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‘Counter-recruiters' shadowing the military
They say potential enlistees are being misled and need to know their options

NEW YORK — The Marines didn't have to recruit Greg McCullough. He signed a promise to enlist last year, while he was still in high school. But now McCullough has had second thoughts, and he's talking to a different kind of recruiter.

Jim Murphy is a “counter-recruiter,” one of a small but growing number of opponents of the Iraq war who say they want to compete with military recruiters for the hearts and minds of young people.

“I don't tell kids not to join the military,” says Murphy, 59, a member of Veterans for Peace. “I tell them: ‘Have a plan for your future. Because if you don't, the military has a plan for you.' ”

Since the advent of the all-volunteer military three decades ago, the armed services have used an array of tools, from recruiting in schools to TV advertising, to successfully sell careers in the military. But with ground troops in Iraq still under fire, the Army and Marines are struggling to get enough enlistments.

The armed services need many recruits each year — the Army and Army Reserve alone need more than 100,000 — and less than 10% come knocking on the door. The rest must be recruited.

Anti-war activists such as Murphy charge that to fill their quotas, some military recruiters make promises they can't guarantee, such as money for college or training in a particular specialty, and give misleading descriptions of military life.

Murphy says high school graduates don't need to join the military to learn a skill, pay for college, see the world or learn discipline.

Counter-recruiters formed a national network at meetings in Philadelphia in the summers of 2003 and 2004. They range from Vietnam War veterans, such as Murphy, to high school students trained to talk to their peers about enlistment.

The American Friends Service Committee, one of several peace groups opposed to what it calls “militarization of youth,” has prepared a brochure titled Do You Know Enough to Enlist? In a tip of the hat to the opposition, it's deliberately designed to look like a military recruiting brochure.

Using a 1986 federal appeals court decision that supported the rights of draft registration opponents to equal access to students, the Los Angeles Unified School District teachers union has helped get counter-recruiting into some schools regularly visited by military recruiters in the nation's second largest public district. The counter-recruiters make public address announcements, distribute literature, show documentaries and give classroom presentations.

In the San Francisco area, members of a group called the Raging Grannies dress up in flamboyant old-lady attire (big hats, long, flowered dresses) and visit high schools. They offer a selection of political buttons and make their pitch while students are choosing. Sometimes the Grannies sing peace songs and dance.

“When you kick up your heels, it gets their attention,” says Ruth Robertson, a 52-year-old Granny.

But in most places, the contest between military recruiters and counter-recruiters is a mismatch. The former are full-time, uniformed servicemembers; the latter are volunteers working on a small budget, if any.

While military recruiters often enjoy free rein in high schools, anti-war activists say it's difficult just to get in the door.

Eric Peters is an anti-war organizer in Chicago, where most public high schools have Junior ROTC programs. He says some administrators think counter-recruiters are unpatriotic, and others fear parental or public criticism. As a result, his group must distribute fliers off school grounds.

“Where the need is greatest, it's hard to find groups committed to go into schools,” says Bob Henschen of the Houston Action Committee for Youth and Non-Military Options. He says it's so hard to get permission to enter schools that he won't say where his group has access. He says he's afraid publicity would jeopardize the arrangement....