This is cool - don't lose your pad when you go off to war...

Did you know that there are laws to protect you and your loved ones from losing your home while you're away at war? I sure didn't. I was happy to come across this article in the NYT today - check it out:

article from the New York Times

Uncle Rummy

Now they're targetting Latinos

From the NY Times:

article from the New York Times

In Denver and other cities where the Hispanic population is growing, recruiting Latinos has become one of the Army's top priorities. From 2001 to 2005, the number of Latino enlistments in the Army rose 26 percent, and in the military as a whole, the increase was 18 percent.

The increase comes at a time when the Army is struggling to recruit new soldiers and when the enlistment of African-Americans, a group particularly disillusioned with the war in Iraq, has dropped off sharply, to 14.5 percent from 22.3 percent over the past four years.

Not all Latinos, though, are in step with the military's recruitment goals. In some cities with large Hispanic populations, the focus on recruitment has polarized Latinos, prompting some to organize against recruiters and to help immigrants learn their rights.

Critics say recruiters, who are under pressure to meet quotas, often use their charm and an arsenal of tactics, including repeated calls to a recruit, lunch at a favorite restaurant and trips to the gym. The Army also parades rigged-out, juiced-up Hummers wherever youths gather as promotional tools."

What will they think of next?

And the hits just keep on rollin'

This time courtesy of the New York Times;

article from the New York Times


"Maj. Gen. Thomas P. Bostick is trying to retool the Army's strategy for fighting a war within a war: persuading young people and their families that the military is a good choice, even when combat duty is almost certain. The general has plans to attract teenagers with video games, Web sites, cellphone text messages and helicopter simulators in the back of 18-wheelers. He wants to win over parents through commercials on the Food Network, visits to rodeos and Nascar races, and recruiters who have recently returned from Iraq and Afghanistan and can address concerns about war. And if that fails, General Bostick also has cash: $40,000 in bonuses for some recruits who take dangerous jobs; $1,000 for soldiers who persuade friends to sign up."

Here are some more choice tidbits . . .

-The resources to enlist people include "roughly 8,000 military recruiters nationwide, hundreds of civilians at Fort Knox, an advertising budget of about $200 million, and a horde of marketing tools, including a fleet of 13 tractor-trailers retrofitted to show off the Army's latest technology."

-Bad boys!: "Last May, the Army retrained its recruiters on ethics after several were found to have cut corners to enlist unqualified soldiers."

-Oops: "And for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the Army, the Army Reserve and the National Guard all fell short of their recruiting goals. The active-duty Army missed its target of 80,000 recruits by about 8 percent, its biggest shortfall since 1979."

-More fun: The Army met its recruiting goals for the past 3 months but "more than 10 percent of the recruits had scores on the military's aptitude test that were near the bottom of the scale — more than double the annual 4 percent limit set by the Department of Defense." and "The Army's monthly goals were smaller, too." Uhhh....

Then they go on to talk about the economy, competing with private sector jobs. Come ON people - can't you see where this is all going?!?!?