Call for Volunteers: A Different Way to Support the Troops

From Terry Riley
www.whatifyouknew-nm.com
Military Families Speak Out
Stop The War Machine
Albuquerque Veterans For Peace
New Mexico Democratic Friends

If you haven't noticed there have been revelations of bad behavior of military recruiters, mostly Army recruiters. The recruiters are under a tremendous amount of pressure to convince people to join and the job is getting much harder. For the last three months the Army and the Marines have been unable to meet their goals. A couple of recruiters have been in the news because they were caught threatening people and making outlandish lies as well as helping people lie on their applications. In response to this the Army has set this Friday, May 20th as a day for all recruiters to Stand-Down. They have to attend special training so they will better understand what is acceptable and what is not.

I believe that this is a PR event to placate the public. I in no way believe that the Army cares how the recruiter fills the ranks. I feel badly for the recruiter. I have also read that recruiters are experiencing a higher level of suicides, PTSD, and depression. Typically a recruiter has to work from 60 to 80 hours per week in order to attend every youth oriented group gathering in a week. You can see how they can be tempted to lie if they are not in fact taught to lie.

I want to demonstrate in front of the four recruiting stations here in Albuquerque in support of the recruiter. My message is that Recruiters are Soldiers too! I have a sign that says, " Don't blame the Recruiter... Don't blame the Soldier... Blame the Administration!" I also want to say something like, " Support the Troops - and that goes for the recruiter too! No more blaming the soldier for the mistakes of the administration". I have to work on that one - too long.

I need volunteers to stand with me. There are four recruiting stations in Albuquerque and I already have four members of Veterans For Peace who will stand with us from 10 AM to Noon on Saturday, May 21st. I need anybody who can come to contact me by e-mail so I can schedule which site you will go to. I hope to have a couple of people close to the recruiting office unless asked to leave. Additional people should stand on the sidewalk, they can't ask us to leave, for greater visibility.

Please contact me ASAP so I can get this scheduled. I will also put out a press release and if we can get a lot of supporters we can get press coverage.

Thank you,
Terry Riley
son of a Veteran
Veteran
father of two Veterans
terryactivist@aol.com