What is F.A.M.E. committed to?
• Providing clear and accurate information – so that youth can make informed and consensual decisions about their lives and military service;
• Countering prevalent misinformation about the benefits of joining the military, compared to civilian opportunities; and
• Ending the “economic draft” by helping youth find educational and employment resources
Can We Come to Your School?
Are you a student? Are there recruiters coming to your school to try and get you and your classmates to enlist? Contact us about coming to your school and giving a presentation. Email us at FameDetroit@Gmail.com
Topics: The Basics |
School Military Recruiting Could Violate International Law
by Jim Lobe
Published on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 by Inter Press Service
WASHINGTON – Pressed by the demands of the “global war on terrorism”, the United States is violating an international protocol that forbids the recruitment of children under the age of 18 for military service, according to a new report released Tuesday by a major civil rights group that charged that recruitment practices target children as young as 11 years old.
Topics: Recruitment |
DOD officials concerned about GI Bill benefits
Faced with the threat of a bipartisan bill to expand GI educational benefits, Defense Department officials are expressing concern that if soldiers can actually afford college, reenlistment rates will drop. This highlights not only how the military relies on the economic draft to recruit soldiers, but also how they rely on keeping their numbers up by ensuring soldiers can’t afford other options when it comes time for re-enlistment. There is an inherent conflict of interest in ensuring GI benefits are actually paid out.
Link to article: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60518&archive=true
Topics: Educational Benefits |
Raped and Silenced
The Pentagon fails to protect U.S. troops from sexual abuse — sometimes with deadly results.
When military sexual assault survivors call Susan Avila-Smith, she advises them to keep their mouths shut while she works on getting them home.
“It breaks my heart to do that,” she says, “but I want to get them out alive and that’s my main goal.”
Since she left the Army in 1995, Avila-Smith estimates that she has helped about 1,200 rape survivors separate from the U.S. Armed Forces and claim their Veterans Affairs (VA) benefits. As founder of Women Organizing Women, an online support group for survivors of military sexual trauma (MST), Avila-Smith has heard it all. But lately, she’s been more sensitive than usual.
“Maria’s case has triggered something in me,” she says. “I imagine the VAs are filling up right now with women who never even stepped foot in there before.”
“Maria” is 20-year-old Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, who disappeared from Camp Lejeune, outside of Jacksonville, N.C., on Dec. 14, 2007, one month before she was expected to give birth. As the local police enlisted the press to help reach out to Lauterbach and solicit information from the local community, it was soon reported that she had recently accused a superior at Camp Lejeune of rape.
Read the full story on AlterNet…
Topics: Discrimination, Military Facts, Women Soldiers |
Army Report – Depression Up, Morale Down, Suicides Up
An Army report released March 8, 2008 says 89% of Army soldiers in Iraq report low morale. In Afghanistan our soldiers are exoeriencing increased rates of depression.
The report was based on a survey of over 2,200 soldiers in Iraq and about 900 in Afghanistan. The report also includes information from over 400 medical professionals, chaplains, psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health workers serving with the troops.
The report states that one out of every five soldiers deployed to Iraq suffer from some mental health problem. For those on second and third deployments, about a third suffer from mental health problems. Thats 20% to 33% of our soldiers suffering from depression.
The Army wants time off for soldiers match time deployed — but that’s opposed by the Bush administration. ABC News Story
At least 121 Army soldiers committed suicide in 2007, according to a recent report, an increase of about 20 percent over the year before. The numbers released in January said that there were 89 suicides last year and 32 other deaths that were still under investigation as possible suicides.
Topics: Military Facts, The Basics |
A Vets Blog, “Army of Dude”
A year later and this is what we have to show for it. A year later and we care about the survival of each other more than a fledging democracy in the Middle East. To officers and officials influencing policy, our goal is to stimulate the economy and prop up competent Iraqi Security Forces. To the unwashed enlisted in the muck, we’re just trying not to get blown to fucking bits. A year later and we have realized finally: we’re biding time until the next unit comes to replace us. That’s it. Rotate in, rotate out. A year’s worth of sore backs, twisted ankles, near death experiences, shootouts, blown up buildings, fires, mangled corpses, dead kids, dead soldiers, cold desert nights, hot desert days, shit covered boots, trash filled streets, unfulfilled dreams, stagnant aspirations and murdered futures.
Topics: Veterans Speak Out |
The Real Price of the Iraq War, a slideshow
Topics: The Basics, Videos |
Robert Loria, Opposes the surge
Wounded veteran, Robert Loria talks about the surge in Iraq.
Related Post
Injured Troops suffer financially
Topics: Veterans Speak Out, Videos |
Camilo Mejia, War Resister
Hear war resister, Camilo Mejia talk about why he refused to return to Iraq.
Topics: Veterans Speak Out, Videos |
Military Discipline and Living Conditions
Do you enjoy being bossed around? Do you want someone constantly telling you what to do and how to do it? If your answer is “no,” you may have a hard time adapting to military life. Federal law states that the military places “numerous restrictions on personal behavior that would not be acceptable in civilian society.”
Topics: Military Facts, Recruitment |