Military Recruiting Vans Draw Fire

A ninth grader in a suburban Washington DC classroom is delighted to be excused from Algebra class to spend a half hour shooting a life-like 9 MM pistol and lobbing explosive ordinance from an M1A2 Abrams tank simulator. At the same time 3,000 miles away in La Habra, California, a 15 year-old girl is released from English class to squeeze off rounds from a very real looking M-16 rifle. The kids thoroughly enjoy the experience, especially the part about getting out of class.

The two students have experienced the Army’s Adventure Van, a 60-foot, 30-ton 18-wheeler with several interactive exhibits that bring an adrenaline rush and glorify weaponry and combat. The Army’s 19 vans frequent various community events and two thousand schools a year, generating more than 63,000 recruiter leads. In addition to the Adventure Van, the Army has three other 18-wheelers for recruiting purposes. The Aviation Recruiting Van contains an AH 64 Helicopter flight simulator and an interactive air warrior and weapons display.

The American Soldier Adventure Van has an interactive air/land warrior display and a future warrior display. The Army Marksmanship Trainer has an interactive rifle range.

In addition to the fleet of 18-wheelers, the Army has four RockWalls, the popular rock climbing wall for youth. The Army also brings machine gun toting humvees, tanks and other military vehicles on high school campuses to enhance their recruiting efforts. Both the Army and Air Force have their own recruiting motorcycles.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/26/5440/print/

to show these kids the physical cost and pain and suffering of war? Do they bring along family members of dead soldiers to reminisce about lives cut short?

I didn't think so.

This is propaganda and bullshit, and schools ought to be ashamed of themselves for letting these guys on campus and allowing students who should be concentrating on their classwork out of class to play soldier.

Disgusting and repulsive.

do they bring the young interns that burn out after working 60 hour weeks, do they bring the RNs and LPNs who work the emergency rooms in large cities that see the results of young kids shooting other young kids, and the personnel who work the floors for children suffering from terminal cancer to tell their stories?

When lawyers go to schools for career day, do they tell the stories about how they found a loophole or technicality in the law that allowed a drunk driver to beat a conviction and then later killed a family because they got behind the wheel while drunk again and ran into someone?


I didn't think so.

Furthermore, anyone who joins the military knows that there is a chance that they will end up in a place where people do not like them and are actively trying to kill them.


I think that it is disgusting and repulsive that some people consider the young men and women who are looking at joining the military to be either stupid or bloodthirsty barbarians bent on raping and pillaging while killing as many small children as possible before they go to bed each night.


There are quite a few of us veterans who found the military to be a good thing that we did. While I was in, I learned a great deal of self confidence, earned the money I needed to go to college, and found myself growing in ways I never dreamed possible.

than 9th grade. Army recruiters have no business pulling 14 and 15 year olds out of class to play soldier. Period.

I spent most of my younger years with my grandfather as my role model and he impressed upon me the importance of God, family, and country.

glamorizing the military by bringing in flashy roadshows to impress young teens - who ought to be focused on their schoolwork during school hours - is just wrong.

Kids contemplating any career ought to be exposed to the bad as well as the good. If my daughter wanted to go into the medical field, you can bet I'd take her to a hospital and show her what it's about. If she wanted to join the military, I'd seek out vets who could share their experiences - good and bad. I certainly wouldn't let the rosy picture painted by the recruiters be the final word. Likewise with any profession. Young people, especially, need to be given the whole picture before they make potentially life-altering decisions about their future.

and make false promises? Did they tell you war is just like a video game? That's what they are telling these kids today.

I also agree with the other poster. 14 year olds are not ready to make a decision this dramatic. When the recruiters started calling my son at age 14, I went ballistic.

Here is how a group of IVAW members dealt with recruiters they found who were using video games to lure kids into the military: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHz4a_sgqCg

How Christian.