Response to "Before You Enlist" Video

A lot of the things this video showed and the accounts told from people in this video were things that we have been hearing about recruitment and the disillusionment of joining the military. Most of the things in the video were ideas I have heard before about how the recruiters present the military in a positive way, and how it war is not as glamorous as they make it seem. There were some things in the video that did surprise me though, and good ideas raised that I had not previously considered. One person talked about joining the military, and how just after the first day, the images he had of the military were shattered, and that after one day he knew the military was not what he had thought it would be. One mother of a volunteer said her son was just 19 when he joined, and that at 19, people cannot make such an important decision of joining the military. This is an interesting point, especially considering how young the army begins recruitment with their video games and movies. A large part of the film spent time discussing how lost younger people are when they join -- and then leave -- the military. A fact the movie gave us was that the college funding the army promises only usually gives about 1/5 of the cost of a private school. That is about $8,000 or so for most private schools, about the same amount of a decent academic scholarship. Because the army purposely recruits people who do not come from a good background or good high school education system, they know that these people do not have much of a chance to get an academic scholarship, or even go to college, so the military provides them with a good alternative. One part of this I did not agree with was when the movie focused on veterans that are homeless, and said that a percentage of veterans are currently homeless. This is true of any demographic, and does not necessarily correlate to their time spent in the army. I was really shocked when the film discussed how women are treated in the military, and it reminded me of the controversy about gays in the military. One of the people in the movie told us about someone she knew who was raped in the military, and she was told that it would be too difficult to press charges so she should let it go. This is a very unprofessional way to handle this, and I wonder if this occurred because the army devalues its women or wants to continue to enable masculine strength and brotherhood in the army. The thing that most surprised me in this video was how the army claims to be all-volunteer but then retains the right to change your contract, and can add years on to your contract that you did not sign up for. This is a sneaky way for the military to still technically be all-volunteer but still have volunteers forced to serve for a longer time.