army recruiters actually coming to my door now....i was rude

[mopaul]

my youngest son is 20, and lives with me and my wife. the recruiters call A LOT, and i just let the phone ring. but the other day, one actually showed up at my door. i heard the car pull up, and saw the army logo on the door.

an attractive black lady in full army uniform looked right into my eyes as she passed my window. she saw me, a fat ugly old man sitting at my computer. she was carrying a large white business envelope, and she started knocking on the door.

i ignored her. she knew i was sitting there and had seen her. on the t.v., news from iraq concerning the worst week in casualties since the start was blaring loudly. it was a surreal scene.

so she kept knocking, and i kept ignoring her, rather than confront her face to face, cause i know i would've started screaming at her.
my son knows where the recruiting office is, if he wants to join up.

they really want our young sons and daughters bad, to join the death lottery in iraq, but i ain't gonna kiss their asses, and i ain't gonna let them have my fine son, without a fight. if he wants to join up, i'll support him. but don't you start no fucking draft to keep the carnage rolling cause this ain't viet nam.

[seemslikeadream]

1. They sponsored a rodeo I watched

on TV Sunday.

[truthspeaker]

2. you should have answered the door

and told her if you see her or any other recruiter on your property you are going to call the police and have them cited for trespassing.

[curlyred]

3. my daughter is a junior, and we're getting the phone calls

I see "US GOVT" on the caller ID, and just let it ring........they never leave a message.........:)

[maxwall]

4. See Hagel used the "d" word today?....

It's on the table, and they're being more aggresive. Sorry you have to deal with those jerks! Is your son in a public college getting fed funds? I know the Solomon Amendment to No Child Left Behind makes secondary schools give out contact info of their kids to keep fed funding.. I'm not sure about public schools. Thank god I'm 26...
You definitely took the high road by just ignoring her.... B-)

[T Wolf]

10. re: No cannon Fodder Left Behind

You can instruct your childrens' school to NOT give contact info to the military. But it takes effort on your part to do this, because the school will (probably) not inform you (as they are legally required to) that you have that option.

I did. And no war-pushers have bothered my daughter.

[July]

17. I did it, and it didn't make any difference.

I put it in writing, yet we still get stuff in the mail and the occasional phone call.

[cap]

28. get an attorney and sue...

they are supposed to abide by the Do not call list.

[newyawker99]

14. Hi maxwall!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[redqueen]

5. They're really getting desperate

How can they not have a draft if they wish to continue with their plans?

[truthspeaker]

6. better, more polite idea

Tell any recruiter that stops by or calls "My child is not willing to kill Arabs to steal their oil."

[Jack_Dawson]

7. Wow - they're being that active?

I remember getting a couple calls when I was that age, but I would tell them to fuck themselves if they came to get my son or daughter. No way. And I don't even have kids.

[T Wolf]

8. my wife, who is a guidance counselor,

routinely trashes recruiting crap that the military sends to her. And though she cannot ban them from her school, she is as uncooperative as possible whenever they try to arrange a visit.

[TreasonousBastard]

9. "We are Mennonites...

and our religion requires we be conscientious objectors."

Confuses the piss out of them.

[MSgt213]

11. They are only doing their jobs. If they go back without trying they will

be fired. I know. I have been a recruiter. It is a very difficult job. These young men and women coming to your house are no different then you son is except they are under a lot of pressure to do a thankless job. If you really don't want your son talking to them the only way to stop them is for him to tell them he's not interested, has other plans after school, does'nt need the college money and so on. Otherwise if they can't go threw you to get to him they will find other ways to come in contact with him.

[ret5hd]

13. Wow...fired, huh?...sounds like a deal to me.

[MSgt213]

15. Listen. Those young people coming to yours or anyones door or calling on

the phone are for the most part not doing that because they want to. They are doing it because it's their job and in most cases they were drafted to do it. Very few people in the military volunteer to take abuse everyday from the very people they have to lay their lives on the line for. They have families to feed in cases just like anyone.

If you got a problem with them doing it. Why don't you call congress, the president or their CO? That's the ones dictating that they must do it. They go back to their offices and tell them people were rude to them the CO kicks them in the ass and says go find somebody different any if you have go take some more abuse. So now they are taking it from their CO and some asshole who thinks it is cute to make their lives even more difficult.

[ret5hd]

18. one minute you're saying they'd get fired...

the next minute your're saying they are "drafted" and don't want the job anyway, abused by their CO, and sent out for more abuse.

I'd say being fired from a job i was forced to do and abused for doing was a heck of a deal.

[MSgt213]

21. Listen this is how it works. In the military you have to do one or two

things through out your career if you want a career. You have to train new recruits as a drill instructor or you have to recruit new prospects as a recruiter. For the most part very few Officers have to this and their careers don't depend on it, but almost all enlisted folks do. I hope you understand the difference between officer and enlisted.

They select you for these duties based on your record. You have to have a military history or record that shows you can be trusted to these duties because often there is no senior people watching you do it. They make it sound like they are doing you a favor, but they are really not. They are putting you in a catch 22 and they are looking out for themselves. If they sent out some one who has demostrated they are a flake or a disciplinary problem they themselves would get fired for doing it. Sure enlisted people can volunteer for these duties and some do, but most know they will have to do it anyway if they don't volunteer so they choose their posion.

The other side of the coin though is that if you don't qualify for one or the other your career in the military is pretty much history because they will kick you out not right away but they flag your record so you get screwed on promotions and can only complete service limitations. And it sometimes depends on what screening team gets to you first. Some people do volunteer for these duties

They send screening teams down to each unit to review your record. If you qualify you going if you don't and don't have a medical reason or job that exempts you from going you are going. If you go in and say you don't want to do it your screwed. If you fail whatever training school they send you to your screwed. There is nothing stopping you from volunteering for it and some do because they know they have to face the music someday.

If you go the drill instruct route then you know full well any day some kid can ruin your career by claiming you hit them or curse at them or threaten them. You never see your wife or kid and you have no life. If you go the recruiter route you know your whole life depends on you making a quota that the CO has set. You don't make that quota your fired.

If you make the quota, but the kids back out on you your screwed because you have to someone else to replace him. If the kids fails to complete recruit training because they flake out or get injured that counts against you. If a kid lies to you and tells anyone up the chain that you told him to lie about something if you did or not does'nt make a diffence because your screwed. If a parent goes down the CO's office an says his or her kid is not going to boot camp then oh well, that contract they sign is unenforceable, but it counts against you.

There are several ways to leave recruiting duty. Your tours up and you recruited enough people or you die. If you fail to recruit enough people you can and will be relieved for cause (fired) and sent back to your unit to finish up the remainder of your contract.
There is one thing your CO wants to hear out there and that is that you have made mission. If he does not make mission by you not making mission he gets fired. Who do you thinks going to go first?

[ret5hd]

23. One sweet simple answer...

volunteer for duty in iraq or afghanistan, and do the job that you (the recruiter) are so obviously willing to have others do. I'm sure they could find an open slot. Not only are you protecting your career, you are doing a job that you feel needs to be done AND you decrease the quota for the next schmuck that takes your place as recruiter.

[MSgt213]

27. What the hell are you talking about? Being a recruiter is your job when

you do it. You can't volunteer to go a war zone and not do it.

[Frederic Bastiat]

19. Recruiters are like used car salesmen

Only the stakes are higher. They talk up all the good shit and laugh their @sses off once you get shipped off. I served because I chose to and I had an easier time than those that bought the recruiters pitch at face value.

[mopaul]

29. hey excav, do they get a commission per recruit?

if you know. that would also be like a used car salesman.

[NNadir]

25. This reminds me of when I got my draft notice.

Recruiters used to call me at 4 in the morning, trying to get me to enlist for a longer stint and "benefits" alleged to not be available to draftees. The Navy recruiter was so bald as to tell me that enlisting would probably keep me out of Vietnam. I had the experience of my older next door neighbor, who believed that particular crock and ended up piloting a gun boat up and down the Mekong.

The punch line is that owing to bureaucratic judo, I never actually went into the army. Just before my report date, we won the war in Vietnam and Nixon, running for re-election, ended the draft a six months early.

[ret5hd]

12. Let them in, welcome them...

then keep them tied up for endless hours with long rambling boring stories, get them tea, REFUSE to give them an opening for a polite exit...

then, after they absolutely insist that they must be getting on their way, TELL "EM WHAT YOU REALLY THINK!...and add that you hope that wasting their time might save some other youngsters life.

[truthspeaker]

16. BTW you weren't rude

Soliciting door to door is rude. You are under no obligation to answer your door.

Now, giving her the finger would have been rude.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

22. I absolutely agree

unsolicited visits and phone calls from strangers are rude. Ignoring them isn't.

[Pattib]

20. They called weekly for my son...but are suprisingly hands-off

in my daughter's case.

Last year my son was a senior in high school. They called every week. I repeatedly told them that the was going to college. They still continued to call. The Army was the worst. They didn't let up.

This year my daughter is a senior. Since she has a unisex name they always say, "Do you know when he'll be home"? I always reply, "she". Usually they say, "never mind", or "I'll call back later". They never do. I figured it was because she's a female and they are looking for males. I just know I have received very few calls for her this year.

What burns me the most is that the school even gave them our address and phone number in the first place. I thought the school was suppose to give you a chance to opt out first? I never heard a word about this until after the calls and mail started coming last year.

[lumpy]

24. Had the same harrassment 20 years ago.

They want your highschooler to join the warrior class. The only way to blow them off is to blow them off. I'll never forget the wimpy little ass with his puny mustache who phoned and rang the doorbell constantly while my son did everything possible to avoid the twit. Ended up telling him to bug off "My son doesn't want to join, I don't want him to join and he isn't going to join." Slam door.

[OneTwentyoNine]

26. Probably car pooling with the Army personnel who inform parents

That their kid is now DEAD. But... George wants to "stay the course" for Hallib...I mean all Iraqi's.

David