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http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/073005A.shtml#>
Military Classes are Off Course
By Danny Westneat
The Seattle Times
Friday 29 July 2005
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Two high schools in Federal Way will debut Air Force courses this fall. Students as young as 14 will wear uniforms, march in drills with decommissioned guns and get schooled in military history, customs and technology.
Course materials are mostly created by the Air Force, and the classes taught by retired officers. Costs will be split between the Air Force and the school district.
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Take this fall's first course. It features the role of the military in history, taught by an officer using material provided by the military. That's like having a course on environmental policy taught by Greenpeace.
It's also clear that a goal of JROTC is to groom future enlistees. Students are given information on how to sign up. The Defense Department testified to Congress in 2000 that JROTC is one of its premier recruiting devices.
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Mr. kt and I went to the Chinese New year parade in Los Angeles this past year. There was a middle school that marched in the parade. The pulled a boob box on a Red Flyer that played some rah-rah war song while the 7th and 8th graders walked with a drill instructor. The kids were half in uniform and half not. Some had camaflogue pants, others jackets. A couple had some forms of military hat. They looked like tattered Vietnam Veterans wounded from war. It was truly disturbing.