When Marine recruiters go way beyond the call
By SUSAN PAYNTER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/paynter/227497_paynter08.html
For mom Marcia Cobb and her teenage son Axel, the white letters USMC on
their caller ID soon spelled, "Don't answer the phone!"
Marine recruiters began a relentless barrage of calls to Axel as soon
as the mellow, compliant Sedro-Woolley High School grad had cut his
17th birthday cake. And soon it was nearly impossible to get the
seekers of a few good men off the line.
With early and late calls ringing in their ears, Marcia tried using
call blocking. And that's when she learned her first hard lesson. You
can't block calls from the government, her server said. So, after pleas
to "Please stop calling" went unanswered, the family's "do not answer"
order ensued.
But warnings and liquid crystal lettering can fade. So, two weeks ago
when Marcia was cooking dinner Axel goofed and answered the call. And,
faster than you can say "semper fi," an odyssey kicked into action that
illustrates just how desperate some of the recruiters we've read about
really are to fill severely sagging quotas.
Let what we learned serve as a warning to other moms, dads and teens,
the Cobbs now say. Even if your kids actually may want to join the
military, if they hope to do it on their own terms, after a deep breath
and due consideration, repeat these words after them: "No," "Not now"
and "Back off!"
"I've been trained to be pretty friendly. I guess you might even say
I'm kind of passive," Axel told me last week, just after his mother and
older sister had tracked him to a Seattle testing center and sprung him
on a ruse.
The next step of Axel's misadventure came when he heard about a cool
"chin-ups" contest in Bellingham, where the prize was a free Xbox. The
now 18-year-old Skagit Valley Community College student dragged his
tail feathers home uncharacteristically late that night. And, in the
morning, Marcia learned the Marines had hosted the event and "then had
him out all night, drilling him to join."
A single mom with a meager income, Marcia raised her kids on the farm
where, until recently, she grew salad greens for restaurants.
Axel's father, a Marine Corps vet who served in Vietnam, died when Axel
was 4.
Clearly the recruiters knew all that and more.
"You don't want to be a burden to your mom," they told him. "Be a man."
"Make your father proud." Never mind that, because of his own
experience in the service, Marcia says enlistment for his son is the
last thing Axel's dad would have wanted.
The next weekend, when Marcia went to Seattle for the Folklife Festival
and Axel was home alone, two recruiters showed up at the door.
Axel repeated the family mantra, but he was feeling frazzled and worn
down by then. The sergeant was friendly but, at the same time,
aggressively insistent. This time, when Axel said, "Not interested,"
the sarge turned surly, snapping, "You're making a big (bleeping)
mistake!"
Next thing Axel knew, the same sergeant and another recruiter showed up
at the LaConner Brewing Co., the restaurant where Axel works. And
before Axel, an older cousin and other co-workers knew or understood
what was happening, Axel was whisked away in a car.
"They said we were going somewhere but I didn't know we were going all
the way to Seattle," Axel said.
Just a few tests. And so many free opportunities, the recruiters told
him.
He could pursue his love of chemistry. He could serve anywhere he chose
and leave any time he wanted on an "apathy discharge" if he didn't like
it. And he wouldn't have to go to Iraq if he didn't want to.
At about 3:30 in the morning, Alex was awakened in the motel and fed a
little something. Twelve hours later, without further sleep or food, he
had taken a battery of tests and signed a lot of papers he hadn't
gotten a chance to read. "Just formalities," he was told. "Sign here.
And here. Nothing to worry about."
By then Marcia had "freaked out."
She went to the Burlington recruiting center where the door was open
but no one was home. So she grabbed all the cards and numbers she could
find, including the address of the Seattle-area testing center.
Then, with her grown daughter in tow, she high-tailed it south,
frantically phoning Axel whose cell phone had been confiscated "so he
wouldn't be distracted during tests."
Axel's grandfather was in the hospital dying, she told the people at
the desk. He needed to come home right away. She would have said just
about anything.
But, even after being told her son would be brought right out, her
daughter spied him being taken down a separate hall and into another
room. So she dashed down the hall and grabbed him by the arm.
"They were telling me I needed to 'be a man' and stand up to my
family," Axel said.
What he needed, it turned out, was a lawyer.
Five minutes and $250 after an attorney called the recruiters, Axel's
signed papers and his cell phone were in the mail.
My request to speak with the sergeant who recruited Axel and with the
Burlington office about recruitment procedures went unanswered.
And so should your phone, Marcia Cobb advised. Take your own sweet
time. Keep your own counsel. And, if you see USMC on caller ID,
remember what answering the call could mean.
---
http://www.ElmerFudd.US/ http://www.notserver.com/
Scientology crooks: http://sf.irk.ru/www/ot3/otiii-gif.html
http://PerkinsTragedy.org http://www.rightard.org/
End Republican race hatred: http://www.thedarkwind.org/
.
|
