Straight Talk page of Rogue Valley VFP, Chapter 156

Straight Talk on Military Recruitment (STMR)

We respect military recruiters and the mission they endeavor to fulfill. However, many present their case to potential recruits in a perception management standpoint that typically minimizes the realities of military life and voluntary military obligations. We want the prospective enlistee to be better informed about those realities and obligations. Our goal is not to thwart any potential enlistment, but rather advocate alternatives to military service, by informing students of ways to obtain money for college, researching vocational schooling programs, service in the Peace Corps, guidance in initiating new business start-ups, etc. Our website and program also informs high school and college-age youth in a non-confrontational and truthful manner about some "downsides" to a military enlistment with a two-pronged approach that provides both up-to-date information and veteran experience via:

Classroom presentations - to be accomplished (with local permission) at any school in conjunction with "equal access time" to that accorded military recruiters.
Here's the current Power Point version of this presentation as well as a yellow-highlighted ".pdf" copy of the DD Form 4 (the enlistment contract that recruiters use). The yellow-highlighted version of the DD Form 4 can be found on our website on the main menu on every page and at our Before U Enlist page.

One-on-one pre-enlistment advice and support - to the prospective enlistee as well as his/her family which includes telephone, email, and personal contact. Preferably, each client will seek advice from a STMR team member who has experienced time in the branch of service in which the client is interested.

Keeping the recruiters honest - Upon request by parents or potential enlistees, we will investigate potentially inappropriate claims allegedly made by local recruiters. Despite recruiter abuses of the past, we will not prejudge such claims, but if we determine there appears to be evidence of inappropriate recruiter behavior, we will file complaints to the highest levels against that recruiting office, the specific recruiter, or both.

A longer-range aspect of our STMR program is to address Oregon's state-wide ASVAB administration problems that, we feel, constitute Constitutional questions of privacy for high school students. We discuss this situation on our "Opt-Out" page, here.

The STMR program works in conjunction with and supplements the Ashland Peace House's Alternatives to Military Recruitment (AMR) program and seeks the endorsement and cooperation of like-minded peace-loving groups.

For those schools willing to participate, we will donate copies of the very popular books "Addicted to War" and "10 Excellent Reasons Not To Join The Military" to the school library. These are well-researched books that provide considerably more detail on America's "recent" wars, and with many more references, than can even be found on our page, The Costs of War.

Speaking of war, here's a trip down memory lane as Part 1 of a French Power Point show contrasting WWII pictures of Normandy with the same scenes today... this is a 6.2MB file, and very interesting to see the reconstruction.

If you would like assistance in your decision-making process.
In the Rogue Valley, select the branch of service or topic you want to discuss (from the bio list below) and email us through here (webmaster@rv-vfp156.org), or call,in the West Josephine County/Grants Pass area, Hal, Chapter 156 President, at 541-476-4156
East Jackson County/Ashland-Rogue River area, Don, Chapter 156 Vice President, at 541-512-1108 Monday - Friday..........9AM - 8PM
Saturday......................10AM - 6PM
Sunday.........................12AM - 6PM

Bios

Navy

Served in the U.S. Navy from 1966 to 1970 with the last three years of his service on the USS Chicago. His rate was Radarman although most of his experience was operating and servicing electronic warfare equipment. He was aboard his ship during two seven-month deployments to the Tonkin Gulf (Vietnam area) where the ship’s mission was to protect several carriers off the coast of South Vietnam and also to provide search and rescue for any downed aircraft in the area.

Following active duty he took good advantage of the GI Bill, starting studies at Illinois State University in September, 1970 and earning a BS in Industrial Technology and a MS in Occupational Safety by December 1973. He had an interesting and challenging career as a Safety engineer and Industrial Hygienist retiring in December of 2001 and moving to the Grants Pass area.

Army
This Adviser was commissioned in March 1978 and served as an Armor Officer in the Army National Guard for several years. In 1985, he was reassigned to spend the next ten years as an Intelligence Officer. He has worked closely, and been on many training missions, with the Regular Army throughout this time.

Marines
Drafted out of College after having contracted mononucleosis in 1966 and was sent to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego. After basic training he served with the First Marines, First Recon, Alpha Company, in Vietnam, participating in 63 missions with a team of eight Marines, receiving a purple heart for injuries sustained in combat. With an Honorable Discharge, he went back to school, receiving a B.A. in Sociology from Sonoma State University, CA, and did G.I. Bill-funded graduate work at the University of Bradford in England.

Returning to the U.S., he worked with post stroke victims in a rehabilitation hospital. In 1975 he started a service delivery program, Adaptive Engineering Services, providing assistive technology... custom products to aid in mobility and activities of daily living... to people with developmental disabilities. He retired from Adaptive Engineering Services in 2008.

Coast Guard
United States Coast Guard, 1969-1975 (plus two years inactive). From boot camp on the West Coast to Radioman School in New York; then back up north to for sea duty on the USCGC Confidence (NHKW) for Search and Rescue missions in the Bering Sea and Northwest Pacific, lighthouse building and extended sea duty missions. Member of Boarding Party in which the Confidence towed a Russian vessel nearly its own size for a week's trip to Kodiak, AK, and the largest fishing vessel fine in US history was levied at that time. Promoted and transferred from sea duty to the Kodiak radio station (NOJ) and final promotion was to the USCG Commandant's Radio Station (NMH)..

Post military: GI bill for College; construction labor; started backhoe/dump truck business 1979-1984; Class 'A' truck driver 1979-1994 for self and two companies; self-employed 2004 to current in gardening/tree pruning/field clearing work. Since discharge in 1973, concurrently engaged in nutrition education (36th year vegetarian); recycling programs; animal rights, peace work, and land conservation volunteerism. Currently, President of VFP Chapter 156; Director, Rogue Advocates; Outreach Chair for the Hugo Neighborhood; and member, Hugo Land Use Committee. .

Air Force
Enlisted in the USAF in Sep. 1956, and went into nuclear weapons electronics and maintenance, eventually becoming a maintenance team chief. He gambled a second 4-year hitch to try to (successfully) qualify for the USAF Airman Education & Commissioning Program (AECP). He received an engineering BS in 1967, was commissioned, then sent to the same school for an MS. He then spent nine years in aerospace research & development and program management at Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton, OH, managing to develop both the technology and hardware to save the Government several millions of dollars and untold lives, retiring from the USAF in 1977.

He spent several years in the aerospace industry (aerospace engineering, marketing & systems analysis, computer programming, project management and test lab supervision). He quit that industry in 1989 to be a business and computer consultant, a book publisher and then a non-profit consultant, leading to a ministerial ordination in 1997. Returned to aerospace engineering in 1998, on the Northrop F/A-18 program for the Feds as a Systems Engineering Team Lead and retired from there in June of 2004.

All-Service Default or Classroom Presentations
This option is provided if you're not sure of which service branch you want to look at, or if you are interested in scheduling a classroom presentation.