unemployed, French surrender monkeys", then more of them might sign up.

Why join the military, when, by their actions, they are telling you "you're not wanted"?

[IChing]

3. I think that this was part of the plan

It is not beyond simple economic and political strategy to visualize something like this

[silvermachine]

5. I agree....

...and I don't have to summon the cynic in me to believe it either. Just the realist.

[IChing]

7. The 25,000 former GM workers are a good pool

for this insanity.

[leetrisck]

6. I live in "red country" and they

don't seem to be having that success here. Everyone I know in this part of the world is RW and the military is never discussed - and I do mean never.

[getmeouttahere]

8. Fine, let these people who support the war fight it....

does their minor success in the midwest and the south surprise anyone? Let them get over there to Iraq and find out what it's really like. How would they know, they watch Faux News!

[sundancekid]

9. well said! maybe the "law of unintended consequences" will end up

helping us in the 2006 and 2008 elections when the real "reality show" smacks these folks in the head!

[IChing]

10. "The Masters of War" have never done the fighting

The poor and misinformed do their bidding.

[leetrisck]

11. They're not about to fight it

all they know is they support bush (& voted for him) - the people around here do not know or care that the military is short handed - it's happening to someone else. The job situation here is awful too, but the extent of their patriotism is supporting bush.

[jsw_81]

12. It's very sad

Desperate red-state kids are brainwashed into believing that it's glorious to fight and die (for "gawd and country") in Bush's oil war(s). It makes me sick.

[central scrutinizer]

14. most of the good union jobs in the heartland

are gone, even those in the agricultural sector - the meatcutters union was broken and they were replaced with undocumented aliens who are too scared to complain about working conditions, wages, etc.