WHO IS THIS WEBSITE FOR?

This website serves as a resource to prospective recruits in order to help make an informed decision about enlisting. The military is a complex institution that can neither be defined as good or bad. The military, as with government organizations, puts out propaganda in order to entice Americans into enlisting into the Armed Forces. While many join the military out of a desire to patriotically serve our country, many more join in order to gain financial stability that they have not had in their life before, as promised in the government issued propaganda. Many others join in order to gain a college education that would have been inaccessible had they not enlisted. Military propaganda is often targeted at those people and demographics that would benefit the most from the socioeconomic advancements that joining the military would offer, most notably those who are lower class or in the poverty cycle. These demographics are typically people of color, unemployed individuals, low income households, poor education areas, and urban areas and areas near active military bases. 

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Did You Know?

 

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was made into law in 2001, and authorized several federal education programs to be mandatorily administered by the states. It created modern day standardized testing and was designed to boost educational standards such as reading, writing, and math skills in areas with low education. In order for schools to receive the NCLB funding, however, they are required to grant military recruiters access to personal information of millions of students that is also available to colleges and employers and allow the military to recruit inside of schools. This information is also collected in a Department of Defense database called Joint Advertising Marketing Research & Studies (JAMRS), which costs the government millions of dollars and was expressly made to collect information on young people for military recruitment purposes. This information, although legally accessed by the military, lacks fully informed consent. Even though families can choose for their children to be opted out of the JAMRS database and NCLB, it is unclear if students and parents even know that the student’s personal information is being collected by the government for the purpose of military recruitment.