August 18, 2014 @ 12:00 am
EP 38 “Counter Military Recruitment and Guam’s Youth”
(hosted by Joy White with production assistance of Lydia Taleu) first aired 10/8/10 and re-broadcast 8/15/14 (with assistance of Marlon Molinos).
Counter military recruitment is a national movement to empower youth and parents to make more informed decisions about military enlistment. Through this work, counter-recruiters seek to balance the myths surrounding military service by teaching potential enlistees about their rights and exposing the risks and consequences military recruiters fail to mention.
Our region of the Pacific has been referred to as a ‘military recruiter’s paradise’. Nationally, recruiters are under tremendous pressure to meet recruiting goals where media coverage on current wars make military life harder to pitch. In contrast, US Army recruiting on Guahan has received national attention and celebrates having four of the Army’s top 12 producers. From a different perspective, the ‘success’ of military recruitment subjects our community to the ‘poverty draft’. Pacific Islanders are the most overrepresented group in the U.S. military at 649%. Consequently, the islands of Micronesia have suffered more casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan per capita than any US state.
Program guests are Ms. Christina Illarmo and Ms. Moñeka De Oro, both Chamorro women who grew up as military dependents. At the time of this interview, Ms. Illarmo (cillarmo@gmail.com) was a graduate social work student at Wheelock College, Boston. She returned to Guam in the summer 2010 to complete an internship with the Guahan Coalition for Peace and Justice. Her project involved the introduction of counter military recruitment to the Guam public and private school systems and educating parents and students about the pros and cons of enlisting in the military. Ms. De Oro (moneka.deoro@gmail.com) is a former member of Americorps-VISTA at the Guam Community College Center for Civic Engagement and Student Services. She is the events coordinator for WeAreGuahan. She studied anthropology, with a focus on culture and history of Guam and the Marianas, at the University of Guam.
Music selection: All These Things That I’ve Done by The Killers. This re-broadcast includes a YouTube clip of Aimee Allison, veteran, conscientious objector and counter-recruiter, speaking at the national counter-recruitment conference held at UCLA/Berkeley, October 22, 2005.
According to a 1986 Ninth Circuit Court ruling, counter military recruiter are legally allowed the same access to students in schools as military recruiters. To get your Back-to-School Kit for Counter-recruitment and School Demilitarization Organizing go to:http://www.popularresistance.org/back-to-school-get-your-counter-recruitment-kit/ This kit is designed to provide community activists, concerned teachers and counselors, parents, and students, an up-to-date catalog of materials to counter the increasing efforts of the U.S. Department of Defense to militarize our youth in schools. The 2013 Back-to-School Kit includes material organized in the categories of Counter-recruitment, Non-military Careers, College and Service Alternatives, Gender and the Military, JROTC, Delayed Entry Program (DEP), and Privacy issues including Student Opt Out and ASVAB testing.