The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY)

With 6 percent of its land occupied by military bases, Hawai‘i is our most densely militarized state. But young activists are rejecting recruiting efforts and military influence.

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April 17, 2024 / Saliha Bayrak / The Nation - Pete Doktor was lost. Living in Southern California, with the end of high school approaching, he wanted to be a musician, but had no idea how he would pay for music school. His father, a World War II veteran with a wealth of stories on fighting fascism, told him the military was offering money for college.

Doktor had no intention of joining right away, but decided to take a qualification exam. The recruiters started pressuring him, asking if he was too “scared” to enlist and telling him that experience as an army medic would help him later find work. The idea of being able to find such stability and fulfill his “kūleana”—the Hawaiian word for responsibility—was eventually enough to persuade him.

But when Doktor left three years later and started searching for jobs, employers told him the basic first aid training he received was not nearly enough to find work in medicine. He felt misled. “[The military] has an arsenal of things to use to trap people wherever they’re most vulnerable or desperate,” he said.

Motivated by this dissolution, he instead sought to reconnect with his mother’s side and teach English in Okinawa, once a sovereign kingdom in the Pacific that became a military colony of Japan. His next move was to Hawai‘i, where he would learn demilitarization from the Kānaka Maoli, or Native Hawaiians, and “fight the global military empire.” For over 10 years, he worked to ensure that the most vulnerable of his students did not become prey to military recruiters as he once was.

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April 30, 2025 /  Rebecca Kheel and Steve Beynon / Military.com - High school students whose campuses do not have a Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps program would be able to join units at another school under a bill being introduced in Congress.

The expansion of the JROTC program is part of a broader bill being introduced by Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, intended to build on recent momentum in recruiting by expanding the military's access to high schools.

"For me, choosing to serve our country opened the door for the American dream, allowed me to afford college, and paved the way for a life committed to service," Ernst, who served in the Iowa National Guard, said in a statement. "By increasing avenues to the benefits and pathways of a career in the military, we can unlock even more opportunities and brighter futures for our next generation."

The bill, dubbed the Service Enlistment and Recruitment of Valuable Engagement, or SERVE, Act, would specifically direct the Pentagon to create a policy that allows high schools to have "cross-town" affiliations with schools that host JROTC units so students can "enroll in the JROTC program of the host unit and participate in activities at both campuses without dedicated staff," according to bill text obtained exclusively by Military.com.