A Guide to Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Policies in the US Armed Forces for Servicemembers, MSV Survivors and Their Advocates

Sexual assault and sexual harassment have long been serious problems in the armed forces. In recent years, the issue has received far more notice and it is now generally acknowledged that the problem is – and likely always has been — epidemic. DoD’s own reports reveal that over 4,700 service members, both men and women, reported they were assaulted in 2015. Experts point out it is likely that only one in ten people report their assaults. The DoD reports show that many members are afraid to report assaults or harassment. This is often out of fear of command retaliation. When reports are made, they are often ignored or retaliation does, in fact, occur. This phenomenon, too, has been longstanding but has only recently come to public attention.

More Information - https://nlgmltf.org/programs-and-services/military-law-library/memos/military-sexual-violence/

The Military Law Task Force

Child Soldiers International - USA: Shadow Report to the Committee on the Rights of the Child

April 2012 - Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test

The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) is a skills and guidance test developed, funded and graded by the US military. It is a necessary requirement when entering the military, but it is also used in 14,000 high schools in the United States.72 It is open to high school juniors and seniors, withthe vast majority of participants being under 18, and with some as young as 15.73 The test is a means of assessing a student's strengths and weaknesses with a view to informing their future career paths, including the appropriateness of a career in the military,74 which in turn advises recruiters which students they should approach.the military also uses the ASVAB to obtain students' personal contact information, including their name, address, phone number and social security details.76 Crucially, unlike the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act parents do not have the ability to opt out and prevent their child's personal information from being released to third parties.77 Therefore, student information that has been withheld by opting out of NCLBcan be released to the military via the ASVAB. Whilst schools have the ability to prevent data from being passed on to the military, information from the National Coalition to Protect Student Privacy78 indicates that few school administrators are aware of this.79 Various sources have indicated that children are oftenunaware of the voluntary nature of the test or its links to the military,80 and there have been instances of students being actively informed that the test was mandatory.81 Child Soldiers International contends that US campaign to stop the use of child soldiers, United States of America: Compliance with the Optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, Submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child from the US campaign to stop the use of child soldiers, November 2007. (Read more in the report)

Ethan McCord speaks about Collateral Murder in Iraq. Former Army Specialist and hero of Wikileaks video "Colateral Murder" speaks in Los Angeles @ Revolution Books on June 9, 2011. This is the initial talk with projections.

Colorado military alternatives such as: money for college, job training/skills, direction in life, discipline, to be part of a team, travel, to serve their country, to get out of trouble with the law, physical training, even citizenship.

This study examines how the mass media’s portrayal of the military, including the war in Iraq, affects U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps recruiting. A telephone survey of households in Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas was conducted to measure parents and young adults’ exposure to information about the military in various media sources and how much attention they paid to those sources of information for information about the military.  This study was hampered by a small sample size (N=119) that limits the ability to claim significant findings for several hypotheses. However, the study did uncover a pattern that indicated that greater use of newspapers and entertainment television reduced chances of young adults joining the military, whereas use of movies depicting the military enhanced the likelihood of joining. Also, media use predicted people’s attitudes about the continued U.S. military presence in Iraq.

Jason Bortz, Natalie Granger, Nathaniel Garcia, Brandan W. Schulze, Mark Mackowiak, Victoria Jennings, Jon McMillan, Debbie Allen
University of Oklahoma
2008

Confronting Militarism and Military Recruitment in Schools -First Edition -Students for a Democratic Society - Chicago Chapter - Zine in PDF format