[Sohei]

Originally Posted by ChuckSteak

I'm not saying some recruiters don't lie. Of course some do. And those that do should be punished to the fullest. For this paticular story above....where's the proof? So far as I can see it's the recruiters word against the kids and the one mommy. Did he lie? I don't know that, none of us do. Are the kids lying? Don't know that either. I do know the process for joining the Navy and taking them to the MEPS overnight is pretty standard. Did the recruiter lie to them about how long it would take? Again, we don't know. Did the kids know exactly how long it would take, but didn't tell mommy the truth? Still don't know. See the pattern here?

Anyone who jumps to conclusions (for either 'side') is a complete idiot.

I dont think every recruiter scams people, but I think you're giving them too much credit. there are lots of stories about recruiters routinely lying and scamming people. and its completely understandable: noone wants to join now because of an unpopular war and the military doesnt pay shit. Yet the recruiters have a quota to meet to keep that job. Obviously some are gonna lie and scam to get people in.

[Darkballs]

Originally Posted by BadassHo

who signed up though? those kids should know better. and the navy shouldnt want stupid kids anyways. but when kids act stupid, i usually dont feel bad for them.

hell, the navy is safe, all they will get is staying out of trouble, getting a job, learning skills, and getting money for college. boo hoo.

they should think about these things before signing, they just wanted more. they werent mad about being in the navy. they were mad at being in the navy with less than they want.


caveat emptor

let the buyer beware.

as a former military guy myself, i'm usually quick to comedown hard on people who enlist and then try to back out. but this clearly looks like the recruiter scammed them. why the hell would they enlist for imediate active duty if they were already enrolled in college? plus if we follow your line of thinking of "to bad, they shouldn't complain after signing the contract, they should have read it closely in case they were being shafted" i think you'll see recruitment numbers drop as lads start avoiding the recruiting stations.
recruiters aren't all bad, but they've got a job to do; which is produce bodies for the service. look at them like car salesmen, they're going to tell you what they think you want to hear, and downplay what they think you don't. once i got out of the the marines i made an effort to accompany anyone who was interrested in the corps when they visited the recruiter. now i never caught an outright lie (i usually wouldn't let on that i was prior service), but i did find the occasional bending of the truth.

[viel cazzo]

Originally Posted by BadassHo

who signed up though? those kids should know better. and the navy shouldnt want stupid kids anyways. but when kids act stupid, i usually dont feel bad for them.

hell, the navy is safe, all they will get is staying out of trouble, getting a job, learning skills, and getting money for college. boo hoo.

they should think about these things before signing, they just wanted more. they werent mad about being in the navy. they were mad at being in the navy with less than they want.


caveat emptor

let the buyer beware.

Educate yourself on the current state of the Navy. I served in Iraq for 18 months and the Navy isn't safe. I was shore based and envolved in crap over there. It's called Individual Duty Assignments. Pretty much they give you orders to Iraw for one year .. oh and they aren't just having the new seamen(make fun all you want) it's senior enlisted and officers too.

I joined the Navy not the damn Marines or Army. Getting shot at as cool as it looks in the movies isn't cool at all, especially when you think the whole reason you're there is B.S.

[big_john127]

While it looks like the boys in the story got screwed this attitude of join up, get the U.S. Government to pay for school/loans/whatever, and then complain when you are asked to go to Iraq, Afghanistan, or wherever is upsetting and far to common.

Millitary service, national guard service, and reservist are not handouts.

[logos]

I would not go as far as to say recruiters lie, but they are somewhat misleading.

I was in the USMC for four years, and was led to believe that I could attend college during my enlistement...needless to say, it was impossible.

On the other hand, some branches and certain MOS's make it possible...but not very many. Moreover, I often see recruiters
mislead recruits with guarantees of special operations positions; which, any fool knows can never be guaranteed.

I enjoyed the four years I spent in the military, and do not regret it all. That being said, I would strongly recommend to anyone who is considering joining the military to talk it over with a veteran prior to signing.

[Yojimbo.]

I don't have any terrible stories, just that a recruiter I spoke with in high school hounded me like a stalker for a while. Nothing surprising. I spoke to him at school, told him I might be interested in joining the Army, asked a few questions blah blah. He asked if it was ok if he came by my house to talk more about it and I told him no, and that if I had any more questions I'd come to him. The following Saturday morning he's knocking on my door. I told him I wasn't interested and politely told him I'd appreciate it if he left and never came back to my house after I asked him not to.

[SMEAC]

The two kid's sound like dumb asses that were bound to be duped sometime.

I personally don't believe what they are saying because they are trying to make normal measures like staying at a motel the night before MEPS sound ominous.

It is not like they were locked in the MEPS and the MEPS counselor lays out the contract in very plain language.

[KrazyKanadian]

I would not join the navy or any branch of military if they actually wired 5 million dollars into my bank account first.

[Sohei]

Originally Posted by SMEAC

The two kid's sound like dumb asses that were bound to be duped sometime.

I agree to an extent, I wouldn't trust a recruiter who laid out a scheme like this but there are lots of naive 18 year olds especially "sheltered honor students".

Originally Posted by SMEAC

It is not like they were locked in the MEPS and the MEPS counselor lays out the contract in very plain language.

We dont really know what happened. Yeah they weren't locked in but they could have been coerced another way.

One of my friends was interested in joining the Army, so he took the ASVAB and scored really high and after that the recruiters were on him 24/7 trying to get him to sign up. They told him that since his score was so high he could qualify for lots of jobs others could not and basically told him he would have his pick of jobs. They then told him he shodl sign up ASAP because of all the competition for these jobs that required such a high ASVAB score.

So the recruiter drives him from his tiny town to the MEPS station which is like 2 hours away in the state capital hes never been to before and drops him off. He goes in and when he does the physical tests they discover hes like 60% color-blind and commonly near-sighted. So when he goes to the Army liaison all these jobs that he was interested in and which his recruiters had assured him he could easily qualify for (MOS like military intelligence/linguist and special ops) the liaison officer tells him his relatively bad vision disqualifies him for. Instead they tried to railroad him into other lame jobs (cook, logistics, working in a cannery, or in a building making uniforms), and he gets pissed and decides to say 'fuck it' and calls his recruiters back in his hometown and asks them to pick him up. His recruiters, the liaison officer and a host of other people at MEPS try to convince him to accept the lame jobs and of course he says no and when he asks the recruiters to come and pick him up, they basically tell him if he accepts the lame job and signs up they will come and pick him up, and if not he has to find his own ride back to his town. Needless to say he signed up with the lame job and pretended to play ball so he wouldn't end up on the street in an unfamiliar town and later backed out when it was his time to ship out.

[Wingslaught]

Originally Posted by Sohei

Did you ever consider it might be in the military s best interest to sign people who ACTUALLY WANT TO BE THERE instead of acting like a corporation and spending billions of dollars on a marketing team and training recruiters to act like used-car salesmen and spend all these resources trying to trick and scam kids into joining?

What would you suggest? There is no draft. Recruiters are pressured into fulfilling quotas and they can be deceitful. The military does have programs where you can go to college full-time until you graduate, while being paid, and then you owe 4 more years to them. The recruiter probably explained and highlighted some of the more appealing opportunities.