Recruiting soldiers …

I WOULD LIKE to voice concern with the Century Marks item "Away without leave" (March 22). This piece, although attributed to Harper's Magazine, makes broad comments about the military recruitment process and those involved in that process. Recruiting personnel are depicted as self-serving liars at the expense of America's young men and women who are thereby tricked into enlisting. I will not say that all recruiters are virtuous; there are some who are as described. But the majority are professional soldiers doing a duty that they did not volunteer for, while their friends and comrades in arms are risking their lives at the direction of our country.

Promises made to prospective recruits--such as: you can get out, you won't go overseas and you can attend college--can all be valid. Young people can and do change their minds and leave the service. Enlistees can be guaranteed station of choice, whether that choice be stateside or overseas. Furthermore, the army bends over backward to ensure that soldiers can attend college, and gives college-attending soldiers a promotion advantage. Colleges are welcome to establish satellite campuses on army bases, and soldiers can attend off-post colleges. A friend of mine attended classes via Internet while in Iraq. These are not promises "that can never be kept"; rather they are contractual obligations.

Steve Rindahl

U.S. Army, Louise, Tex.

COPYRIGHT 2005 The Christian Century Foundation
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning