Draft: Intervention, 1983-1984

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A MILITARY INVASION OF
OUR HIGH SCHOOLS

*ekfrom Draft NOtices, newsletter of San
Diego Committee Against Registration and
the Draft (September/October 1983)***

The Reagan Administration has clearly
stated its intention to expand both the
size of the armed forces and its role in
the conduct of our foreign policy. The
key to success for this plan may be what
is happening right now in high schools
across the nation, including San Diego,
where the presence of the armed forces
(and the Selective Service System) is
becoming as common as classes in social
studies and English.

According to the Task Force on Re-
cruitment and Militarism in Philadel-
phia, "Since the draft was put on stand-
by in 1973, American schools have been
the Pentagon's biggest source of man-
and womanpower. Because school atten-
dance is complusory, the military is
eager to make recruiting a normal part
of the school day...In-school recruiting
insures the military automatic access to
our young people at a critical time when
they are forming their values and making
career plans."

_ Last year an astounding $500 million
was budgeted for all military recruit
‘ment! This aggressive effort to con-
vince young people to enter the mili-
tary, along with the depressed job
situation, has caused military recruit-
ment quotas to be overfilled, and high
schools are where many of these people
are signing up. One North San Diego
County recruiter indicated that the
highest percentage of enlistees are high
school seniors who sign up under a
delayed entry program. According to
Marine Sgt. Dave Stevenson, the number
of Marine recruits in the coastal area
from San Clemente to Del Mar has doubled
in the last three years (Coast Dispatch,
3/30/83).

dust how is this assault on our
schools taking place? What are some of
the methods that are being used to con-
vince’ so many high schools students to
enlist?

Recruiters are still using the stan-
dard, slick, four-color brochures, pos-

ters, and booklets that are placed in
permanent racks in high school counsel-

‘ing offices. Now there is even a free

monthly magazine -wiwth articles especi-
ally designed to appeal to young peo-
ple's interests, and which contains ads
only for the military. It is distributed
to students with the acceptance and
cooperation of school administrators and
teachers.

Virtually every school in San Diego
County has a career center that includes
desk space for recruiters. In at least
one school in North County students are
sometimes involuntarily called out of
classes to visit the recruiter and
receive a pitch.

When they see students, recruiters
will often ask them for information on
their schoolmates, especially about
their grades, which can then be used by
recruiters to formulate pitches for
these other individuals.

Schools in San Diego County, and else-
where, are presently giving recruiters
student directory lists that contain
student names, addresses, and sometimes
other information. The information is
then used to contact students at home,
often with an obnoxious persistence.

While students and their parents have
the legal right to request that this
directory information not be released,
at least one county school has ignored
such requests in past years and released
all names to the military. Probably
others have also done so.

Another way military recruiters obtain
information on students is through the
Armed Forces Vocational Aptitude Battery
test (ASVAB), which is administered to
high school students under the guise of
vocational guidance. Sponsored by the
military, this test is supposed to be
voluntary, but in fact many students are
led to believe it is mandatory, and most
do not realize it is really intended to
provide recruiters with detailed per-
sonal information on potential recruits.

Special displays are set up whenever
local high schools hold “career days."
And the military is now resorting to
spectacular shows of high technology and
battle equipment that are designed to
flake the military look like a giant fun

center. At one San Diego County school,
the recruitment effort was aided by the
mid-day landing on school grounds of a
full-sized military helicopter contain-
ing troops. Some schools have been
visited by tanks and other military
"toys."

When a student sits down with a
recruiter, he or she may be subjected to
the new "touching" technique. At some
point during the discussion, the re-
cruiter will touch the potential enlist-
ee's elbow, wrist, arm, or hand in a
suppportive manner, without the pros-
pective recruit being consciously aware
of it (San Diego Union, 1/25/83). This
is designed to pu’ @ person in a more
relaxed, more receptive mood that,
according to San Diego area recruiters,
has doubled their sign-up rate!

The military recruiting program has
run into some problems and drawn crit-
icism when scrutinized. A 1979 Congres-
sional report held: "The U.S. military's
onigoing...recruitment drive is so full
of unethical and misleading advertising
claims that a private company using the
same tactics would be hauled into
court."

Stories often crop up that expose the
misleading character of recruiting, such
as the recnet account of a Navy recruit-
er who asked for a court-martial to get
out of his dury. Petty Officer Gary
Ropp said, "...I don't feel it's right
for me to push people into making a
decision that's not in their best
interest--even though that's what the
Navy wants me to do."

The Congressional report quoted a mas-
“ter sargeant in Dallas: "Salesmen don't
tell you things that will cause you not
to buy a product. If you are buying a
used car, the salesman won't tell you
what is wrong with the car."

North. San Diego County recruiter
Stevensen admits that the experiences of
people who have been through the mili-
tary experience can have an effect on
potential enlistees. "Some dads don't
want their kids ot go through what they
went through. A lot of second-generation
kids don't want to join by virtue of the
fact their dads went in."

8
The massive investment of personnel

1G

and money to establish an institutional
presence by the military in our high
schools has serious political implica-
tions. It is designed not only to im-
prove recruiting results, but also to
reestablish the more positive image of
the military held in young people's
minds prior to Vietnam. Says Stevenson,
"Anti-military feeling is still around
in pockets, but the climate is improv-
ing. It's becoming more acceptable to be
in the military."

Integrating the armed forces into the
everyday experience of the younger seg-
ment of society creates the foundation
for militarism and, as such, it poses a
threat to our freedom and lives, to say
nothing of its implication for the rest
of the world, which: is also directly
affected by U.S. policies.

For those who are concerned about the
military invasion of our schools, it is
urgent that they act now. Since the
Selective Service is now focusing on
high schools in order to salvage the
draft registration program, it could be
that high school outreach will be the
most effective way to prevent military
intervention or a nuclear war in the
near future.

A key factor will be the ability to
gain equal tmie to present alternative
information on military service. and the
draft. In the past, when CARD or any
other anti-militarism group has managed
to arrange a presentation at a high
school, administrators have usually
insisted on having a presentation by
military recruiters for the “other”
side. It is time for such groups to
demand to be allowed to present their
side on the basis that the military is
already continuously present Im our
schools. And the opportunity to present

alternative inforomation should be
granted on an equal basis with

recruiters and Selective Service,

Last year in Palm Beach, Florida, a
draft counseling group won a judgement
in Federal court allowing them to have
the same opportunities as recruiters to
display literature, leaflet on school
grounds, advertise in school papers, and
make classroom’ presentations. Similar
legal action is being taken by Clergy
and Laity Concerned in Chicago, and San

Diego CARD is pursuing a suit to estab-
lish its legal right to submit ads to
high school newspapers.

Such local actions can succeed only
when there is support in the form of
legal and financial resources, and they
will not be sufficient in themselves if
there are no groups able to use the
opportunities that are opened up.

San Diego CARD invites concerned
students, parents, and others to join us
in an effort this school year to stop
the trend and push back the invasion of
our high schools by the military. It is
being done in other places by students
and community members working together.
There is no reason why we can't do the
same here.

kK *
San Diego CARD's address is: P.O. Box
15195, San Diego, CA 92115. 619/283-

6878, 619/753-7518.

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ASVAB: ARMED SERVICES VOCATION
“ASSAULT AND BATTERY"

(from Draft NOtices, newsletter of San
Diego alifornia) Committee Against
Registration and the Draft, Oct. 1983)

The Armed Services Vocation Aptitude
Battery (ASVAB) is one of the military's
fastest growing recruitment tools. The
test battery is designed to identify
students with military aptitudes and
interest them in signing up. Depsite the
military's effort to promote ASVAB as a
civilian career counseling tool, a Con-
gressional investigation has established
the fact that the validity of the test
for civilian jobs has not been proven.
Former Ohio Republican Congressman
Charles Mosher claimed that ASVAB has no
proven value for anyone except the
military and he urged schools to realize
that the test is used as a cover
recruiting device.

ASVAB is valuable to the enlistment
campaign because it allows the military
face-to-face contact with students at
the time the test is administered and
because recruiters receive personal in-

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Tormation about students who take the
fgst. including names, addresses, social
secucrity and phone numbers, and plans
after graduation. Test information is
stored in military data banks for two
years.

Although ASVAB was designed to iden-
tify above-average individuals for mili-
tary recruitment with little or no re-
gard for accurate assessment at the
lower end of the scale, it is being
promoted as a counseling tool for all
levels of ability. —_—

ASVAB is administered to approximately
1 million students per year. Although it
is an inferior aptitude test, the proba-
ble reason schools use it is that it is
furnished and administered "free-of-
charge" to the participating schools.
Although there is no charge to the indi-
vidual taking the test or to the school,
ASVAB costs taxpayers nearly $6 million
a year to administer.

Students, as well as parents, teach-
ers, and counselors are not usually
aware of the true natures of the ASVAB
and the uses to which it is put. And,

}

WAVE YOU GOT A
“WELL NO NE WON'T GO" GAME P

although it jis not mandatory, many
students are led to believe they are
required to take it.

We encourage people to become aware of

ASVAB testing at their local schools and
to question the schools' use of this
test by contacting school administrators
and/or school board members. Al so,
please contact CARD regarding any infor-
mation you may have about ASVAB use in
your local schools.
-- from Draft NOtices (San Diego CARD)--
[Note: Last year in Cambridge, Massachu-
setts a group of concerned parents suc-
cessfully pressured the Cambridge schooi
a to prohibit the use of the ASVAB
est.