I guess by now we've all heard the stories about how dangerously thin our military has been stretched by Bush's Iraqi Adventure. And it seems that the more adamant a person might be about the necessity of that war, the more adamant they are that someone else should actually go over there and actually do the fighting. I believe the correct term is 'chickenhawk.' Of course, the manpower shortage has fallen hardest on those who have to try to lure young men into the military to go fight this insane war - the recruiters.
We've heard a lot of horror stories about quotas and the nefarious lengths some of those recruiters have taken to fill those quotas. According to a recent ABC News story, last year the Army received 835 complaints of recruiting impropriety. 126 of those complaints were found to be recruiting improprieties, the rest involved recruiting errors. 44 recruiters have been relieved of duty. 369 have received admonishments. The situation has gotten so bad that the Army halted recruiting efforts for one day in May last year to allow commanders to retrain recruiters about proper conduct. But the recruiters are under a lot of pressure. Last year, the monthly recruiting shortfalls added up to the Army missing its annual goal of 80,000 new recruits for the first time since 1999. This year, the Army is optimistic about its goals, but they've changed the monthly goals, requiring 6600 fewer recruits than this time last year. They're hoping to make up the difference during the summer.
I thought I'd heard it all when it came to recruiting - bending the rules, manipulation, fraud and deceit, but when I ran across an entry in Pixles, Politics, Posies and Pussycats my mind was boggled and my flabber was gasted. It's a story that's been big in the upper left part of the country, but the rest of the country has heard very little of - an illustration of the difficulties in recruiting for an unpopular war. A loving family raising holy hell and a newspaper, the Oregonian, averted a real tragedy. Rather than try to relate the story, I'll just quote some relevant information from the article that brought the situation to light...
Jared Guinther is 18. Tall and lanky, he will graduate from Marshall High School in June. Girls think he's cute, until they try to talk to him and he stammers or just stands there -- silent.
Diagnosed with autism at age 3, Jared is polite but won't talk to people unless they address him first. It's hard for him to make friends. He lives in his own private world.
Jared didn't know there was a war raging in Iraq until his parents told him last fall -- shortly after a military recruiter stopped him outside a Southeast Portland strip mall and complimented him on his black Converse All Stars.
"When Jared first started talking about joining the Army, I thought, 'Well, that isn't going to happen,'" said Paul Guinther, Jared's father. "I told my wife not to worry about it. They're not going to take anybody in the service who's autistic."
But they did. Last month, Jared came home with papers showing that he not only had enlisted, but also had signed up for the Army's most dangerous job: cavalry scout...
"Jared would play with buttons for hours on end," she (Brenda Guinther, Jared's mom) said. "He'd play with one toy for days. Loud noises bothered him. He was scared to death of the toilet flushing, the lawn mower."
Jared didn't speak until he was almost 4 and could not tolerate the feel of grass on his feet.
Doctors diagnosed him with moderate to severe autism, a developmental disorder that strikes when children are toddlers. It causes problems with social interaction, language and intelligence. No one knows its cause or cure.
School and medical records show that Jared, whose recent verbal IQ tested very low, spent years in special education classes. It was only when he was a high school senior that Brenda pushed for Jared to take regular classes because she wanted him to get a normal rather than a modified diploma.
Jared required extensive tutoring and accommodations to pass, but in June he will graduate alongside his younger stepbrother, Matthew Thorsen.
Last fall, Jared began talking about joining the military after a recruiter stopped him on his way home from school and offered a $4,000 signing bonus, $67,000 for college and more buddies than he could count...
Brenda phoned her two brothers, both veterans. She said they laughed and told her not to worry. The military would never take Jared.
The Guinthers, meanwhile, tried to refocus their son...
They thought it had worked until five weeks ago. Brenda said she called Jared on his cell phone to check what time he'd be home.
"I said 'Jared, what are you doing?' 'I'm taking the test,' he said -- the entrance test. I go, 'Wait a minute.' I said, 'Who's giving you the test?' He said, 'Corporal.' I said, 'Well let me talk to him.' "
Brenda said she spoke to Cpl. Ronan Ansley and explained that Jared had a disability, autism, that could not be outgrown. She said Ansley told her he had been in special classes, too -- for dyslexia.
"I said, 'Wait a minute, there's a big difference between autism and your problem,' " Brenda said.
The story notes that Jared took and passed the Army's basic entrance exam. He scored 43 out of 99. 31 is the lowest grade allowed for admission.
After learning that Jared had cleared this first hurdle toward enlistment, Brenda said, she called and asked for Ansley's supervisor and got Sgt. Alejandro Velasco.
She said she begged Velasco to review Jared's medical and school records. Brenda said Velasco declined, asserting that he didn't need any paperwork. Under military rules, recruiters are required to gather all available information about a recruit and fill out a medical screening form.
"He was real cocky and he says, 'Well, Jared's an 18-year-old man. He doesn't need his mommy to make his decisions for him.' "
...During a recent family gathering, a relative asked Jared what he would do if an enemy was shooting at him. Jared ran to his video game console and killed a digital Xbox soldier and announced, "See! I can do it!"
"My concern is that if he got into a combat situation he really couldn't take someone's back," said Mary Lou Perry, 51, a longtime friend of the Guinthers'. "He wouldn't really know a dangerous thing. This job they have him doing, it's like send him in and if he doesn't get blown up, it's safe for the rest of us."
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition. This story does have a somewhat happy ending. After Jared's parents called The Oregonian and the newspaper started asking questions, the Portland Army Recruiting Battalion Headquarters announced that they were releasing the young man from his enlistment obligations. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., has written to Donald Rumsfeld, calling for a "full investigation" of the case...
"To place someone in his condition in a combat role would create a wholly inappropriate and unnecessary risk of harm – not only to him, but all other members of his unit who would have to rely on him...I am concerned that the military has created a situation where recruiters are pressured to act unethically in order to successfully fulfill their orders.
The only person who's unhappy about the outcome is Jared himself. Initially, he was disappointed that he wouldn't be going because he thought the recruiters were his friends. Now he feels he was manipulated and is humiliated at the attention.
