Carson Frame / The American Homefront Project -  Listen to the Report

The Army is holding its first nationwide virtual recruiting campaign, after the COVID-19 pandemic forced it to scale back face-to-face interactions and revealed gaps in its digital outreach strategy.

As the coronavirus pandemic bloomed this spring, the Army reduced staff at many brick-and-mortar recruiting stations across the country. Enlistments slowed, fueling concerns that the service would have to extend the contracts of current soldiers in order to meet total force requirements.

Recruiters took their work remote, but lost out on some of the major recruitment opportunities that normally boost their numbers.

"That last moment before a senior leaves their high school-- typically we're there," said Staff Sgt. Kara Wilson, a station commander in West Texas. "We're helping them with support, finding them different avenues."

"However, we didn't have that moment this year, she said."

So Wilson and her team have had to build an online recruiting environment to reach those same young people. Apps like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat have proven the most effective, and Wilson has designed new campaigns for each.

But not without a little help.

AN INTERVIEW WITH
Nancy Cruz, Barbara Harris, Rick Jahnkow, and  Seth Kershner | Originally Published in Jacobin Magazine on October 18, 2019
 

SK
The National Defense Act of 1916 created the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (rotc), which operates at the university level, along with Junior rotc, which operates at the high school level. At first, JROTC was kind of like rotc’s unwanted stepchild. There were only a couple hundred JROTC units across the country until the mid-1960s.
 
The program really started to expand in earnest once the draft ended in 1973. Between 1971 and 1974, enrollment in Army JROTC increased by 21 percent, Air Force JROTC increased by 50 percent, and Navy JROTC increased by more than 100 percent. High schools became the answer to the Pentagon’s manpower problems.
 
BH
Anyone under the age of eighteen should not be recruited or be part of the military system. I believe this is a United Nations protocol, and in my view the United States doesn’t follow it.

www.nnomy.org/despojatucuerpo - in English

CODEPINK, en asociación con una serie de grupos de paz y desarme, ha lanzado una campaña de desinversión para alentar a las universidades, organizaciones religiosas, fondos de jubilación, fondos mutuos, inversores privados y otras instituciones financieras en los Estados Unidos a tomar medidas para reducir los violentos conflictos mundiales. y frenar la hipermilitarización de nuestro mundo al deshacerse de la máquina de guerra de los Estados Unidos. La desinversión de War Machine significa la desinversión (eliminación de activos invertidos) de las compañías que obtienen sus ganancias al suministrar y beneficiarse de las intervenciones militares de los Estados Unidos, las expansiones y la militarización de nuestras calles. En otras palabras, estamos pidiendo la desinversión en las empresas que reciben grandes ganacias por matar.

La Red Nacional de Oposición a la Militarización de la Juventud está extendiendo esta desinversión más allá de cómo apoyamos la vasta y debilitante industria de la guerra con nuestros dólares para incluir la idea de desinvertir nuestros cuerpos. Por supuesto, desde un punto de vista humanista, su cuerpo no es un activo financiero, pero como tantas cosas en nuestro mundo contemporáneo, hemos sido reducidos de ciudadanos a consumidores. Y los militares nos tienen en cuenta en términos financieros: el costo de mantener nuestro entrenamiento, despliegue y, con demasiada frecuencia, nuestra salud de ser utilizados como soldados en guerras y conflictos interminables.

Jonah Walters / Jacobin Magazine -

Military recruiters understand that widespread joblessness is good for enlistment. They celebrate the arrival of “Sergeant Hard Times,” recognizing that misery is the best motivator.