Why join the military?

With the Iraq War well into its fifth year, and demand for troops increasing, the U.S. military is having difficulty meeting its recruiting benchmarks. Although in 2007, the military barely met its recruitment goals, the trend of nearly or entirely missing benchmarks first started early in 2005, when, due to the death of nearly 1,500 soldiers in Iraq, the American people’s enthusiasm and vigor for the war started to wane. 

The growing demand for military personnel in Iraq has left the armed forces scrambling to find recruits, while the reports of a war ravaged Iraq, the figures of more than 4,000 troops dead, and Bush’s unfailing promise to “stay the course” make some apprehensive, and others outright hostile about joining the military.

At AHS, however, there are students, both who are part of the JROTC program through Academy classes, and those who simply have a desire to serve their country, that are planning on joining the military.

“The U.S. has given my family a better lifestyle and opportunities. A lot of people take the lifestyle they carry in the U.S. for granted and don’t realize that freedom has a cost. That cost is putting someone’s life on the line to prevent their family and friends from encountering a situation where they will be told how to run their life,” said senior Fernando Castro.

Before finalizing his decision to enlist in the Marine Corps, Castro, who has received a discharge for reasons of higher education at the U.S. Naval Academy, talked to former and serving marines.

“The one thing I know is that being in the US military is more than a job, it’s a 24/7 commitment to a new way of life,” said Castro.

Chemistry teacher and Navy intelligence analyst, Melody Colebrook-Jones, who joined the navy in July of 2001, has experienced firsthand what kind of personal strength a commitment to the U.S. military takes.  When she joined, the tragedy of September 11 had not yet occurred and there was no foresight of war.

“While I have no problem fighting or serving my country, when I joined, I had no intention in serving in this war as there was no indication of the conflict,” said Colebrook-Jones, who served for six months in Iraq in 2006.

Although Colebrook-Jones had wanted to join the military directly out of high school, she attended Howard University first in order to honor her mother’s wishes of getting a college education.

When she was called to report to duty in December of 2006, Colebrook-Jones left behind a teaching position that she was very committed to, along with friends and family members who feared for her life in Iraq.

“My job was definitely not the kind of job that’s easy to walk away from in the middle of the year. I knew what a disservice I was doing to the school by not being here,” said Colebrook-Jones. “And it was very difficult for my family to accept my leaving since we had just had two deaths in the family at the time.”

Government teacher Gregory Commons knows exactly how difficult it is to have a family member deployed to a war zone, as he suffers through the tragedy of losing his son Matthew Commons in Afghanistan in 2001.

“I joined the Marines Corps right out of high school and throughout Matthew’s life, I tried to keep him from doing the same,” said Commons. “I wanted Mathew to earn a leadership role, and learn things before joining, since it would be more beneficial for his adult life if he finished college and then joined.”

The importance of receiving higher education even while serving the nation during a time of war seems to be a value that AHS students have incorporated into their lives, as all of the students who are planning on enlisting in the military after high school also plan to strive for a college degree.

Simply planning on going to college and enlisting in the military is not enough according to Colebrook-Jones, who stresses the importance of having not just a plan, but also a back up plan about what you’re going to do in the military and once you’re out.

“A lot of students choose the military for the wrong reasons. The military life can be very overbearing, and unless you’re willing to stay the course and find some kind of guidance, it becomes very difficult,” said Colebrook-Jones, who firmly believes that to be successful in the military, students need to have a plan of what they want to do and what they need to do to get promoted.

“If you’re signing up now, you definitely need to have a plan about what you’re going to do because you don’t know what’s going on with the war,” said Colebrook-Jones. “As a generation, kids these days don’t like being told what to do, so I find it hard to see kids in the JROTC program, who are sometimes the most disrespectful and loud, being in the military, where people tell you when to wake up and when to sleep.”

Commons’ advice for enlisting students runs along the same lines. “Young people have a lack of life experiences. They don’t fully understand that a life in the military can mean death. But if you fully understand that service may have the highest price, then experience it. The military can be a very rewarding time.”

“I want to join the Marines because of the better person I will become. You learn the sufficient skills to be able to work under stress and about true leadership and when you go back to being a civilian, there is very little that you cannot do, because nothing compares to working and accomplishing a task under combat stress,” said Castro, who has a solid 20 year plan for his time in the Marine Corps.

    For students like Castro, joining the military in times of war is not a problem.

“I believe you should join the military if you truly believe in defending the constitution of the United States and not because you are being offered scholarship funds or you expect to get hot dates wearing a uniform, so of course, I would have the same determination to join the military regardless of war because I am aware that combat lies somewhere in my future.”

“Admittedly I don’t support our initial reasons for war but now that we are in, I believe that we need to finish the job properly no matter what obstacles have come around,” said senior Ryan Schaedel, who plans to attend the Virginia Military Institute to become a naval officer.

Attitudes concerning the competence of the military in Iraq and the support for the war, which had steadily gone sour since the war first started, have started to improve slightly according to polls conducted by the Pew Research Center. Fifty-three percent of Americans believe that the U.S. will succeed in achieving its goals in Iraq, compared to 42 percent who felt the same way in September 2007.

Although surges in violence could rapidly change public opinion again, AHS enlistees remain faithful that U.S. troops in Iraq are doing their job to the best of their abilities.

“I support the brave young men and women over there doing what their commander in chief tells them to do. Whether I support the war in Iraq would require me to know facts and first hand experience. It is very easy to formulate opinions and point fingers,” said Castro.

As long as the U.S. military keeps receiving committed soldiers like Schaedel and Castro, who are willing to fight for their country, the war in Iraq might be sustained. The inability of the military to meet its recruiting goals in recent years, however, ties in with the March poll results that show that only 48 percent of Americans believe that the war is going “very well” or “fairly well,” leaving the country very much divided on the subject of the Iraq War.