[saymaListserv] recruiting in high schools

[Perry Treadwell]

Recruiting in High Schools

When I was 13, the year after the end of W.W.II, I was sent to a 
military academy. I had grown up glorying in the militarism of that war: 
playing soldier and playing with toy soldiers, killing many “Japs and 
Krauts”, reliving the war pictures of the time.
If I hadn't been badly injured in a horse riding accident, I would have 
willingly gone into the military as most of my classmates during the 
Korean War. Like most teens I was the product of hormones and brain 
washing. I understand the attraction of the military.
Studies on brain development at several Universities over the past 
decade have shown that he human brain does not complete its abilities to 
prioritize thoughts, imagine, think in the abstract, anticipate 
consequences, plan, and control impulses until a person's early 20s. 
This is why recruiting for the military targets high schools.
As of 5/17/05, 1624 U.S. military have died in Iraq, 877 less than or 
equal to age 24 (54 %). Of those dying, 436 were U.S. Marines (26.8 %). 
But 311 of those Marines were less than or equal to age 24 (71.3 %). Of 
the 12,350 wounded about one half have returned to duty.
In W.W.I, these young men were called cannon fodder. However, the 
average age of men in the military in W.W.II was 26. In Vietnam it was 19.
The Atlanta newspapers have twice ignored my letters with similar 
figures. Isn't it time to blog the nation with this tragedy?
You can find the numbers I have used at icasualties.org/oif and run your 
own statistics.
Perry