Irregular Army: The rise of the old and young in the US military
Clint Eastwood looked poised on screen with a gun in his hand even as his hair grayed and his skin wrinkled, but it is unclear if that can be duplicated in real life combat, although the U.S. military is giving it a try. During the ‘war on terror’ it raised the traditional age limit for new recruits from 35 to 42 to give grandpa a chance to stop telling his Gulf War I stories to the grandkids and go to join Gulf War II
By Matt Kennard on Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 - 627 words.
Clint Eastwood looked poised on screen with a gun in his hand even as his hair grayed and his skin wrinkled, but it is unclear if that can be duplicated in real life combat, although the U.S. military is giving it a try. During the ‘war on terror’ it raised the traditional age limit for new recruits from 35 to 42 to give grandpa a chance to stop telling his Gulf War I stories to the grandkids and go to join Gulf War II. With the deluge of overweight people, adding the aged to ranks, has given the armed forces an even more visceral facelift. 1,460 people in 2006 had taken advantage of the extension of the age limit.
11.4% of those older recruits washed out of the Army before serving one year, compared with 6.5% of all recruits, Army records show.
The Associated Press reported on Sharon Samuel, a Trinidad native who was moved by the War on Terror to serve her country. The problem? She’s 40-years old. “I wanted to serve. I wanted to give back,” she said. “I have felt New Yorkers pain.” In 2006 she got a second chance when the army increased its maximum enlistment age to 42 and off she went to Fort Lee near Richmond for training.
“The overall population that you’re talking about is minuscule, but what we’re gaining in terms of experience and maturity and desire is phenomenal,” said Col. Kevin A. Shwedo, director of operations, plans and training for the Army Accessions Command. “Virtually every one of them is called Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, but they bring a special flair to every soldier in that group.”
“I was comfortable in civilian life and did that 9-to-5 thing all the time for a long time. I was just in a rut,” said 39-year-old Pfc. Randy Covington. “When they changed the age, it seemed like the opportunity came back for me.”
THE KIDS
At the other end of the spectrum, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) released a 46-page report entitled “Soldiers of Misfortune”, which was for submission to the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child. It accused the US of violating international protocol that makes it illegal for children under the age of 18 to do military service. It charged that the US military targets kids as young as 11-years-old. And focuses its effort disproportionately on poor and minority public school students.
Military recruiters us “exaggerated promises of financial rewards for enlistment, which undermines the voluntariness of their enlistment,” it said. It even details the use of coercion, deception and even sexual abuse by recruiters. Punishment for such transgressions was rare, it reported.
“The United States military’s procedures for recruiting students plainly violate internationally standards and fail to protect youth from abusive and aggressive recruitment tactics,” said Jennifer Turner of the ACLU Human Rights Project.
Stunningly, the US is only of two countries (the other is Somalia) to have never ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Senate puts the age minimum for recruitment at 17. The report states that the US armed services “regularly target children under 17 for military recruitment, heavily recruiting on high school campuses, in school lunchrooms, and in classes.”
The ACLU surveyed 1,000 children aged from 14 to 17 who were enrolled in New York City high schools as part of the report. One in five of the respondents said that class time had been given over to military recruiters, and 35% said that military recruiters had access to multiple locations in the schools where they could meet students.
The ACLU contend that in their desperation the Pentagon’s Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC), which have access to over 3,000 junior high schools, middle schools and high school across the country, have been targeting children as young as 14.
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Matt Kennard
26London
Matt Kennard graduated from the Journalism School at Columbia University as a Toni Stabile Investigative scholar in 2008. He now works for the Financial Times in London. He has written for the Guardian, Salon, The Comment Factory and the Chicago Tribune, amongst others. In 2006 he won the Guardian Student Feature Writer of the Year Award
mattkennard@thecommentfactory.com
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