Former Marine recruiter laments career, blasts military

SPRINGFIELD — Former Marine Sgt. James Massey spent eight years talking high school kids into joining the military. Now he is trying to talk them out of it.
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The Texas native told about 80 students that his heart was changed when he saw the U.S. military slaughtering Iraqi civilians during his 2003 deployment to the country.

Before that deployment, Massey worked for eight years as a Marine recruiter, trying to meet his monthly quota. He said he frequently urged recruits to hide prior drug use, medical conditions or criminal records.

"I lied, I cheated, I begged, I borrowed and I stole," he said. "I did anything to find my quota, to get bodies in the Marine Corps."
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One senior who plans to join the Marines after graduation this year found a number of Massey's points offensive.

"Why do you object to what they are doing, but have no problem taking $1,300 a month of taxpayer money?" asked Andrew Kesek, 18, of Springfield.

http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050404/NEWS/504040316/1003

Name that falacy. OK, it's a non-sequitor.

All set to join the Marines and about to find out about a whole new world beyond his little nascent Freeper tendencies, and can't understand why someone with PTSD is "taking" $1,300 a month in disability payments from the government that disabled him.

Marine drill instructors. I was one, at San Diego.

We had to deal with the consequences of the recruiters "doing anything" to meet their quotas.

Kids who were obvious mental defectives, with drug problems, medical problems, junior jailbirds, barely literate, etc. etc.

We got a kid one time who had a giant ugly scar covering half his head. It wasn't visible until his head was shaved.

At first he claimed it was from a motorcycle accident. When he went for the physical exam, a Navy doctor found out the truth: he had a steel plate in his head!

If that plate had moved--a distinct possibility given the physical demands of Boot Camp--the kid would have died.

I felt sorry for that one. He was from Uptown Chicago, the hillbilly ghetto, and just wanted to improve his life.

Oh, the steel plate? He got it when his drunken stepfather was playing with a gun and it went off. The bullet grazed the kid's skull. I think he said he was 8 yrs. old when that happened.

That all those little cover-ups and white lies that the recruiter tells his young client to tell will come back to bite the soldier in the ass when it's time for the military to come through on its obligations after the recruit has served his or her time:

"Oh, you DO have a criminal conviction from when you were a minor? It says here on your application that you have no criminal convictions. Son, the U.S. government doesn't take to liars."

"But I've served my six years! I got individual and unit citations! I did everything I was asked to do and more!"

"Sorry, but Uncle Sam doesn't have to keep its promises to liars. Now, in exchange for giving up your benefits, we won't prosecute you for false swearing. You DID see that language at the bottom of your recruitment form that you swore every answer was true and correct, didn't you? You could be prosecuted and face up to five years in jail and a $10,000 fine."

I was rip shit when I found out :mad: Thankfully, my bro ended up not signing up any way.

That is about all that needs to be said. The German people were just as quiet about what their government was doing as Americans are too. Hey, look over there. Dead pope.

Don