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TACTICS QUESTIONED: Military Recruiters Cause Concern for Some Parents

Posted on: Tuesday, 27 December 2005, 09:00 CST

By Jim Warren, The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky., The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky.

Dec. 27--Dawn Anestis was distressed and confused last summer when military recruiters suddenly started calling her son, Cameron.

She was not unfamiliar with military service -- Cameron was a member of the ROTC program at Bryan Station High School -- and she was not completely opposed to him joining up. But Cameron,17, wanted to go ahead and join the Marine Corps immediately under an early enlistment program, even though he would not graduate from high school for another year. And with America fighting a war in Iraq that seemed to have no end in sight, Dawn Anestis thought it was no time for her son to don a uniform.

"Part of if was that he was 17, and I did feel like he was being preyed on by the recruiters," she said. "I mean he's 17 and he's being heavily recruited. ... I was just appalled that someone would try to sway my son at that age."

After some intense negotiating that continued through summer and into fall, the Anestis family reached a compromise. Cameron put his enlistment plans on hold, and instead applied to The Citadel in Charleston, S.C., a military school. He has been accepted, and will enroll next fall after graduating from Bryan Station.

Cameron still wants to become a Marine after completing college, but his mother said that by then the war in Iraq might be over.

Across the country, these are stressful times for parents who find their children of high school age being courted by military recruiters. Even in the best of times, some parents might find it unsettling to answer the phone and find a recruiter on the line.

But even parents who might have accepted attention from recruiters in times of peace are more likely to worry when recruiters call in time of war -- particularly if their children already are interested in joining up. Parents are left wondering whether to encourage their children, or to oppose an enlistment decision that potentially could be a matter of life or death.

Group counsels 'opting out'

As a result, military recruiting itself has become more controversial.

Last summer, a coalition of groups launched a national campaign called "Leave My Child Alone!" It established a Web site that offers parents advice on how they can take advantage of a provision in the federal No Child Left Behind Act to keep schools from releasing their children's names, addresses and phone numbers to recruiters.

The act requires schools that receive federal funding to provide recruiters with student information. But it also allows parents to "opt out" by signing a statement directing the school not to release their children's names. Sponsors of Leave My Child Alone say they're not anti-military, but they simply don't think schools should provide information to recruiters without parental approval.

Schools vary in how they notify parents about the opt-out provision. Some send a form home that parents can sign and return. In the Fayette County public schools, the handbook given to all students contains a notice about how parents can opt out.

This year only about a dozen parents took advantage of the provision, according to the county school system. But school system spokeswoman Lisa Deffendall says officials have discussed going to some other notification system next school year.

Comparatively speaking, the number of young people who actually sign up to serve their country is surprisingly small.

About 995 of the roughly 40,000 students who graduated from public high schools in Kentucky last year said they planned to join the military, according to figures from the state Department of Education. In contrast, about 20,000 of the graduates said they planned to go to college. Only 33 members of the Class of 2004 from Lexington's five public high schools planned to join the military, while about 1,300 chose college, according to the Fayette County Schools.

Overall, just over 2,100 Kentuckians between 18 and 24 years old joined the military last year (not including Marine recruits), according to Pentagon figures compiled by a non-partisan Massachusetts research group. And although Kentuckians tend to think of themselves as among the staunchest of patriots, the state's overall rate of 5.2 recruits per thousand 18-to-24 year-olds ranked only 31st nationwide. Montana, with 8.1 recruits per thousand, led the nation.

Kentucky recruits plentiful

Even so, Kentucky continues to be a fruitful ground for recruiters.

Capt. Michael Wood, who commands the Army unit responsible for recruiting across most of Eastern Kentucky, says his outfit is having one of its best recruiting years ever, even though the Army fell short of its recruiting goals at the national level this year.

The National Guard also failed to meet its nationwide recruiting goal this year, in contrast to the Kentucky National Guard, which has met or exceeded its recruiting targets for the past two years.

Sgt. Bobby Jones, 29, of Barbourville, was the Kentucky Guard's leading recruiter this year, and he was the seventh-highest rated National Guard recruiter for the entire country. Jones joined the National Guard in high school and says it changed his life -- something he frequently cites when talking to potential recruits. However, he acknowledges that parental fears about the war are making it harder for recruiters.

"Some parents realize that someone has to serve, and if that is their child's choice, they want to support it," Jones said. "But others will say, 'Can you guarantee that my son is not going to war?' I tell them, 'No, I can't. ... ' When that happens I just say, thank you for your time."

A matter of perspective

Some parents say, however, that not all recruiters are so gracious.

Lexington's Susan Swinford said she and her husband, Rod, were worried when recruiters recently began calling her son, Keenan, a senior at Henry Clay High School.

"The recruiters make it all sound so good, especially if your child is interested in the military, which our son is," Swinford said. "There's a lot of pressure out there, but I just don't want him to go to Iraq and maybe be killed."

Swinford said Keenan is 18, old enough to enlist without parental permission, but he has agreed not to go against his parents' wishes. She said her son now is looking into military schools, the service academies, or possibly a criminal-justice career -- all moves that she said she can support.

For some families, enlistment is an easy decision.

Lexington's Martin Duncan wasn't too worried when his daughter, Amanda, started talking about joining the military last year.

Martin Duncan had never served in uniform himself, though he sometimes wishes that he had, and he was pleased with the good experiences Amanda was getting as a member of the ROTC program at Bryan Station. So, with his support, Amanda, now 18, joined the Air Force and will go on active duty after graduating from high school next spring. She plans to attend college, with the Air Force paying her expenses, and then become an officer and jet pilot.

Martin Duncan said he would have been equally supportive if Amanda had wanted to join the Army or the Marines.

"It was a matter that this was what she really wanted to do," he said. "She was very serious about it, and it's pretty hard for a parent to tell your child that she can't do something that she really wants to do."

He said he's comfortable with his daughter's plans, and is confident she will receive both discipline and training in the Air Force.

"I know that she will have a roof over her head, that she will have to go to school, and that she will have expectations that she has to meet," he said.

But for parents like Dawn Anestis, figuring out how to deal with a child's interest in the military during a time of war continues to be a challenge. Anestis said she was worried mainly because she felt recruiters were pushing her son, Cameron, to rush into a decision.

"He was told that the best military jobs would be available if he enlisted now, if he enlisted early," she said. "I think that as an adult you can put things in perspective, but he is 17. We told him we wanted him to explore all his options."

Herald-Leader news researcher Linda Niemi contributed to this story.

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky.

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Source: Lexington Herald-Leader (Lexington, Ky.)

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