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Parent-Trap Snares Recruiters
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ^ | August 11, 2005

Posted on 08/11/2005 10:32:28 AM PDT by Wolfie

Parent-Trap Snares Recruiters

The tune changes at some homes when they hear 'sign here'

Staff Sgt. Jason Rivera, 26, a Marine recruiter in Pittsburgh, went to the home of a high school student who had expressed interest in joining the Marine Reserve to talk to his parents.

It was a large home in a well-to-do suburb north of the city. Two American flags adorned the yard. The prospect's mom greeted him wearing an American flag T-shirt.

"I want you to know we support you," she gushed.

Rivera soon reached the limits of her support.

"Military service isn't for our son. It isn't for our kind of people," she told him.

"Parental consent is the toughest thing we face right now," said Rivera's boss, Maj. Michael Sherman, 36, commander of the recruiting battalion headquartered in Pittsburgh. "There are so many kids just waiting for their 18th birthday, so they can enlist."

(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: bsstory; military
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"Military service isn't for our son. It isn't for our kind of people," she told him.

Isn't that special?

1 posted on 08/11/2005 10:32:29 AM PDT by Wolfie
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To: Wolfie

Guess we can call them PINO's (Patriots In Name Only.)


2 posted on 08/11/2005 10:34:10 AM PDT by ladtx ( "Remember your regiment and follow your officers." Captain Charles May, 2d Dragoons, 9 May 1846)
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To: Wolfie
The mother in the story is an idiot. Why can't she say, "I don't think he's ready at 17--when he's 18, it's up to him"? She can say no without actually thumbing her nose at the military and everyone in it...
3 posted on 08/11/2005 10:34:24 AM PDT by Shalom Israel (Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.)
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To: Wolfie

"Military service isn't for our son. It isn't for our kind of people," she told him."

And what kind of people would that be? Turds?


4 posted on 08/11/2005 10:34:31 AM PDT by WKUHilltopper
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To: Wolfie

I wonder if the freedom provided by the military service of others is for "her kind of people."


5 posted on 08/11/2005 10:34:53 AM PDT by ConservativeWarrior
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To: Wolfie

Why do I doubt the accuracy of that quote? Matter of fact, why do I doubt that this woman even exists?


6 posted on 08/11/2005 10:38:01 AM PDT by The G Man (The Red States ... the world's only hope for survival.)
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To: Wolfie

A carefully planned 'Hawks are hypocrites' story.


7 posted on 08/11/2005 10:38:52 AM PDT by atomicpossum (Replies should be as pedantic as possible. I love that so much.)
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To: Wolfie
""Military service isn't for our son. It isn't for our kind of people," she told him."

The Belmont Club blog had a post where it noted the percentage of Americans serving in the civil war and WWII vice Americans serving today. Something like 75% of men btwn the ages of 18 and 45 were in uniform in both of the earlier wars compared with 2% today. Parents may "support" the troops, but God forbid junior becoming one of them.

8 posted on 08/11/2005 10:40:17 AM PDT by jjm2111 (99.7 FM Radio Kuwait)
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To: Wolfie
"Military service isn't for our son. It isn't for our kind of people," she told him.

Our kind of people???

9 posted on 08/11/2005 10:41:52 AM PDT by Mo1
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To: Wolfie
Maybe. I think the story smells a bit. Why would she approach a Marine, gush that she supported him, then say something incredibly rude? She must've known why he was standing in her yard.

The main problem highlighted in the article seems to be that Army reserve is way off its goal, and I'll bet anything THAT is because they're losing all the people who used to sign up for the benefits in the belief that America would never be in another shooting war in a zillion years.

10 posted on 08/11/2005 10:42:34 AM PDT by prion (Yes, as a matter of fact, I AM the spelling police)
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To: jjm2111
75% of men btwn the ages of 18 and 45 were in uniform - that is hard to believe
11 posted on 08/11/2005 10:48:20 AM PDT by SF Republican
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To: Wolfie
"Military service isn't for our son. It isn't for our kind of people," she told him.

She's right. It's for people who are better than her.

12 posted on 08/11/2005 10:52:21 AM PDT by Prime Choice (E=mc^3. Don't drink and derive.)
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To: WKUHilltopper

You guys are falling into a trap. The Pittsburgh Putz-Gazoo is a labor/dem rag and they are trying to say that well-to-do types (republicans)say they support the war but won't let their kids fight, it is poor kids that have to fight.


13 posted on 08/11/2005 10:53:37 AM PDT by Soliton (Alone with everyone else.)
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To: Wolfie

This sounds like the Andrew Sullivan column a couple years ago where he basicly said that (paraphrasing from memory) military service is for the proles, not for the likes of me.


14 posted on 08/11/2005 10:55:07 AM PDT by Peter vE (Ceterum censeo: delenda est Carthago.)
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To: Soliton

That's what my dad said and he was a WW2 vet. And he volunteered. He said that if you are smart enough to get intol college, you have no reason to be in the military.


15 posted on 08/11/2005 10:56:39 AM PDT by AppyPappy
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To: Soliton

S,
Yeah, that's such a line of dooky. I can't believe anyone falls for the "poor have to fight" stuff.

No one makes anyone enlist, poor, rich, white, or black.


16 posted on 08/11/2005 10:57:47 AM PDT by Gefreiter ("Are you drinking 1% because you think you're fat?")
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To: Soliton
The Pittsburgh Putz-Gazoo

ROFL!!!

17 posted on 08/11/2005 10:58:31 AM PDT by MarineBrat (We are taxed twice as much by our idleness. -- Benjamin Franklin)
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To: Wolfie

What a bitch. She thinks the lesser of us should be in the military. I didn't have to enlist. I had options, but I felt strongly I wanted to give something for my country. Hearing people express attitudes that self-centered boil my blood.

If her son was disabled or something, that's fine. If not, then taking 4 years out of his life would be a great experience for him. It was for me.


18 posted on 08/11/2005 10:59:35 AM PDT by DuckFan4ever (Proud Bushiite.)
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To: Wolfie
Military service or National service should be MANDATORY for EVERYONE. We would have less societal problems & more understanding of why this country exists.Unfortunately, the boomers who turned left & the current crop of mad dog liberals will never allow it too happen."That state which seperates it's warriors from it's scholars will have it's thinking done by cowards and fighting done by fools" Thucydides - The Pelopenisia
19 posted on 08/11/2005 11:02:21 AM PDT by Apercu ("Res ipsa loquitor")
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To: Wolfie

My mother wouldn't have signed either and told me so, and that was back in 92-93. I waited till I was 18 and signed for myself.


20 posted on 08/11/2005 11:04:12 AM PDT by cotton1706
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