From: Ken Kalish
Dated: January 5, 2019
Subject: Good story...the Army is trying!
I’m with you on the foreign nationals being eligible for service in the American services. My crew included a Canadian from Quebec. I’m glad I was in long enough to see the galley crew grow lighter in skin tone and darker above deck. Section 523 had several African-American sailors in our mix.
I think it is a real bad policy to kick out people who have enlisted as foreign nationals, served honorably, and suddenly find themselves confronted over “security issues” caused by diplomatic changes. It also was de regueur for people serving into their second enlistment to achieve citizenship. As I understand it, that is no longer possible. There have been news stories, printed and swiftly buried in other news, that tell of individuals honorably discharged from service and then snatched up by Homeland Security to be deported.
The return of the draft is something people who have served in combat zones believe would be good for both America and the draftees. In my own experience, most draftees were no different than enlistees when it comes to performance. Boot camp weeds out the bad ones.
Just my own somewhat limited opinion.
Ken Kalish
From: Steve Sevits
Dated: January 3, 2019
Subject: Good story...the Army is trying!
When we start recruiting in foreign countries we end up having people in our military who have no cultural attachment to the United States, nor any vested interest in the country. In effect you wind up with mercenaries the same as the Hessians employed by the British during the American Revolution. When the chips are down history shows that mercenaries who have no attachment to the country will give up when to going gets too tough. Very few will die just for a paycheck.
When your fighting force has no emotional/cultural attachment to the country it cannot be as effective as the GIs who won WW II.
Better to bring back the draft. I got drafted in ’61 then decided to take the extra year as an RA. If the government ever finds out how much good those three years did me, they’d send me a bill. I didn’t do well in college until after my three years then finished college with honors and an MA as well.
The draft put me together with people from diverse places across the country and with people with whom I would never normally come into contact. I forced me to interact with new people and learn more about this nation and myself as well.
Recruiting is an MOS, what is needed is salesmanship. Recruiting shouldn’t be left to amateurs but those who know how to sell. Emphasizing numbers from Seattle, Chicago, etc. is not going to do the trick. Selling the military as even a temporary vocation is not a useful approach, selling the program so individuals want to belong is the right approach.
Turning our sights abroad to staff our military will only accelerate a replay of the worst of the failing days of the Roman Empire. While everybody at home, parties, they believe they are safe with paid mercenaries to protect them. One day the mercenaries are no longer there and the society is open to plundering by any and all.
The most reliable protection a nation can have is a force of individuals who have a personal vested interest in the nation which is being protected. Anything less is wrong. Just consider the mindset of a loyal and protective guard dog.
Steve
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From: Steve Sevits
Dated: January 6, 2019
Subject: Good story...the Army is trying!
The former Germans who were in the Legion did well in Vietnam, and went through the Viet Minh like a hot knife through butter until "political correctness" took hold in France and the Legion was pulled out to be replaced by French troops who lost at Dien Bien Phu.
Perhaps I overstated my low opinion of mercenaries, but I still seriously doubt whether the US should consider using them. I stand corrected somewhat.
Steve
From: Bob Morecook
Dated: January 6, 2019
Subject: Good story...the Army is trying!
I served with one former German soldier at Fort Hood in 71!
Bob
From: Ken Kalish
Dated: January 3, 2019
Subject: Good story...the Army is trying!
Steve, I can only speak to how the Navy does things.
Navy recruiters have their own rate, NC. They learn salesmanship as part of their rate training. The first time I was in recruiting, back in 1972, my entire district (NRD) was sent to a company called Sales Training Institute in Denver. The training didn’t stick for most of us because from personal experience we knew the Three Yesses Program was unlikely to convince prospects to sign up.
My first tour was in Duluth, and recruiting for the Navy was simpler there. A large part of the Duluth workforce was connected in one way or another to working the boats on the Great Lakes. They saw the Navy as a path to working the boats.
The Army has the wrong path if the command puts on dog and pony shows. They’ll give away thousands of “recruiting aids” for every head they claim. The early plan to put prospects on a gaming system featuring Medal of Honor or some such first person shooter was working until the Army ran into copyright issues. The Army has the tools to create virtual combat scenarios (At Dickie’s reunion we were allowed to try one out) and those same tools could create first person shooter games for use in the office.
But what do I know, I’m just a grampa who watches his teen aged grandkids shoot up all kinds of enemies in games.
Ken Kalish
From: Steve Pennington
Dated: January 7, 2019
Subject: Good story...the Army is trying!
Steve, I think your point is very well taken.
SLP
From: Dick Ellis
Dated: January 3, 2019
Subject: Good story...the Army is trying!
...it is just our nation is letting them down!!
Dickie
The Army, in Need of Recruits, Turns Focus to Liberal-Leaning Cities
From: Steve Pennington
Dated: January 5, 2019
Subject: Good story...the Army is trying!
I think of the French Foreign Legion in the first Indochina War. Many of them were German. After WWII they went to the Legion as professional soldiers.
SLP
From: Frank Rogers
Dated: January 3, 2019
Subject: Good story...the Army is trying!
Soon will be recruiting in foreign countries; something US did in Philippines.
Frank
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From: Frank Rogers
Dated: January 4, 2019
Subject: Good story...the Army is trying!
The Army - USMC recruiting office near my home in Mira Mesa is never open. At the last time I was there a few years ago the Army guy said he didn’t have to look for recruits, he had to beat then off with a stick. But then that was during a not so good economy.
The Filipinos had a close attachment to the US. I know so many second and third generations who made a career in the military, especially the Navy. There are so many high ranking enlisted and officers of Philippine ancestry.
There are “mercenaries” even in the US - people with no “vested interest” in this country, except for what they can get from it for free and spit on the stupid people who provide it. Sorry to say. The “All Volunteer Force” sounds nice, but I agree there needs to be a draft. If you don’t build something, you have no regard for preserving it. I, too, met individuals who were drafted and found military service had a big impact on their life, either for the one term or deciding to stay longer. There are fewer going into the military, so there will be fewer and fewer veterans … not that the VA is doing a great job with the fewer’s needs now. How many appeals do you see begging for “just $19 a month” to help the wounded, widows and families. IMHO the military personnel today have it rougher with all the deployments than we had in Vietnam.
From: Steve Sevits
Dated: January 5, 2019
Subject: Good story...the Army is trying!
I believe those entering military service on behalf of the United States should do so with some sense of vested interest in this nation at the time they make the commitment, not with an ulterior motive of citizenship, pay or something else. Ulterior motives don’t cut it with me.
Those who serve with thoughts of this nation first are most ardent in pursuit of accomplishing their mission. A foreign mercenary can’t possibly demonstrate loyalty to an American serviceman serving beside him.
When we cannot staff our military with sufficient indigenous personnel perhaps it is time to face reality, abandon our borders and declare the moral bankruptcy of our society. It is said that life is a rat race, I just hope the rats don’t win.
If we have no one within the country willing to defend the country, perhaps there is nothing left worth defending.
The other day a young Marine in a restaurant got up to shake my hand when he saw my ball cap “Disabled Vietnam Veteran” he said he was glad to shake my hand, but in reality it was I who was honored to meet him. My only regret was that he’d already paid for his meal, it would have brightened my day if I could have bought him lunch.
Steve