Most Expensive Recuriter Ever?

[horizon200]

What are your feelings?
Army Safety Caleb Cambell Drafted by The Lions

4 Years of taxpayer money to send Caleb Campbell to West Point only to have him drafted by the Detroit Lions. He will fulfill his Army obligation by being a recruiter while playing pro football.

Under a new rule, he can play football for the first two years of his comittment while serving at a recruiting station. If he then continues to play football, he must buy out his remaining comittment and serve 6 yrs in the reserves.

Oh and someone should slap that hat off his head! He is in uniform and the Lion's ball cap is not part of the uniform!

I wonder how many other non football playing cadets get to serve their commitment as a recruiter?

[Commando]

Originally Posted by horizon200

What are your feelings?
Army Safety Caleb Cambell Drafted by The Lions

4 Years of taxpayer money to send Caleb Campbell to West Point only to have him drafted by the Detroit Lions. He will fulfill his Army obligation by being a recruiter while playing pro football.

Under a new rule, he can play football for the first two years of his comittment while serving at a recruiting station. If he then continues to play football, he must buy out his remaining comittment and serve 6 yrs in the reserves.

Oh and someone should slap that hat off his head! He is in uniform and the Lion's ball cap is not part of the uniform!

I wonder how many other non football playing cadets get to serve their commitment as a recruiter?

it doesn't seem fair to his classmates, most of who will be on the front lines in iraq leading their troops. if he wanted to play professional football he could have gone to any other school.

[Bumper]

Originally Posted by Commando

it doesn't seem fair to his classmates, most of who will be on the front lines in iraq leading their troops. if he wanted to play professional football he could have gone to any other school.

U-m-m-m-m....is being on the Detroit Lions really playing professional football? At least he can give the military a bit more of his time, since it's unlikely he'll have to be off somewhere participating in the playoffs.

[horizon200]

It was pointed out to me he is not the first...The Navy had two cadets that went on to pro sports...David Robinson and Napolean McCallum. Robinson was excused of 3 yrs of his 5 yr commtiment to play basketball and served the last 2 yrs as a recruiter. McCallum, served his 5 yr comittment concurrently.

I still don't agree with the policy.

[horizon200]

Originally Posted by Bumper

U-m-m-m-m....is being on the Detroit Lions really playing professional football? At least he can give the military a bit more of his time, since it's unlikely he'll have to be off somewhere participating in the playoffs.

hahahahah good point!

[Daddy B]

I know I'll get some flack for this, but here goes:

The fervour that characterises US military recruiters - approaching people on the streets, schools, everywhere - and the hard sell techniques they employ always remind me of Soviet political commissaries.

I say this from watching documentaries and reading about it, of course, it may be that only the most extreme recruiters are made the object of such reports.

[Just Lucky]

Originally Posted by Daddy B

I know I'll get some flack for this, but here goes:

The fervour that characterises US military recruiters - approaching people on the streets, schools, everywhere - and the hard sell techniques they employ always remind me of Soviet political commissaries.

I say this from watching documentaries and reading about it, of course, it may be that only the most extreme recruiters are made the object of such reports.

The Defense Department began working yesterday with a private marketing firm to create a database of high school students ages 16 to 18 and all college students to help the military identify potential recruits in a time of dwindling enlistment in some branches.
The program is provoking a furor among privacy advocates. The new database will include personal information including birth dates, Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses, grade-point averages, ethnicity and what subjects the students are studying.

I doubt too many would disagree with you. The option to play football rather than serve strikes me as very wrong. I wonder how long it will be until we bring back consription in the US?

Here is one way recruiters get their information:

The data will be managed by BeNow Inc. of Wakefield, Mass., one of many marketing firms that use computers to analyze large amounts of data to target potential customers based on their personal profiles and habits.
"The purpose of the system . . . is to provide a single central facility within the Department of Defense to compile, process and distribute files of individuals who meet age and minimum school requirements for military service," according to the official notice of the program.
Privacy advocates said the plan appeared to be an effort to circumvent laws that restrict the government's right to collect or hold citizen information by turning to private firms to do the work.
Some information on high school students already is given to military recruiters in a separate program under provisions of the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act. Recruiters have been using the information to contact students at home, angering some parents and school districts around the country.
School systems that fail to provide that information risk losing federal funds, although individual parents or students can withhold information that would be transferred to the military by their districts. John Moriarty, president of the PTA at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, said the issue has "generated a great deal of angst" among many parents participating in an e-mail discussion group.


Under the new system, additional data will be collected from commercial data brokers, state drivers' license records and other sources, including information already held by the military.

Pentagon Creating Student Database