A battle is being waged within Vermont schools. The weapon: information.
In one corner, the Army. In the other, counter-recruitment efforts.
Vermont was recently ranked 46th in the nation for the number of Army recruits per 1,000 youths in the 2007 fiscal year, according to the National Priorities Project, a research organization. As a result, the U.S. Army in Vermont is now trying to bolster troop levels with an incentives-based campaign.
Information is being distributed by both sides.
Double time, March!
The recruitment campaign, also known as the Army Advantage Fund (AAF), provides qualified applicants down payments towards home ownership or a business, says Andy Entwistle, chief of public affairs for the Albany Army Recruiting Battalion. Those enlisting in the Army are eligible to receive a maximum of $40,000 for a five-plus year enlistment. For the Army Reserve, applicants can receive up to $20,000 for the same enlistment period. AAF is currently offered in five regions, but has been in the making for some while.
“The plan has been in process for four years,” Entwistle says. “This is not a knee-jerk reaction.”
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The iconic Uncle Sam, part of the U.S. government's effort to recruit soldiers during World War I. |
The Army hopes that such incentives will help to bolster the number of recruits. Counter-recruiters are hoping otherwise.
Jen Berger, a peace and human rights organizer for the Peace and Justice Center in Burlington, Vt. is a leader of the counter-recruitment effort. The center’s peace campaign began in 2004, but has recently seen an increase in interest, Berger says.
As part of the counter-recruitment effort, the Peace and Justice Center aims to dispel what they see as misinformation provided by the military, particularly concerning promised benefits.
“The track record of the military coming through with benefits is horrible,” Berger says.
Entwistle disagrees, saying that the Army pays all the benefits that it has promised and must do so by law.
In an attempt to provide alternatives to the military, the Peace and Justice Center has implemented several tactics, including tabling, sponsoring speakers and publishing books. “The Alternative Book,” was recently published and edited by Berger. It was made in collaboration with regional and national anti-war demonstrators.
When tabling or speaking to a classroom of high school students, Berger says she often starts by asking them why they are interested in joining the military; financial and educational benefits are the most common answer, she says.
“I talk to them about their goals and about the realities of these benefits,” Berger says.
Many students want to obtain job skills, but are not interested in going to college, she says. Part of her counter effort includes providing alternate solutions such as two-year degrees, ways of applying for financial aid, and trade schools. Information is also provided for students who are considering joining because of a strong military family history.
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Nat'l Guard Avenue in South Burlington, Vt. runs along the Vermont Air National Guard base. |
“We tell them that recruitment and the military itself has changed drastically from prior wars,” Berger says.
If a student wishes to serve their country, tablers provide information on the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps and other volunteering opportunities.
According to Berger, recruiters have lowered their standards to bolster recruitment levels, something the counter-recruitment efforts strive to expose.
“[Counter-recruiting] is really about the myths, about recruiters’ misleading advertisements,” Berger says.
The advertising is not misleading, Entwistle says. While the maximum monetary benefit is listed, when an individual shows their interest by speaking with a recruiter, particulars such as time requirements are made clear, he says.
Berger, who has worked with veterans, says many cannot take advantage of the benefits they have been promised. They deal with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, lack job skills transferable outside the military realm, and lack the income needed to pay for a mortgage, she says.
While regrettable, the Army is not at fault, Entwistle says.
“We certainly hope that everyone who signs up for these benefits will be able to take advantage of these benefits,” he says.
In Berger’s opinion, the Army's advertising of tuition benefits is also deceiving.
“A four-year college averages $60,000 for tuition,” she says. “Under the Montgomery GI Bill, you receive $38,000 maximum in change, and it can only be used within 10 years and with an honorable discharge.”
If a person chooses to take part in the Army College Fund, in combination with the Montgomery GI Bill, and has enlisted for five to six years, they are eligible to receive almost $73,000, Entwistle says.
Under the GI Bill, enlisted individuals contribute a maximum of $1200 a year, allowing the provisions of the bill to then be applied, Entwistle says. After two years, with a contribution of $1200, a person could receive a total of $32,000. After three to six years, still only having contributed $1200, they could a total of $39,600.
Another brick in the wall
Counter-recruiters are also attempting to limit the number of times, as well as areas of schools that Army recruiters are able to table.
Phoebe Pritchett, a 17-year-old student at Mount Mansfield Union (MMU) high school in Jericho, Vt., is a leader of this effort. Pritchett, who is a member of the MMU Peace Club, says she hopes to see a lessening of military presence in schools throughout Vermont and the nation.
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Members of MMU's Peace Club in Williston, Vt. (Photo courtesy of Phoebe Pritchett) |
On Nov. 30, 2007, members of MMU’s Peace Club, along with various Burlington activist groups surrounded a Vermont Army National Guard recruiting office in Williston, Vt. The effort, organized by the Peace Club, was an outward objection to the presence of military recruiters in MMU, as well as the requirement that high schools hand over student contact information to the recruiters.
Under the No Child Left Behind Act, schools that refuse military presence and the submitting of student contact information, face penalties of losing federal funds.
Pritchett and others, however, are trying to change this law. They have submitted a proposal to their school board that limits the number of times recruiters can enter their school as well as restricting them to certain areas of the building. The proposal now needs to go before the Policy Board, Pritchett says.
The club has also sent a student petition to Sens. Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders, as well as Rep. Peter Welch. In it, the students ask that the school have the right to deny recruiters access to the grounds and that the method of submitting contact information is changed, she says.
Under the 2002 Federal Education Reform Law, all schools are required to provide student addresses and phone numbers to military recruiters. If a student does not wish to provide their information, they have the ability to opt out. Members of the Peace Club are asking their state representatives to switch this practice. Rather than checking off the opting-out box, they would check an opting-in box if they wish to provide their information, Pritchett says.
At this point in time, this idea is neither good nor bad, but does not currently fit within the bill’s legal framework, Entwistle says.
“At this moment, that proposal is not in compliance with the law,” he says.
If changed, the Army will abide by the new law, Entwistle says.
Pritchett says she hopes that if the change is made, it will stop those who have selected the opting-out option from receiving mail from the Army.
“I signed up to not get mail, but I just got something yesterday,” Pritchett says.
Entwistle says this is not the Army’s doing, and suggests that students speak with their school administrratorsto see if their opting-out was successful.
An individual who may be on the opting-out list can receive mail if a friend gives their name and address to military recruiters.
“If you give me the name and address of two friends, I will send something to them regardless of the opting-out list,” Entwistle says.
He stresses that this is legal.
Get up, stand up
Matt Howard, a former Marine who recently enrolled at St. Michael’s College, says he would also like to see the effort spread. This fall, Howard became the Youth Empowerment and Military Education Project coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee of Vermont (AFSC). According to the AFSC, “truth recruiting” is the politically correct term for counter-recruiting. The goal is not to rail against the military, but to empower people to educate themselves about the realities of military service, Howard says.
Truth-recruiting is necessary, Howard says.
“This work needs to be done, he says. “It’s apostolic; there won’t necessarily be instant change. I know I’ve been successful if the students at the schools themselves can be there, and I don’t have to be there if a recruiter comes.”
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Matt Howard holds his dog tags and "Warrior Writers," a compilation of stories by war veterans. |
Howard was twice deployed to Iraq, served four years of active duty and is currently inactive. On Nov. 30, he was arrested at the Army recruiting office in Williston after refusing to leave the property. He would like to be part of another protest, he says.
Although Howard strongly opposes the war, he says he does regret enlisting in the military.
“It’s fairly complex, but it solidified who I am as a person,” he says. “It empowered me to do the work I’m doing.”
After returning from Iraq, he says he tried to pretend that nothing had happened, but was unable to put his experiences behind him.
“It was destroying me on the inside; the anger and bitterness,” Howard says. “Everywhere I looked there were yellow ribbons slapped everywhere and people just going about their life like there wasn’t even a war going on.”
Howard says he is proud of the strides made by MMU students and hopes that their efforts are recognized.
He also says the aim of counter-efforts is not to target individual recruiters.
“I understand that it’s a horrible job and extremely stressful,” he says. “We’re against the lies, not the recruiters.”
According to Howard, the promised benefits are deceiving. The amount of money given to those in the army for education and health care is not nearly enough, he says.
“The only way you qualify in the Veteran’s Association (VA) is if you are disabled and the government approves it,” Howard says. “They make people pay back reenlistment bonuses who have had their legs blown off.”
Entwistle admits that there have been isolated cases where such things have occurred, but says that they have been corrected.
If a soldier is injured and honorably discharged as a result, their benefits are not withheld, Entwistle says.
If a soldier who is honorably discharged after 4.5 years of a five-year Regular Army AAF obligation, he or she can receive $35,000, $5,000 less than they would receive after having completed all five years. If soldiers are injured, resulting in their discharge, they have access to the full benefit they contracted for, Entwistle says.
Howard says he would also like to see the opting-out selection changed to opting-in.
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Matt Howard wearing an anti-war jacket. (Photo by Kaitlin Couillard) |
“If someone wants to join the military, I think they know what to do,” he says. “I think they know how to find the information.”
Pritchett agrees.
“If someone wants to join the military, it’s like a mouse click away,” she says.
Entwistle argues otherwise.
“We only ask that the educational institutions comply with the law as it was passed,” Entwistle says. “We ask that they will provide contact info unless the student has opted out, and we respect their right to opt out.”
Once the information is received, the recruiters try to contact each student, Entwistle says.
“The goal is to provide the option to people so they can decide for themselves,” he says. “This is not the revolutionary war; we’re not knocking people on the head and dragging them onto ships.”
The Army supports the First Amendment and the opinions of those within the counter-recruiting effort, but some of the counter tactics could be preventing a person the information they seek to obtain, Entwistle says.
Both sides say that they are not pressuring students into making a decision, but simply want to provide them access to a range of options.