A Young Man's Death: What Have We Come (MoJo)

[struggle4progress]

By Tom Engelhardt
August 3, 2005

<snip> In our small town of Columbus, Texas (pop.3900), we buried one of our local sons on his 19th birthday. He was killed in action in Iraq. He was a friend of my two oldest sons and his father a friend of mine.

There is not a lot for a young man to do in our town, and most leave for college, jobs... etc. Christopher came to see me at his father's request prior to enlisting last summer. I am an Air Force vet from Southeast Asia. I talked blue in the face to try to get Christopher to go with me to an Air Force or Navy recruiter. In fact, I told him in no uncertain terms that the Army would put a gun in his hand and send him out to be a target. No soap.

His head was already filled with a lot of crud from the recruiter about being a scout, riding a 4-wheeler ATV around -- big fun! (Christopher was an Eagle Scout.) He had an acquaintance who had been doing that (not in Iraq), and I got the sense that this acquaintance was giving him the hard sell too. I wonder if the Army has a referral bonus system. Do you know?

Christopher also had this inexplicable desire to "go shoot some ‘Raqis." Some latent desire maybe from too much video gaming. I heard that in the weeks before his death, he was involved in a brief fire-fight and froze in terror. No doubt reality caught up to him at the speed of a 7.62. Too bad his recruiter or buddy had not told him about the fear he would experience when he realized someone wanted to really hurt him or kill him. <snip>

http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2005/08/young_mans_death.html

[Ilsa]

1. "I wonder if the Army has a referral bonus system. Do you know?"

I believe there is a bonus system for referrals "in the works". I think it is also intended to cut down on the complaints from the soldiers to people back home.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8697263/ See the bullet points down low on the page.

What an ugly system. If you want out of it, the best way is to talk up the good stuff and deny the bad so more will sign up to take your place when your hitch is up. ANd you could be paid for it also.

[struggle4progress]

2. Ewww! "finders' fees for troops who get others to join"

[Ilsa]

3. Here's a link to the proposed bonus:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/azstar/20050725/lo_azstar/armymayhikebenefitstoboostlowenlistment

SNIP


— A $2,500 referral bonus paid to any current soldier who gets someone else to enlist. Payment would be conditional on the new recruit making it through basic and advanced training.