Kids Rebel, But It’s Not Easy
This link over at Blackfive might have an alternate explanation.
So, two weeks ago when Marcia was cooking dinner Axel goofed and answered the call. And, faster than you can say “semper fi,” an odyssey kicked into action that illustrates just how desperate some of the recruiters we’ve read about really are to fill severely sagging quotas.
Let what we learned serve as a warning to other moms, dads and teens, the Cobbs now say. Even if your kids actually may want to join the military, if they hope to do it on their own terms, after a deep breath and due consideration, repeat these words after them: “No,” “Not now” and “Back off!”
“I’ve been trained to be pretty friendly. I guess you might even say I’m kind of passive,” Axel told me last week, just after his mother and older sister had tracked him to a Seattle testing center and sprung him on a ruse.
The next step of Axel’s misadventure came when he heard about a cool “chin-ups” contest in Bellingham, where the prize was a free Xbox. The now 18-year-old Skagit Valley Community College student dragged his tail feathers home uncharacteristically late that night. And, in the morning, Marcia learned the Marines had hosted the event and “then had him out all night, drilling him to join.”
It might just be that the kid, for the first time in his life, is making an adult decision, and it’s hard to avoid blaming those nasty recruiters for considering a path his momma didn’t want. So, the nasty recruiters are a good scapegoat–”it wasn’t me that signed that paper, it was those guys who MADE ME”.
2 Responses to “Kids Rebel, But It’s Not Easy”
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July 6th, 2005 at 11:52 am
This story made the papers in Iowa City, Iowa today and a member of the local liberal paper’s writers(Jane Yoder-Short) group proceeded to talk about her duty as a Mom to warn all individuals about the “less than honorable” techniques that were being used by our military recruiters.
I am a former Marine Officer who served 13 years on active duty, I was offended by Ms. Yoder-Shorts remarks.
So I checked on Ms. Yoder-Shorts claims and the references she made to the Paynter artcile and found them
to be dubious at best. When I was recuited 22 years ago, the rescruiters were on the up and up with me as they wer with my son
8 years ago when he enlisted in the Marines out of high school and served honorably for 4 years.
My daughters both date soldiers who serve in either the Army reserve or National Guard, one of whom served in Iraq in 2004,
the other scheduled to deploy in January 2006. Neither of those fine young men indicated they were lied to or misled.
It appears my local newspaper, the Iowa City Press Citizen failed to verify the specious claims made by Ms. Yoder Short and her
references to the “misconduct” of recuiters in Seattle.
If anyone would be interested in setting Ms. Yoder straight, as well as the Iowa City Press Citizen by sending
rebuttal comments or additional insight to the Paynter story, their website is
http://www.press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/99999999/ABOUTUS/40723005
Howard W. Vernon III
Major, USMCR(Ret)
July 6th, 2005 at 12:21 pm
[...] Via Press
Filed under: General Military — chap @ 12:21 pm
Earlier I commented on a Seattle paper’s efforts at describing a recruiting story in terms that seemed to not [...]