When Marine recruiters go way beyond the call

Seattle Post-Intelligencer ^ | June 9, 2005 | Susan Paynter

[KillBill]

For mom Marcia Cobb and her teenage son Axel, the white letters USMC on their caller ID soon spelled, "Don't answer the phone!"

Marine recruiters began a relentless barrage of calls to Axel as soon as the mellow, compliant Sedro-Woolley High School grad had cut his 17th birthday cake. And soon it was nearly impossible to get the seekers of a few good men off the line.

With early and late calls ringing in their ears, Marcia tried using call blocking. And that's when she learned her first hard lesson. You can't block calls from the government, her server said. So, after pleas to "Please stop calling" went unanswered, the family's "do not answer" order ensued.

But warnings and liquid crystal lettering can fade. So, two weeks ago when Marcia was cooking dinner Axel goofed and answered the call. And, faster than you can say "semper fi," an odyssey kicked into action that illustrates just how desperate some of the recruiters we've read about really are to fill severely sagging quotas.

[KillBill]

One of my liberal acquaintances sent me this article, and I was wondering what you all thought of it. Considering the paper is in Seattle, I wouldn't be surprised if much of it is liberal "exaggerations", but if they just didn't make this up I think there are some serious problems with our military recruiting today.

[AppyPappy]

He probably signed something that showed his interest in the Marines to get a prize. His mom doesn't know he did it.

[stylin19a]

I hope there is a follow-up...to see if the recruiters are taken to task.

[Cicero]

Well, my reading of this column is:

a) A naive, gullible, leftist P-I reporter;

b) A naive, gullible teenager who probably volunteered to join the marines for some reason;

c) A leftist mother who doesn't want her son in the marines, and as she herself admits is willing to tell any kind of whopper to get him out.

In other words, the fairly common story of a boy who wanted to join up and a mother who didn't want her boy to join up because she's worried for his safety and thinks that war is evil. It's the only theory I can frame that makes much sense.

[conservativeharleyguy]

""I've been trained to be pretty friendly. I guess you might even say I'm kind of passive," Axel told me last week"

That statement right there means he has no place in the military. He'll just get other, better men than him killed, while he stands around w/his thumb up his a**, being "passive" (as he was trained by mommy, big sister and pop culture to be).

The Marines don't need him, or his kind. They need young men who are "trained to be pretty aggressive".

Bet 'ya a dollar that he's a single mommy's boy w/o any positive male role models.

[RexBeach]

Another superb example of the remarkable bias against the military in our media.

I used to be a reporter in Washington, DC, and searching for story ideas that make our men and women in uniform look bad is a varsity sport here. In liberal Seattle, they must have an Olympic team for this endeavor.

I would pay very little attention to this item.

[XJarhead]

I'm smelling yet another stinky liberal trying to smear the Marines.

The article says this all occured just as he was blowing out the candles on his 17th birthday cake, right? Well, you cannot enlist before your 18th birthday without a parent's written consent. So whatever these alleged papers were that he signed, they could not possibly have been valid enlistment papers if he was only 17.

Just another smear.

[American_Centurion]

The Marines don't need him, or his kind. They need young men who are "trained to be pretty aggressive"

I think they boy would be a benefit to the Corps, either used as an example to the other recruits in his platoon when the DI washes him out, or his pair will drop and he'll become a hard-charging devil dog. There really aren't any other options once you're there.

I'm certain that when I was 17-18 years old I wasn't Marine material, but thanks to 4 dedicated DIs I became a man. Funny how they tend to do that.

[Junior]

I've been in the military on-and-off for the past 19 years. I can say truthfully that there are some really underhanded recruiters out there. Maybe this kid just happened to run into one.

[DTogo]

Sooner rather than later, Axel had better stop letting Mom strangle him with her apron strings.

Other than that, the author's just another Bush/US/military-hating NorthWestern Neocomm.

[shellshocked]

The kid probably showed interest to the recruiter and mommy doesn't want her on to enlist. Son doesn't want his mommy to know he'd like to enlist. Happens frequently.

[MeanWestTexan]

Yep.

A recruiter has better things to do than chase dead leads.

[sarasota]

There ARE serious problems with recruiting. Enlistment is down across the board. I met a senior Army office recently who told me that he doesn't see how America will be able to avoid the draft much longer. (In spite of the closings around the world.)

[KillBill]

That's what struck me as odd when I read the article. Of all the people to recruit, why this kid? He doesn't seem like the type we want in the military, especially if he's so reluctant to go for whatever reason, even if it is mommy not wanting him to go.

[elc]

"Bet 'ya a dollar that he's a single mommy's boy w/o any positive male role models."

Well, his father did die when he was 4. Or did you not get that far in the article?

[Servant of the 9]

"They were telling me I needed to 'be a man' and stand up to my family," Axel said.

What he needed, it turned out, was a lawyer.

Waht he needed was a set of stones.
Why would the Marines want anyone so vague and gutless?

So9

[coder2]

My 17-yr-old son has received a few calls from a Marine recruiter.

After speaking to him briefly the last time a few months ago, it was left that if my son wished to join, to please feel free to stop by the recruiters office to talk.

That's it, no pressure, nothing. Of course my son is only 17; maybe things will change when he turns 18, I'm not sure. But during the conversation, my son said he was very interested in joining. Since then, he has developed an interest in the Coast Guard, but who knows. A lot can happen in the next year.

So I'm really not sure if I'm buying this... Of course as another poster said, there can always be bad recruiters.

[BBell]

When I went through boot camp the platoon was full of these types. Mama's boys who wanted to be Men. Most of them turned out fine.

[BBell]

Part of the problem with recruitment is location. In Seattle recruitment may be difficult but goals still have to be met. In other parts of the country recruitment is easy so extreme measures are not called for.

[Bluegrass Conservative]

He probably signed something that showed his interest in the Marines to get a prize. His mom doesn't know he did it.

I do sympathize for this kid because this happened to me as well! The military has every high school junior (might be senior, I can't remember exactly) take a test called the ASVAB . . . at least they did when I was in high school.

I'm the type of person that hates to perform poorly on a test, even if there is no incentive to do well. I ended up scoring in the top 1% in the nation on the test.

From that point up until I graduated from high school (and even somewhat after I was in college) I received phone calls from the military no less than 3 times a week. The Marines were the worst at this. They repeatedly pressured me to meet with them until I finally agreed to let them take me to lunch one day for pizza. I spelled it out to them at that point that I was NOT interested in joining the Marines. They kept badgering me on how I was stupid for wanting to go to college (yes, they used that phrase) and how the Marines could provide me anything that college could, plus more.

I have the highest respect for our military and the people in it . . . except military recruiters. I have little respect for them since that whole ordeal.