Counter-recruiter is in a race to educate military-age teens

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.denverpost.com/style/ci_4066762

Erin Durban is just 22, a recent graduate of Metro State College, but she's got an incredibly important job: reaching low-income high school students before military recruiters do.

It's a race. There are just a handful of counter-recruiters like Durban in Colorado, but hundreds of military recruiters. In fact, last year there were 22,078 full-time recruiters working across the nation for the U.S. armed services, according to the Government Accountability Office.

And those recruiters have all kinds of neat toys to entice young people: pimped-up Humvees, helicopter flight simulators, climbing walls, faux hand grenades.

At best, Durban has pamphlets.

But she also offers convincing words: "The military is not your only option. Don't believe the people who tell you your life is not going to amount to anything. You have options."

She tells them about the federal college grants that amount to more than the Montgomery G.I. Bill. She explains how to find apprenticeship programs at local unions. She talks up the AmeriCorps program as an alternative way for them to serve their country.

[rubberducky]

1. When my son wanted to sign,

in a burst of patriotic fervor, I didn`t need a counter-recruiter. I pulled every motherly weapon out of my apron, talking til I lost my voice,even resorting to tears. Now that we are reading all the stories coming out of Iraq, he knows why I was so against it.If you can`t win with your brain then you can`t win. The families of the troops are very special people. My heart aches for them.

[uppityperson]

2. I live with a counter recruiter also.

awsome people they are.