Free Republic

There was a good program on HBO recently. You might find it interesting. It is basically segments showing the life of an Army recruiter and the difficult job that he has. It will be shown again tonight. Show: The Recruiter Set in a small Louisiana town, this HBO documentary focuses on Sergeant First Clas Clay Usie, one of the most prolific U.S. military recruiters. Cameras follow four of Usie’s high school recruits as they lead up to basic training and then follow up with them after, up until the point that some of them are deployed to Iraq. Rated TVMA:...

"Finally, a member of Congress has announced a laudable plan to do something about the abusive behavior of demonstrators of the anti-war left. Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, has introduced legislation to deal with what he has described as “a growing number of our fellow citizens [who] are abusing their right of free expression through vandalism and violent protest aimed at military recruiters and those who wish to serve.”" Finally someone talking serious about Code Pink's anarchical activities. There are a lot more examples of Code Pink's crimes then noted in the article....

At lunch time, May 16, 2008, several members of the DC Chapter of Free Republic thanked the military recruiters at the Silver Spring, Md. Military Recruiting Center (MRC) and at the L St., NW, Washington, DC, MRC, for their service to our country. SILVER SPRING MCR REPORT:At noon, Mr and Mrs Trooprally, Cindy_True_Supporter, Kburi and PrezUSA222 carried pizza, soda, patriotic balloons and Certificates of Appreciation into the Recruiting Center. (Pics are by [Mrs] T). We spent some time talking with Navy and Marine recruiters. It was a good break for them and gave us a chance to express our thanks...

Gathering of Eagles has just announced Recruiter Appreciation Day, Saturday, May 17 or there abouts. Being a Saturday, some recruiter stations have shortened hours or are closed. Friday or Monday might be a better day. As in other Support the Troop Events, one organization steps forward to be the main coordinating organization. GoE has once again stepped up to the plate this year. Check out the GOE site for pertinent info. Hopefully no one doubles up on a Recruiter Station while one across town is neglected.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 6, 2007 – Every time he meets someone -- be it the newsboy, the bagger at the local grocery or the spectator at the high school football game -- Army Sgt. Charles “Rob” Myers mentally puts them into one of two categories: those he can recruit into the Army and those who can help him recruit someone else. “When I go out and talk to people, if they’re between the ages 17 and 41, I automatically assume that they’re somebody who could join the Army,” he said. “If they’re outside that age group, I consider them somebody who...

WASHINGTON, July 30, 2007 – A Navy SEAL recruiter went the extra mile – or extra 135 miles, to be exact – to reach athletes who may have the fitness and drive to make it through the notoriously difficult SEAL training course. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class David Goggins crosses Death Valley alongside French competitor Albert Vallee in the Badwater Ultramarathon. Photo by Seaman Michael Lindsey, USN  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class David Goggins, assigned to the Naval Special Warfare Recruiting Directorate in Coronado, Calif., competed in and finished third place in the...

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - A suburban parking official is threatening to auction off a Marine Corps recruiter's car tied to nearly $5,000 in unpaid tickets, part of what the city claims is the Corps' roughly $94,000 tab. "We've tried to be reasonable, but all we've been getting is the run-around," Parking Commissioner Albert Moroni said. The car will be put up for sale in September unless the fines are paid, he said. The vehicle, bearing U.S. government license plates and a Marine Corps decal, was parked in a city garage without payment, according to Moroni. It has racked up 94...

Because some of the Military recruiting offices are closed on Saturday, and also because some of us went to them today, I am starting this thread early for all who participate to add their pictures and stories of support for our Military Recruiters.

Requested to post and update you all on ORA.Less than two weeks into this important effort, and with a month still to go, we already have over 125 commitments across 37 states! Plus hundreds of inquiries on top of that, and I know at least a few state coordinators are working on efforts behind the scenes. Although I know it will change, as of right now we do not yet have ORA (Operation Recruiter Appreciation) representation from: AR, DC, DE, ID, KS, LA, MT, NE, NM, OR, RI, SD, WI, WY, Pizza has been a very popular selection (who doesn't...

LAKE ORION, Mich. - He was a stern-faced sniper — and a soft-hearted Marine who handed out candy to kids in Iraq. He was a warrior who wrote poetry about life and death. He was featured in Michael Moore's antiwar documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11," portrayed as an overzealous Marine recruiter who targeted poor kids. But Staff Sgt. Raymond Plouhar was far more complicated than that. And it was that complicated man who died in Iraq in late June, as he served with some of the same men he had recruited years ago. It was that complex man who was buried Friday,...

My daughter is talking to RECRUITER for military service, and we have someone coming by from the Army tonight. Can you please help me with questions to ask? We plan to talk to all branches before she decides. Thank you for any help.

Since the New York Times and Wall Street Journal broke the news about the admission of Taliban official Sayeed Rahmatullah Hashemi to a special student program at Yale, we’ve received numerous emails from outraged Yale Alumni. One email stood out from the rest — "I won’t give Yale one red cent this year, but maybe I will give them a red fingernail instead!" She was referring to the Taliban’s policy of pulling the fingernails off of Afghani women who dared to wear fingernail polish. Some of these women even had their thumbs sliced off as punishment. To date, Mr. Rahmatullah...

MARINE CORPS RECRUITING STATION DENVER (Feb. 8, 2006) -- Making the transition from enlisted Marine to warrant officer is something that many Marines often dream of, but rarely act on. However, Chief Warrant Officer Thomas W. Walker, formerly a gunnery sergeant, has long established himself as a leader. He now looks forward to his next steps as an officer of Marines. “The Corps offers many bittersweet moments and this is one of them,” said Master Sgt. Al Matthews, assistant recruiter instructor for RS Denver. “I hate to see him go. He was an outstanding NCOIC and recruiter who, as a...

HADITHA DAM, Iraq (Jan. 10, 2006) -- When Staff Sgt. Barrett A. Kahl was a recruiter in South Boston, Va., he talked with prospective enlistees about the Marine Corps being the smallest, yet most respected organization in the U.S. military. Little did he know that one day those words would apply in his own life when he got the chance to reminisce with one of his recruits while deployed to Iraq. “I saw him here one day standing in the chow line,” said Kahl, a Jarrettsville, Md., native. “It was weird how we were stationed at the same base in...

As those thinking of becoming soldiers arrive on the slushy doorstep of the U.S. Army recruiting station here, they cannot miss the message posted in bold black letters on the storefront right next door. "Remember the Fallen Heroes," the sign reads, and then it ticks off numbers: the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq, the number wounded, the number of days gone by since the war began. The sign, put up by Scott Cameron, a former soldier, has stirred intense debate, though always polite, in this city along the western edge of Lake Superior. In a way, many of...

Before Saturday, Mary Music had never attended a war protest or a peace rally. As the parent of a Marine, she simply didn’t feel right about them. That’s not to say she didn’t think about the current war in Iraq, however. In fact, she thinks about it every day. Music’s son, Marine Cpl. Ian Freudenburg, is stationed in Fallujah. “I’d been invited to peace rallies several times before, but I never went,” Music said. “I felt I’d be betraying my son.” But after two years of war and worry, Music said it was she who felt betrayed — by the...

While the media have been focusing on the flap at Harvard growing out of its president's statement about the reasons for the under-representation of women in the sciences, a much worse and more revealing scandal has unfolded at the University of Seattle, where a student mob prevented a military recruiter from meeting with those students who wanted to meet with him. At first, the university president said that the student rioters should apologize. But the storm this created forced the typical academic administrator's back-down under pressure. One of the student rioters explained that she didn't want anyone to be sent...

Talk Show Host Tricks Navy Recruiter

The Liberal Photo/Tom Lynn Bix Firer is a recent graduate of Shorewood High School. Shorewood - Earlier this school year, when a military recruiter sought to buy an ad in Ripples - the student newspaper at this lakeside village's public high school - the recruiter met a less-than-friendly response. Bix Firer, 17, editor of the newspaper, rejected the offer, saying the U.S. military's actions run contrary to the advertising policy he drafted. The policy rebuffs businesses and organizations "deemed destructive to the social, economic and environmental health of the earth and all of its inhabitants." He also says he didn't...

THE alleged terrorist who police believe recruited the suicide bombers responsible for the deaths of 202 people in Bali last October is also thought to be a pivotal member of Abu Bakar Bashir's outlawed Jemaah Islamiah group. Heri Hafidin, an Indonesian national, has a long association with three alleged senior regional terrorists whom he studied with in Malaysia. They are Bali commander Imam Samudra, another JI figure detained in Malaysia, Zulkifli Marzuki, and a third man known as Faiz Bafana, who is thought to be the mastermind behind a plot to destroy Western targets in Singapore. Hafidin was arrested on...

Hamburg: Ahead of the September 11 attacks, German intelligence attempted to recruit an Islamic extremist who was a key link to the Hamburg terrorist cell of hijackers, according to a news report. The report in Der Spiegel magazine, due to hit newsstands tomorrow, says German intelligence approached Syrian-German terrorist suspect Mohammed Haidar Zammar. Zammar, currently in detention in Syria, is widely believed to have recruited the suicide pilots who hijacked planes and flew them into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. As early at 1996, however, German intelligence approached Zammar with a lucrative incitement to provide information on radical...

(8/27/02) — A navy recruiter reportedly took the law into his own hands when he shot a suspect being chased by police. The incident began Monday night when sheriff's deputy began chasing a suspect on Uvalde in east Harris County. The chase ended when the suspect crashed into another vehicle. The officer got out of the car with his weapon drawn. That's when police say a navy recruiter who knew the officer drove up and shot the suspect twice. The navy recruiter says the suspect was charging at him, but the suspect was shot in the back. The shooting is...