Monday, June 01, 2009

Twofer

I know, two posts in a month... on the same day. What the heck is wrong with me?

News about recruiting has been pretty light. There has been no repeat of the "Army enlisting Felons" stories of years past. Instead the DoD puts out the monthly press release saying that all the services have exceeded their missions and they are ignored.

The first bit of recruiting news covers something I don't think I'd seen discussed in the news at all. The reactions of the recruiter who enlisted a Soldier who is killed in combat. I've been fortunate that none of the Soldiers I've enlisted have died. The only Soldier I know from recruiting who has been killed in combat was SSG West. However a Soldier recruited in my station did die while at their duty station, and a station in my recruiting company was where SPC Lori Piestewa enlisted into the Army. They had a memorial to her in their old recruiting station. Not sure if it moved to the new one.

Two HRAPs being shot, and one being killed, is going to be overshadowed by the assassination of Dr. George Tiller in KS. Dr. Tiller was a lightening rod who was involved in one of the most controversial medical practices in our nation. His murder outside his church by some nutjob is a natural magnet for media attention. I had come to accept that violence against recruiters is perfectly acceptable though. After all, they're only recruiters. The murderer of this Soldier was motivated by the exact same hatred and close-mindedness that motivated Tiller's murderer. And while Tiller's death has elicited euologies from everyone who can get near a microphone, a Soldier being gunned down in his hometown drive-by style by a guy who just wanted to kill a Soldier will be unremarked upon by the same people ignoring the continued success of Army Recruiting.

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