Before You Enlist Video - http://beforeyouenlist.org
Researching Pop Culture and Militarism - https://nnomy.org/popcultureandmilitarism/
If you have been Harassed by a Military Recruiter -https://centeronconscience.org/abused-by-recruiters/
Back-to-School Kit for Counter-recruitment and School Demilitarization Organizing is focused on student privacy
WHAT IS IN THIS KIT? - https://nnomy.org/backtoschoolkit/
Click through to find out
Religion and militarism - https://nnomy.org/religionandmilitarism/
‘A Poison in the System’: Military Sexual Assault - New York Times
Change your Mind?
Talk to a Counselor at the GI Rights Hotline
Ask that your child's information is denied to Military Recruiters
And monitor that this request is honored.
Military Recruiters and Programs Target marginalized communities for recruits...
..and the high schools in those same communities

 Militarization of our Schools

The Pentagon is taking over our poorer public schools. This is the reality for disadvantaged youth.

 

What we can do

Corporate/conservative alliances threaten Democracy . Progressives have an important role to play.

 Why does NNOMY matter?

Most are blind or indifferent to the problem.
A few strive to protect our democracy.

Articles

Featured

U.S. Citizens Are Joining the Military to Protect Undocumented Parents

Amid an ICE crackdown in her area, an Oregon National Guard recruiter offers U.S. citizens a way to save their immigrant parents.

  español  - 

Jan. 12, 2026 / Greg Jaffe / New York Times - Greg Jaffe spent eight days in The Dalles, Ore., with a recruiter from the Oregon National Guard. She believed that the key to being a good recruiter was not just selling the military and its benefits, but herself. Sgt. First Class Rosa Cortez wanted potential recruits to notice the pictures of her smiling children, her college diploma and the awards she had earned in the course of her nearly 20 years with the Oregon National Guard.

Her goal was to “radiate positivity,” she said. “People will see it and want to align with you.”

Lately though, she, along with hundreds of other recruiters around the country, had been offering something else: protection from the government she served.

President Trump’s second term has been defined by an extensive crackdown on undocumented immigrants that has set off waves of fear in places with large Hispanic populations. In many of these areas, a little-known government program called Parole in Place has become a refuge of last resort and a powerful recruiting tool.

Only U.S. citizens and permanent residents are eligible to enlist in the military. The Parole in Place program, launched in 2013, provides the undocumented parents and spouses of service members protection from deportation, and an expedited pathway to permanent residency.

Turning Point USA’s Expansion Into High Schools and the Emerging Military Recruitment Pipeline

  español -

January 09, 2026 / NNOMY staff / National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth - Turning Point USA (TPUSA), the conservative youth‑mobilization organization founded by Charlie Kirk, has dramatically expanded its presence in American high schools. While this development is often framed as a political or cultural phenomenon, its implications reach far beyond partisan organizing. TPUSA’s school‑based activities intersect with a broader national trend toward youth militarization, particularly under the Trump 2.0 administration, which has embraced policies that expand JROTC, increase recruiter access, and embed military programs more deeply into public education. This report examines how TPUSA’s presence in high schools contributes to a cultural, institutional, and political environment that increases the likelihood of military enlistment among young people. Drawing on academic research, independent media, and counter‑recruitment scholarship, it argues that TPUSA’s expansion is not merely a political project but a structural shift that places high‑school students at heightened risk of recruitment.

The High Cost of Loyalty: Why the 2026 Military Contract is a Moral and Legal Liability

 

  español - 

January 08, 2026 / NNOMY staff / National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth - For decades, the decision to join the U.S. military was often framed as a clear-cut path to stable benefits and a way to serve a non-partisan national interest. However, as of 2026, the landscape has shifted. With the "Trump 2.0" administration aggressively reshaping the Department of Defense (DoD), many potential recruits and their families are questioning whether the current environment aligns with the traditional "warrior ethos."

In early 2026, the traditional pitch for military service—defending the Constitution, securing global stability, and upholding a non-partisan honor code—has undergone a jarring metamorphosis. Under the "Trump 2.0" administration, the Department of Defense is no longer merely a shield for the nation; it has been refashioned into an instrument of unilateral executive will that frequently operates outside the boundaries of international law. For a young American standing at a recruiting station today, the decision to enlist is no longer a simple act of patriotism. It is an entry into a legal and ethical "grey zone" where the consequences of one’s actions may follow them long after they hang up the uniform.

Featured

Marine Corps recruiting fraud: Pressure fueled forgeries, fake records

    español

Jan 5, 2026 / Kelsey Baker / businessinsider.com - Recruiting new Marines can be so challenging in parts of the US that some recruiters have resorted to fraud to meet their monthly goals.

Business Insider obtained a 2023 Marine Corps investigation into one area of the Rust Belt that found widespread rule-breaking, including fabricated police records and fake medical notes. Two recruiters who were fired as part of the probe spoke to Business Insider about the pressures of recruiting and what drove them to fake records. One of them, Staff Sgt. Calvin Grimes, shared a collection of electronic templates that helped fellow recruiters forge doctors' notes, high school diplomas, and other documents.

"You have to live with that feeling that your heart's beating out of your chest ready to explode," former Gunnery Sgt. Logan Krivak said of falsifying records. "You know it's wrong, and you just have to live with that."

Overall, 10 Marines who recruited in the region between 2018 and 2024 told Business Insider they faced a desperate struggle to hit their quotas of signing up two new recruits each month. Five admitted to taking shortcuts or falsifying records. The others said they knew fraud was happening within recruiting ranks. In 2021, all the leaders in one recruiting hub were relieved for fraud, or for failing to catch it, sources told Business Insider.

The Rust Belt issues spotlight a problem that persists in some areas today, recruiters told Business Insider.

 

Books about Counter-recruitment

Books about counter military recruitment activism are a rich landscape to draw from. Based on a search about counter military recruitment and the broader field of anti-militarist organizing, here’s a curated, well-organized list of books directly about counter-recruitment activism, plus a few adjacent works that have become staples in the movement.

 

📚 Books Directly About Counter–Military Recruitment Activism


1. Military Recruiting in the United States 

Pat Elder (2016)

Military Recruiting in the United States provides a fearless and penetrating description of the deceptive practices of the U.S. military as it recruits American youth into the armed forces. Long-time antiwar activist Pat Elder exposes the underworld of American military recruiting in this explosive and consequential book. The book describes how recruiters manage to convince youth to enlist. It details a sophisticated psy-ops campaign directed at children. Elder describes how the military encourages first-person shooter games and places firearms into the hands of thousands using the schools, its JROTC programs, and the Civilian Marksmanship Program to inculcate youth with a reverence for guns. Previously unpublished investigative work reveals how indoor shooting ranges in schools are threatening the health of children and school staff through exposure to lead particulate matter. The book provides a kind of “what’s coming next manual” for European peacemakers as they also confront a rising tide of militarism. The book examines the disturbing, nurturing role of the Catholic Church in recruiting youth. It surveys the wholesale military censorship of Hollywood films, pervasive military testing in the high schools, and an explosion of military programs directed toward youth.

Purchase at: AbeBooks |  Amazon | Review @ Scholarworks

2. Counter-Recruitment and the Campaign to Demilitarize Public Schools

Scott Harding & Seth Kershner (2016)
A foundational academic study of the modern counter-recruitment movement, covering tactics, case studies, school policy battles, and the political history of resisting militarism in education.

 This book describes the various tactics used in counter-recruitment, drawing from the words of activists and case studies of successful organizing and advocacy. The United States is one of the only developed countries to allow a military presence in public schools, including an active role for military recruiters. In order to enlist 250,000 new recruits every year, the US military must market itself to youth by integrating itself into schools through programs such as JROTC (Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps), and spend billions of dollars annually on recruitment activities. This militarization of educational space has spawned a little-noticed grassroots resistance: the small, but sophisticated, “counter-recruitment” movement. Counter-recruiters visit schools to challenge recruiters' messages with information on non-military career options; activists work to make it harder for the military to operate in public schools; they conduct lobbying campaigns for policies that protect students' private information from military recruiters; and, counter-recruiters mentor youth to become involved in these activities. While attracting little attention, counter-recruitment has nonetheless been described as “the military recruiter's greatest obstacle” by a Marine Corps official.

Purchase at: Amazon


3. Army of None: Strategies to Counter Military Recruitment, End War, and Build a Better World

Aimee Allison & David Solnit (2007)
A practical organizing manual from two veteran activists. It blends political analysis with hands-on tools, scripts, and strategies for resisting recruitment in schools and communities.

Uniformed U.S. Army Officers lunch with students in elementary school cafeterias. Army training programs including rifle and pistol instruction replace physical education in middle schools. Like never before, military recruiters are entering the halls of U.S. schools with unchecked access in an attempt to bolster a military in crisis. However, even as these destructive efforts to militarize youth accelerate, so do the creative and powerful efforts of students, community members, and veterans to challenge them. Today, the counter recruitment movement—from counseling to poetry slams to citywide lobbying efforts—has become one of the most practical ways to tangibly resist U.S. policy that cuts funding for education and social programs while promoting war and occupation. Without enough soldiers, the U.S. cannot sustain its empire.
Army of None exposes the real story behind the military-recruitment complex, and offers guides, tools, and resources for education and action, and people power strategies to win.

Purchase at: AbeBooks | Amazon | Seven Stories Press

Featured

Beginning/Recruitment - Middle/Killing - End/The long slide into Moral Hell

However, we also understand that there are NO prohibitions of the school and its board from implementing counter measures to military recruitment.

  español - 

Dec 17, 2025 / Rubicon & Griobhtha with Juan Idalgo / Crossing Rubicons - Sean was asked to write something for the National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth. We have previously published reports on ROTC & JrROTC and military indoctrination and recruitment through schools: ROTC/JROTC in K-12 Schools: Laws, Problems, Ethics and Prioritization of ROTC/JROTC in K-12 Schools Due to Federal Funding Incentives and Patterns of Involuntary Enrollment

NNOMY has republished this report on their site. We encourage everyone to read the important articles and information which NNOMY has to offer, and to become involved. Schools cannot refuse to participate, especially in the current political climate, with ROTC without risking funding loss; and federal law prohibits schools from blocking access to military recruiters. This we understand.

However, we also understand that there are NO prohibitions of the school and its board from implementing counter measures to military recruitment. Such instruction can be synergistic with English, Reading, and Student Engagement (unvarnished history; moral, ethical, psychological reading and debates, study of the history and meaning in Just War Theory (History & Debate and Moral & Ethical Framework) If board members prioritize funding over humanity and care, that is moral fault and an ethical breach. Even if an educator claims to be unaware of the fault, it still lays shame and responsibility at their feet. Board members should be made to understand history regarding aggression and conflicts, and that:

The sole purpose of the military is to kill and support killing.

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