Help -- my stepson's older cousin wants to enlist/Naval Reserve

[mojowork_n]

He's got an associate's degree from a two year IT (computer) school, but after six months hasn't been able to hook up with an employer.

Of course, his recruiter is telling him that:

1.) As a member of the Naval Reserve, he can't be called up to active duty.

And

2.) He'll be able to get the job of his choosing, in the IT field, and never have to move out of town. He'll be able to serve locally, at one of the Great Lakes stations, for the full two years or four years, whichever he chooses.

For just one weekend a month.

Anyone happen to be familiar with claims like this?

[youngdem]

1. Anyone who believes a recruiter is gonna get a lesson in human nature

Remember, many recruiters have been threatened with deployment themselves if they don't fill their quotas.

So, don't think for a minute they won't tell you whatever the fuck you wanna hear to get you in that seat they would have to fill themselves if they don't do their jobs.

Countless people have gone into recruiters' offices and recorded the ridiculous lies they told the recruits. They even had a 'stand down' not long ago the recruiter abuse got so bad.

[1620rock]

2. Yes, all the Iraqi war dead in our national cemetery's.

[MrCoffee]

3. the recruiter is flat-out lying.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

4. The first statement is already completely false. That's the whole POINT of having a reserve, is so

that it can be called up to active duty if needed. Sheesh!

The idea that you can completely tailor and choose your military career, active or reserve, is laughable.

If the lad actually believes these things, and lacks common sense to smell the B.S., he's got other problems than whatever the Navy might do to him, too.

[Divine Discontent]

6. ty n/t

[mojowork_n]

12. I'd read about it a few years ago, but nothing lately:

This wasn't specifically about the Navy:

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1210-20.htm

But I found another site collecting news stories, with many links to other resources:

http://counterrecruiter.wordpress.com/tag/lying-recruiters/

Thanks for the feedback.

[Divine Discontent]

5. play him the video of b*sh laughing about WMD's that someone loaded to DU

and they show the caskets... they are sending people to their deaths and they could care less! God bless you in effort to stop this.

and if I'm not mistaken (PM me if you want further details I will not write here), naval reservists are serving over in Iraq by the thousands, am I wrong DU?

[MADem]

7. Tell him this

He CAN be called up to active duty, just like the poor Army bastards are in Iraq. The SELRES is THE primary source for "plus up personnel" during any sort of conflict or surge requiring additional USN bodies. I mean, really--what good is having a Reserve if you aren't going to throw them into the meatgrinder when the shit hits the fan? Tell the kid to engage his brain; that's basic logic, there.

His recruiter CANNOT give him the job of his choosing. That is the job of his CLASSIFIER, who he won't see until he:

=Fills out the paperwork.
=Passes the background checks.
=Passes the physical.

The recruiter cannot "persuade" the classifier to "give his buddy this or that job"--job availability is a function of a couple of things:

--How smart the applicant is. What is that test score?

--Are there jobs in the desired specialty available? Availability depends on how many people are in, staying in, getting out, and how much room there is in the A school classes for that particular specialty.

--Ship date. If you are willing to go to bootcamp in November, be there for Christmas, in order to make that A school class starting in February, then you might get that job--if you want to leave AFTER Christmas, there might not be a school that coincides with your getting out of boot camp and taking a couple of week's leave to show off your new uniform, and then returning to take your advanced training.

Sometimes they'll let you delay the schooling, but more often, not--how can one affiliate with a reserve unit without a proper specialty, really?

If the job "isn't in the computer" no amount of bullshitting will put it in there. There are no manual overrides, save perhaps the Secretary of the Navy getting involved. And anyone who ships without a guaranteed school is guaranteed absolutely NOTHING.

The recruiter is going over the line with that 'job promise' line. It's not his role to sell jobs, just to sell the USN concept.

The service required is a weekend a month, and two weeks of acdutra a year for the SELRES Sailors--which could be anywhere, from nice places like Italy or Japan, or shitholes like the USS UNDERWAYCONSTANTLY. He might want to check the source: http://www.navyreserve.com/ The FAQ is helpful.

[fed-up]

8. a recruiter called for my son yesterday and I wasted 30 minutes of his time informing him

of a the true reasons for this illegal blood bath and that my son would never, ever be a part of it

I had quite the time of it waiting for him to tell me at any minute that he had to go as he had other calls to make, but it was me that finally had to say good-bye first

He did say that I gave him a lot to think about and that many of the things that I told him, he was unaware of. I explained that my brother was a vet and how he got treated when he got back and how he then went on to fight for better care for ALL vets including those from this fiasco. And that any military that expects to recruit people had best take care of the ones that already volunteered.

He also could not explain exactly why we were in Iraq, nor could he tell me how it was better for our country to spend $1-2 trillion killing innocent women and children in another country when Americans were dying by the thousands due to lack of health care and poor infrastructure. I did go on and on about Bush's lies, oil company profits, spying on citizens, the poor economy and more.

Whatever I did at least I prevented him from calling at least one or two possible future recruits.

Just because I am not always able to physical get up and do things doesn't mean that I can't lay on the counch and monkey wrench a thing or two with my phone. :)

I have also spent an hour or two calling credit card companies and asking them to clarify their highway robbery loan rates for those of us with compromised credit reports. "You mean you really want to charge me $150 a year, plus an additional $6 a month to borrow what is left from the initial $300-let's see that leaves me with $78 to borrow at a cost of $222 plus 20%" interest on top of that......"

[MADem]

9. He is probably hoping that you have a rebellious eighteen year old kid

Some kids, if parents say left, they go right. If parents say up, they go down.

Your best bet--if you want to get him off the list--is to say something like "That's not funny--my kid is BLIND." Or deaf, or in a wheelchair---words to that effect. Anything disqualifying.

It'll get him off the list; at least for the Service that called your house.

If you just want to fuck with the recruiter, well, if he doesn't make goal he'll end up in Iraq, and some new recruiter will continue to call your house....

[fed-up]

10. my son moved out last week and has a diff #-I don't mind wasting recruiter's time :) nt

[MADem]

11. I take your point. certainly...but what I am letting you know is that in the big scheme

they're wasting YOUR time. Better to wave them off one kid permanently, even if by deceit, than have them track the kid down to a new address by way of friends. And they will. They have their ways.

How are they wasting your time? They have a bottomless pit of kids who are sent to that duty against their will, often with more kids than their paygrade can support, maybe another on the way--they're desperate for an island of stability, even if it requires a job of extreme stress and prevarication to provide that for their family....and, at the end of the day, if that recruiter doesn't make goal, he (or she, they're equal opportunity assholes) goes back to Iraq, and a new one, back from Iraq, takes his place.

Tis a sick system, you see....

[Marrah_G]

13. WRONG: Naval Reservists are on the ground in Iraq

Tell him they are lying to him. Right now Naval Reserve Battalion Sierra (450 sailors) is on the ground in Iraq, I know this because my brother is their commanding officer, they replaced a Naval Reserve Battalion in March and another Battalion will replace them in turn in Nov.

That recruiter is feeding him a pack of bullshit.

Here is a link:

http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=122013&ran=12262

Show him that.