Tuesday, July 29, 2008

There's Wrong, and then there's Army Wrong

I've shared my Army recruiting story on this blog before. I know that recruiters will resort to interesting measures in an attempt to get their quotas - and yes, they have quotas.

Three years ago, the army had problems with recruiters threatening and intimidating potential recruits, such as suggesting missing an appointment would result in a warrant for violation of federal law. It looks like the Army has not yet learned its lesson, as the same recruiting station has been taped threatening Delayed Entry soldiers with jail for being AWOL if they change their mind (they are allowed to change their mind). This from KHOU news in Houston, through Yahoo!

Stories like these highlight the difficulty that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan pose to the military - recruiters are desperate to get their numbers up, to keep the flow going in; particularly when attrition could be an issue. What is unfortunate is that the complaints and disciplinary actions seem to be increasig when they shouldn't. These situations reflect poorly on the military, and that in itself can cause an increase in recruiting problems. What we need, though, is a decreased demand on our military capacity - fewer troops overseas; less strain on the infrastructure. Then people will be more willing to sign up.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Or pay them more money. While I'm sure individuals have many reasons for joining the military, I'm also sure that in aggregate, raising salaries will raise participation.