Army recruiter arrested in sex case

For the second time in less than a year, an Inland military recruiter has been arrested on suspicion of engaging in a sex act with an underage girl. Christian Rigal Mercado, 25, of Moreno Valley, was jailed Wednesday after a security guard at the Inland Center Mall in San Bernardino reported that he saw him [...]

Grannies to Toys’R'Us : War is Not a Game

NEW YORK — On December 4, the Raging Grannies and the Granny Peace Brigade created a wonderful holiday peace event at the crossroads of the world, Times Square. The purpose was to send the message: No more war toys and no more war. They met near the Recruiting Station where two New York City Police [...]

Ex-recruiter sentenced to prison for sex crimes

HEMET, Calif. — A former Marine Corps recruiter has been sentenced to 10 years in prison in Southern California’s Riverside County after pleading guilty to child sex charges. Prosecutors say former Staff Sgt. Bryan Damone Cunningham pleaded guilty Friday to felony charges of committing lewd acts and sodomy with a child under 14. The girl [...]

Preschool Hype: National Security Edition

Retired officers push early childhood benefits to help national security A bipartisan group of retired military officers says without more educational and health investments in children the country will face a growing “national security threat.” Now, the group is pushing for significant investments in early childhood education, parenting guidance as well as mental and nutrition [...]

University of Phoenix’s Curious Take on the Law

The University of Phoenix has 190 campuses operating in 39 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The school says it has 420,000 students and tens of thousands of employees at its schools of nursing, business and education, among others. But it does not have a law school. Maybe it should. In an official [...]

Ex-recruiter gets 3 years on child sex charges

DEADWOOD, S.D. — A former Army recruiter has been sentenced to three years in prison for rape and possession of child pornography stemming from a relationship with a Lead-Deadwood High School student he met online. Authorities said Juan Otero of Chicago was arrested Feb. 12 at a hotel room after dropping the girl off at [...]

Community Groups vs. Military Recruiters

Military recruiters today have unprecedented access to students and other young people, particularly in poor neighborhoods. There are generally more Army recruiters at high schools than there are college counselors, says Elmer Roldan, fundraising director at Community Coalition of South Central Los Angeles, and there is “a more aggressive strategy to militarize them than to [...]

Military Children in Crisis

A seven-year-old second-grader attempted suicide while his father was serving yet another tour in Iraq. Seven years old. Seven. His mother was one of half a dozen military spouses I have spoken with about soldiers’ kids who have attempted suicide during their fathers’ deployments. When I was seven, it was 1972, and there were 69,000 [...]

Military Recruiters: Criminal, Abusive or Suspect Activity

Eight-year Chronological Review of Public Reports as of August 28, 2009 Compiled by Learning Not Recruiting – Toledo, Ohio Click here for report

Army considers middle-school JROTC program

WICHITA, Kan. — The U.S. Army wants middle school students. The Wichita school district in south-central Kansas is one of a few nationwide offering middle school programs based on the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps curriculum. Top Army officials are studying its programs to see if they could be a model for others nationwide. The [...]

Investigation halts transfer of student records to military

SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Unified School District has halted its annual transfer of student records to the military amid allegations that administrators pre-marked parental consent forms that give recruiters permission to contact families. District officials launched an investigation into the matter Wednesday and began sifting through thousands of high school enrollment documents. De’Onte [...]

Latest recruiter sex case prompts Corps review

A Marine recruiter in Utah is accused of having sex with a 15-year-old girl, becoming the fourth in 13 months to face similar charges. The cases have prompted the Corps to review its screening process for recruiters and to increase the amount of ethics training at Recruiters School, said Maj. Chris Devine, a spokesman for [...]

Recruitment of mentally disabled youth a ‘great discredit’ to USMC

Joshua Fry spent the first year of his life homeless on the streets of Los Angeles. His mother was addicted to crack; his father to heroin. After his parents were arrested for shoplifting, Fry was sent to live with a series of relatives. When Fry was brought to live with his grandmother in Newport Beach [...]

Navy recruiter admits role in sex sting

A 32-year-old Navy recruiter from Kansas has pleaded guilty to attempted human trafficking for trying to arrange a sexual encounter with what he thought was an 11-year-old girl. Machinist’s Mate 2nd Class (SW/AW) Shane Allan Childers of Olathe entered the plea Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo. He faces 15 years to [...]

Board of Ed Restricts Military Recruiters’ Access to Students

NEW YORK, NY June 24, 2009 —Military recruiters won’t be given as much free reign to high school students, under new regulations issued by the City’s Department of Education. REPORTER: The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires school districts to provide the names and contact information of 11th and 12th grade students to recruiters [...]

From recruiting to rape

Anti-war advocates aren’t surprised by shocking abuse charges LOS ANGELES (FinalCall.com) - Prosecutors have set a $1 million bail for a U.S. Marine charged with pimping, kidnapping, and intending to rape a 14-year-old girl. Reports indicate that Staff Sgt. Bryan Damone Cunningham, of San Pedro, California was previously honored three times for good conduct. Military watch groups [...]

Police: Marine recruiter planned to pimp Hemet 14-year-old girl

A 14-year-old Hemet girl was the apparent victim of a Marine Corps recruiter’s plot to turn her into a hooker in Los Angeles, according to Hemet police. The recruiter, Staff Sgt. Bryan Damone Cunningham, is accused of driving two prospective Marine recruits to Hemet to have sex with the girl, then driving all three to [...]

Marine recruiter, two others, charged with rape of Hemet girl

A Marine recruiter and two others were arrested last month for allegedly having sexual relations with a 14-year-old Hemet girl, authorities said. Staff Sgt. Bryan Damone Cunningham, 33, of San Pedro, was arrested May 23 by the Hemet Police Department, according to a news release from the 12th Marine Corps District in San Diego and [...]

In a Switch, City Tells Schools to Monitor On-Campus Military Recruiting

Schools will be required to provide military opt-out forms to 9th- and 10th-grade students and to develop a plan to monitor on-campus recruiting by the armed forces, according to new guidelines announced by the New York City Department of Education on Monday night. The requirements, set to go into effect this fall, follow months of [...]

Navy unveils ‘Bravo Zulu’ to target younger recruits

The Naval Academy yesterday debuted its newest recruiting tool __ a graphic novel called “Bravo Zulu,” which is Navy-speak for “Well Done.” The 16-page, comic book-style publication is designed to get middle school and early high school students interested in attending the academy. The short novel tells the story of five plebes who have become [...]

Humboldt cities take on military recruiting — and U.S.

ARCATA – David was sitting in a coffee shop when he first got the idea to take on Goliath. The “David” in this story has a last name of Meserve. The “Goliath” is less metaphorically known as the United States government. And the tale revolves around a first-of-its-kind effort by two small Humboldt County cities [...]

Assembly Bills Aim at Recruiting Youngsters for Overseas Wars

Court Battle Looms Over Youth Protection Act The Pentagon is on a direct collision course in the U.S. District Court for Northern California over its obligations under international law to stop military recruitment of youth under the age of 17. The case in question, United States of America v. Cities of Eureka and Arcata, will [...]

Former Marine recruiter pleads guilty to rape

A former Marine Corps recruiter pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of third-degree rape involving a 15-year-old Valley High School student. Arthur Pledger Jr., 27, was sentenced to five years supervised probation, said Steve Tedder, a spokesman for the Commonwealth Attorney’s office. Pledger entered the guilty plea during a pre-trial hearing, Tedder said. If Pledger [...]

Marine Corps Recruiting Center Attacked in Berkeley

At 9PM on March 18th, the eve of the 6th anniversary of the war in Iraq, a group of persons wearing masks smashed the windows and splattered red paint at the U.S. Marine Corps Recruiting Center in Berkeley, California. The center has been the target of protests for the last 18 months, and stands as [...]

Recruiter charged in child prostitution sting

A Navy recruiter in Missouri was arrested March 5 for allegedly paying $80 to have sex with an 11-year-old girl, federal authorities said. Machinist’s Mate 2nd Class (AW/SW) Shane Childers, 32, was one of four men caught in a sting operation in which undercover agents posted ads online offering to arrange for men to have [...]

Western Washington University Students Defeat Military Recruiters

On February 12th 2009, WWU students won a significant victory against military recruiters by collecting more than 50 pounds of recruiter materials in trash bags, worth more than $1000. For immediate release: On Thursday February 12 we scored a significant victory for freedom of speech and assembly on campus. The administrators of Western Washington University’s [...]

War is not a career opportunity

AMHERST, Mass.–Ten students and community members staged a die-in at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) career fair in front of the U.S. Army and Border Patrol recruitment tables on February 10. Activists organized the die-in quickly–in only 30 minutes–after the Marines sent out an e-mail to every UMass student inviting people to join them at [...]

Military to bribe foreigners with citizenship for service

Those who are in the US on temporary visas will have a chance to acquire citizenship, if they enter military service as little as six months. According to a Sunday New York Times report, for the first time since the war in Vietnam the US army has expressed willingness to recruit the immigrants who long [...]

Army recruits mainly in South

WASHINGTON — If U.S. soldiers seem to speak with a slight drawl, that is no coincidence: the service continues to recruit mainly from Southern states, a study released Wednesday indicates. The National Priorities Project, a research organization, reported that the highest Army recruitment rates were in Southern counties and that only two of the top [...]

Recruiters banned at RIT

ROCHESTER, N.Y.–Members of the Campus Antiwar Network (CAN) at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) are celebrating a significant victory after the director for Campus Life issued the order to stop allowing military recruiters in the Student Alumni Union. On January 15, CAN members were promoting an upcoming meeting calling for the U.S. to immediately [...]

Army recruiting stand-down ordered after suicides

Army Secretary Pete Geren has ordered a stand-down of the Army’s entire recruiting force and a review of almost every aspect of the job is underway in the wake of a wide-ranging investigation of four suicides in the Houston Recruiting Battalion. Poor command climate, failing personal relationships and long, stressful work days were factors in [...]

Army’s New Recruiting Tool – Video Arcade for Mallrats

The New York Times has an excellent piece on the Army’s new urban recruiting tool: a $13 million video arcade in suburban Philly. That’s right. According to the Times, the Army is having a hard time recruiting in urban areas. So the service set up the 14,500 square foot “Army Experience Center” in the Franklin [...]

4 Recruiter Suicides Lead to Army Probe

HENDERSON, Texas (AP) — Sgt. 1st Class Patrick Henderson, a strapping Iraq combat veteran, spent the last, miserable months of his life as an Army recruiter, cold-calling dozens of people a day from his strip-mall office and sitting in strangers’ living rooms, trying to sign up their sons and daughters for an unpopular war. He [...]

Former Marine Recruiter, Sgt. Victor Sanchez-Millan, Sentenced for Sex with Minor

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A former Marine recruiter learned Monday that he will spend the next year in a Sacramento jail. See also: Marine Recruiter Sgt. Arthur Pledger Arraigned in Rape Case Military at ToysRus Austin “No Child Left Behind “: “Trojan Horse” for Pentagon Recruiters Pentagon Targets Afro and Hispanic Youth to Fight Its Wars America’s Child Soldiers: US [...]

Marine Recruiter Sgt. Arthur Pledger Arraigned in Rape Case

A Marine recruiter accused of rape in a case involving a 15-year-old high school student in Louisville, Ky., pleaded not guilty Monday to two counts of third-degree rape.Sgt. Arthur Pledger Jr., 27, is accused of sexual misconduct with the teen on two occasions between Sept. 1 and Oct. 10. If convicted, he faces up to [...]

Military at ToysRus Austin

Another propaganda recruiting effort under the Toys for Tots program. See also: America’s Child Soldiers: US Military Recruiting Children “No Child Left Behind “: “Trojan Horse” for Pentagon Recruiters Army signs “Community Covenant with High Desert Cities

Pentagon Targets Afro and Hispanic Youth to Fight Its Wars

If African-Americans are overrepresented in the armed forces it is likely because of the military’s practice of “strategically targeting low-income youth and students of color,” the ACLU has found.Result: While African-Americans make up only 16% of the same-age civilian population, in 2006 they represented about 22% of enlisted Army personnel. Even though enlistment under law [...]

New Army Recruiting Tactic: Obama will “Get Us Out of Iraq”

Well that didn’t take long.  Polls across America had been closed for less than 24 hours and Army Career Counselors were already exploiting Barack Obama’s victory in an effort to recruit former soldiers back into units.  This email was forwarded to me by an Iraq veteran and former Army captain who received it on Wednesday: