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NNOMYnews 1047: June 15 2020: Delayed Entry Program in the Age of Covid-19

Changes in the Delayed Entry Program / Future Soldier Program during the Covid-19 pandemic accommodate strategies for distance military recruitment and enlistment. These changes further position those enrolled in DEP to feel further obligated and trapped against changing their minds to enlist due to expanded advance payments and training before boot camp in a moment when there is mass unemployment and economic distress.

How COVID-19 is impacting the Delayed Entry Program and threatening the health of recruits.

COVID-19 has profoundly impacted the way the military finds new soldiers. The recruiting command was caught unprepared to face the pandemic and is facing a challenging new reality.

Military recruiting is an intense, psychological pursuit that has traditionally relied on the ability of recruiters to develop close relationships with teenage prospects. These relationships were cultivated in the nation’s high schools where recruiters enjoyed access to children. Recruiters served as coaches and tutors. They brought donuts to the faculty. They ate lunch with prospects, sometimes a hundred times in a single school year. Military recruiters played one-on-one basketball after school with potential recruits and became best of friends with some kids. So friendly, hundreds of male recruiters have been implicated in inappropriate sexual relationships with underaged girls.

High schools were the center of the recruiting universe, but that ended abruptly in March when the enlistment pipeline was ruptured. Recruiters enlisted seniors and placed them into the Delayed Entry Program (DEP) in which a student’s entry into active duty is postponed for up to 365 days. (The Army now calls it the Future Soldier Program.) The thrust of the DEP program is to maintain future soldier motivation while minimizing attrition. When DEP members report to basic training, they are accessed (enlisted) into active duty.

Read More | EN ESPAÑOL

https://nnomypeace.net/427-flexicontent/articles/772-tough-times-for-military-recruiting.html
https://www.nnomypeace.net/427articles/773-tiempos-dificiles-para-el-reclutamiento-militar.html

America's Heroes are always those who are expendable

Gary Ghirardi / OpEd - Back in May of 2020, I caught an interview on Pacifica's KPFK radio on a morning program where a young woman was explaining the loss of her aunt that was a nurse  engaging the Coronavirus. She recounted her aunt telling her that she was not provided with masks or gloves and that a patient had sneezed in her face a week prior to her falling ill. All this culminated with a Zoom meeting with the family saying goodbye before she died. Later that day I passed a local hospital that had placed a large banner on the street honoring our heroes that were fighting the current epidemic.


Read More

https://nnomy.org/en/810-america-s-heroes-are-always-those-who-are-expendable.html

Militarism in Gaming: Virtual Future Soldier

Technological developments in the business of war will increase the possibility of addressing conflict violently as they perceive they are reducing their combat vulnerability. Take a look at what is being promoted in the U.S. Army's gaming platform  AmericasArmy: All-new capabilities coming to the US Army Soldier in the near future.


Watch Now

https://youtu.be/jwVgthgFx6w

Podcast: Congress leaning towards drafting women for next war

Courage to Resist is fundamentally opposed to the military conscription of anyone. Recently, the current US military draft registration laws were found to be unconstitutional, as they apply only to men, while all military roles are now open to women as well. So, the US Congress has a dilemma: Either abandon draft registration once and for all, or force young women to register for war along with men. Courage to Resist participates in the “No Draft” ad-hoc coalition of organizations working on this issue, and in this podcast we are proud to present two leading voices of this effort.

Listen Now

https://couragetoresist.org/podcast-women-draft/

Why We Still Need a Movement to Keep Youth From Joining the Military

Elizabeth King / In These Times-  sh’s Iraq War, when the U.S. military ratcheted up recruitment for the war. But these days you don’t hear much about this movement, despite the fact that the U.S. is still engaged in brutal wars, from Yemen to Afghanistan, and the Trump administration has been threatening war with Iran. Out of the spotlight, dedicated counter-recruiters around the country are steadfast in their organizing to cut off the human supply chain to the U.S. military. U.S. wars have caused innumerable deaths, created long-term hardships in occupied nations, and cost trillions of dollars. Counter-recruitment, then, is about starving the military of the labor it needs to accomplish these destructive missions. When working with students, parents and school leadership, counter-recruiters focus on a variety of issues, including the negative personal consequences that come with being a soldier and broader problems like racism and U.S. imperialism.

Read More

https://nnomypeace.net/427-flexicontent/articles/770-why-we-still-need-a-movement-to-keep-youth-from-joining-the-military-770.html

Delayed Entry Program
(DEP/Future Solder Program)

This program is used very often by recruiters when trying to encourage high school students to sign up, especially those that might not have an idea of what to do after graduation. The problem is that a lot can change in a year, and students that initially signed up for the DEP might have second thoughts about enlisting later on.

In this case, the most important thing to know is that the easiest way to get out of the DEP is to not go or report to your shipping date. It is not necessary to contact your recruiter or send out a letter explaining your decision, or to fill out any paperwork or forms.  Because their job is to convince young people to recruit, recruiters might attempt to talk you out of your decision not to go, and even not make it clear that you can walk out at any time before your actual enlistment date.  If you are a victim of harassment from a recruiter that is trying to pressure you to sign up, contact GI Rights Hotline.

Read More

https://nnomy.org/en/what-is-militarization/school-militarization/by-program/delayed-entry-program.html

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Sharing these memes helps get out the message about the pressures directed at our youth to accept militarization as normal and to recruit them into military service.

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https://nnomy.org/en/resources/item/790-social-media-memes.html

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It Is More Important then Ever
During the Pandemic
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Help Fund NNOMY to De-Militarize Schools. Your donation to NNOMY supports the National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth's efforts to balance the message of military recruiters in our public schools where minors are routinely primed for recruitment through Department of Defense school programs designed for youth.

Making a financial contribution supports NNOMY's national demilitarization work with activist organizations inside middle and high schools.

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(Your donation is tax-deductible to the extent allowable by law.) through our fiscal sponsor Alliance for Global Justice. Make sure you select from the causes list, The National Network Opposing he Militarization of Youth (NNOMY), or make a check out to:"NNOMY/AFGJ" and mail it to: AFGJ, 225 E. 26th St. Suite 1, Tucson, AZ 85713