Truth and Myth About Joining the Military
Dick Cheney, when he was Secretary of Defense, said, “The reason to have a military is to be prepared to fight and win wars . . . it’s not a jobs program.” (see CCCO* at www.objector.org/jrotc/oped.html) Many people believe that joining the military is a way to get jobs training or money for college. Some veterans say that their experience in the military, or the college benefits that they were able to get, was helpful to them. But the reality for most veterans is far different. The military spends $1.9 billion each year on recruiting, and the military’s ads project an image of opportunity in the military that does not withstand sober analysis. Here’s some recruiting mis-information that you need to know about.
Length of Service
The first recruiting myth is how long you will serve. Even if you only signed up for two years, the military regards you as part of the Individual Ready Reserve, and therefore subject to call-up for eight years from the date of your arrival at basic training. Talk to those who were deployed to the Persian Gulf and the Iraq war long after they thought their commitment had ended!
Money For College
“The primary job of the military is not to help you pay for school. Two-thirds of all recruits never get any college funding from the military. Only about 15 percent graduate with a four-year degree. What about going to school while you’re in the military? Many GIs report that military life leaves them too busy and exhausted—and doesn’t really make time for them to go to classes.”
*From CCCO Central Committee for Consciencitious Objectors See also AFSC (American Friends Service Committee) website
Job Skills Training
Fact: Veterans Earn Less than Non-Veterans.
The best measure of the likely economic impact of joining the military is knowing if veterans earn, on average, more or less than comparable non-veterans. In an “overview of 14 studies which analyzed this question, Stephen R. Barley of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell U. found that the average post-Vietnam War-era veteran will earn between 11 percent (Crane and Wise, 1987) and 19 percent (Rosen and Taubman, 1982) less than non-veterans from comparable socioeconomic backgrounds. According to a 1990 study by Bryant and Wilhite study, the average veteran will earn $.85 less per hour (about $1,700 less per year) than nonveteran peers.” (see www.objector.org/before-you-enlist/mths.html)
Fact: Military Training Is Primarily for Military Jobs.
“Bryant and Wilhite also found that veterans averaged only 1.78 months of training during 31 months of active duty. Mangum and Ball, Ohio State researchers who received funding from the military, found that only 12 percent of male veterans and 6 percent of female veterans surveyed made any use of skills learned in the military in their later civilian jobs. Barley concluded: ‘The evidence on the probability of finding a job in one’s chosen occupation strongly suggests that, all else being equal, young people should look to sources of training other than the military if they wish to optimize their careers.’” (same site)
Economic Opportunity
“Army Times reports that over 50,000 unemployed veterans are on the waiting list for the military’s “retraining” program. The Veterans Administration estimates that onethird of homeless people are veterans.” (same site)
Travel, Adventure, and Discipline
“People often talk about a skill that you are supposed to learn in the military: discipline. It’s something that is valued highly. But what kind of discipline will you learn? Do you want to learn how to make decisions on your own or learn how to follow someone else’s orders? The military takes care of every detail, telling you where, when, and how to do everything. Maybe that’s the kind of discipline you think you need. But it isn’t the kind of discipline most of us need in the real world. We need to think on our own and be responsible for making our own decisions.” (same site)
Who Goes Into the Military?
“It’s a form of economic discrimination, sometimes called economic conscription or an economic draft, that forces lower income people into the military in order to earn a living, try to learn a trade, or get money for their education. The American Council on Education even attributes a drop in black college enrollment to more aggressive military recruiting in the 1980s. The worst thing is that often those who feel they must
go into the military to learn a trade, or earn money for school, don’t even get what they believe they were promised!” (same site)
For additional information about military recruitment, check out CCCO’s Third World Outreach Program at www.objector.org.
War and Killing
“Above all else, the military is an institution with one overriding purpose: to prepare for and fight wars. You literally sign your life over to the military. Some who joined the military before the Gulf War didn’t fully realize this until they were faced with an actual war in Afghanistan or Iraq. Don’t make the same mistake they made. If you’re going to join the military, be prepared to fight a war, even a war you may not agree with. It could be a war we “lose,” as in Vietnam. Or, it could be a war we “win,” as in Kuwait. Either way, people are killed, and you are likely to be trained to kill them. You can find US veterans who can’t forget some of the awful things they saw and had to do during war. Is that the kind of risk you want to take to finance your college education?” (see same website: www.objector.org/beforeyouenlist/mths.html)
