Military Recruiting in the United States

Military Recruiting in the United States provides a fearless and penetrating description of the deceptive practices of the U.S. military as it recruits American youth into the armed forces. Long-time antiwar activist Pat Elder exposes the underworld of American military recruiting in this explosive and consequential book. The book describes how recruiters manage to convince youth to enlist. It details a sophisticated psy-ops campaign directed at children. Elder describes how the military encourages first-person shooter games and places firearms into the hands of thousands using the schools, its JROTC programs, and the Civilian Marksmanship Program to inculcate youth with a reverence for guns. Previously unpublished investigative work reveals how indoor shooting ranges in schools are threatening the health of children and school staff through exposure to lead particulate matter. The book provides a kind of “what’s coming next manual” for European peacemakers as they also confront a rising tide of militarism. The book examines the disturbing, nurturing role of the Catholic Church in recruiting youth. It surveys the wholesale military censorship of Hollywood films, pervasive military testing in the high schools, and an explosion of military programs directed toward youth. For more information, visit: www.counter-recruit.org or order the complete book on Amazon or direct from the author.

Pat Elder has long been in the forefront of protecting student privacy and student civil liberties. Meticulously researched, his book will give students, families, educators, and advocates the tools to understand their rights and obligations when it comes to military recruitment and to defend their rights against overly-aggressive military recruiting. - Beth Haroules, Senior Staff Attorney, New York Civil Liberties Union

This eye-opening book presents us with a clear portrait of a poorly understood problem: the threat to our young people posed by aggressive and deceptive military recruiting. Then it hands us a top-of-the-line tool kit for remedying the situation and, oh by the way, in the process, putting an end to endless wars. - David Swanson, author of War is a Lie

"If our culture better understood the truths in this book, the GI Rights Hotline would get fewer calls from military personnel in crisis." - Bill Galvin, Counseling Coordinator, Center on Conscience & War and counselor and board member, the GI Rights Hotline

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The Military Enlistment Document Is Fraudulent

Pat Elder 26 June 2017

Pat Elder | Counter-Recruit Press | November 2016

Enlistment agreement is binding upon the recruit but not binding upon the military

The Enlistment/Reenlistment Document, DD FORM 4, amounts to an unconscionable sucker punch that lays out the woefully unsophisticated and uneducated recruit. It is reprehensible and entirely unacceptable that the United States of America, a nation with a rich tradition of constitutionally guaranteed civil liberties, should resort to proffering this charade of an “agreement” to the vulnerable young. This document is an imprisoning, one-sided, legally obligating miscarriage of justice.

Every year American high schools produce hundreds of thousands of semi-literate youth who are routinely devoured by the vultures of American capitalism through extraordinarily complex multi-page contracts that represent corporate interests in every sector of the American marketplace. Twenty-page cell phone and credit card agreements are written in complex terms in very fine print, although these are relatively simple instruments compared to most finance and insurance contracts. High school graduates might study Chaucer and Algebra but they’re functionally illiterate and woefully unprepared for the American marketplace. They can’t comprehend the contracts that govern their lives because they don’t teach that stuff in American high schools– and they’re not likely to any time soon. The handful of corporate behemoths that control the lion’s share of the US economy prefers ignorant consumers in this regard.

These contractual entanglements produce a tyranny of the corporate elite, but they stop short of exercising the all-encompassing and incarcerating power of the military Enlistment/Reenlistment Document, DD FORM 4.

Its unlikely many military recruits read and fully comprehend the fine print in the enlistment document, although they’d be well advised to pay attention to Page 2, Sec 9. 5(b), which states

Laws and regulations that govern military personnel may change without notice to me. Such changes may affect my status, pay, allowances, benefits, and responsibilities as a member of the Armed Forces REGARDLESS of the provisions of this enlistment/ reenlistment document.1

Recruiting Is PSY OPS at Home

Pat Elder 31 March 2017

Pat Elder | Counter-Recruit Press | July 2017

Leading health organization calls for ending school recruiting

In 2012 the American Public Health Association, (APHA), one of the country’s foremost health organizations and publisher of the influential American Journal of Public Health, adopted a policy statement calling for the cessation of military recruiting in public elementary and secondary schools.

APHA demands the elimination of the No Child Left Behind Act requirement that high schools both be open to military recruiters and turn over contact information on all students to recruiters and eliminating practices that encourage military recruiters to approach adolescents in US public high schools to enlist in the military services.1

APHA identifies several compelling public health reasons in calling for the cessation of military recruiting in the public schools. Most importantly, they argue that adolescents experience limitations in judging risk at this stage in life and they are unable to fully evaluate the consequences of making a choice to enter the military. The pre-eminent health organization points to the greater likelihood that the youngest soldiers will experience increased mental health risks, including stress, substance abuse, anxiety syndromes, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and suicide.

Military Enlistment Ruins Lives

Pat Elder 09 March 2017

November 2016 | Pat Elder | Counter-Recruit Press -The military is the scourge of the American experience. Our military is a scourge on the American experience. Forty percent of those recruited every year drop out in the first few months. Two million are seriously hurt every year. Desertions are rampant. Nearly half of all veterans who get out have filed injury claims with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, whose waiting list stands at a quarter million. Suicide is at record levels and so are rapes and assaults. It’s a monstrous institution in desperate need of reform, but the public fails to hold it responsible for the staggering level of human suffering it causes.

Harsh criticism of every major American governmental institution, including all of the executive departments, is a deeply ingrained part of the American experience, but criticism of the military is off limits. We are conditioned to “support the troops” and every aspect of American militarism. Evidence of the destructive role the military plays in the life of the country is overwhelming, yet when Gallup asks Americans to rate their most trusted institutions the military consistently ranks at the top of the list. Gallup’s poll of July 2014 showed that 74% of Americans had either a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the institution. Another 20% of Americans have "some" confidence in the military. The military has ranked at the top of the list all but one year since 1989. The current 74% confidence level is significantly higher than the average 67% rating given the military since it was first measured in 1975. Interestingly, the same poll showed that an all-time low, just 7% of Americans, have confidence in the US Congress.

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Challenging Military Sexual Violence

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.

The Military Law Task Force

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What Every Young Woman Should Know About the Military

A Brochure for Young Women Thinking About Joining the Military | 2022

"When I joined, I knew that women in the military faced an uphill battle, but I didn't fully understand how serious the issues were and how reluctant leadership is to doing anything about it.

The truth is that there's a culture of harassment and assault that is incredibly harmful to all troops, but especially to gender minorities."
Brittany Ramos DeBarros

Brochure - 30Mar22 Ver (w bleed).pdf

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