Leave it to Berkeley

I thought it interesting that the San Francisco Chronicle chose to publish this article; on Memorial Day:

IF YOU needed a sign as to just how desperate the military has become to find new recruits, look no further than its determination to sign up students from Berkeley High School.

It’s hard to imagine a more inhospitable place for recruiters than Berkeley High, especially as increasing numbers of service men and women arrive home in body bags from Iraq. The school, with an enrollment of more than 3,000 students, must rank as one of the great centers of youth pacificism in the United States.

I’m no friend of the current Administration and I have never felt this war was called for. However, I was raised a military daughter and I am proud of my father’s accomplishments during his tenure in the Navy. Vietnam was only a small portion of what he did in his twenty years as a sailor.

My father also did a stint as a recruiter in the 1970s. We lived in Anchorage and he headed the city’s recruitment center. He lasted two years before he put in for a transfer. He asked for sea-duty and remained on ship until his retirement in 1974. Only many years later did he tell me that his time as a recruiter was the worst time of his military career. He was constantly pressured to meet numbers, to turn a blind eye to criminal history, education deficiencies and more. He was sicked by the lowering of standards the Navy demanded in order to keep recruitment numbers up and meet the goals expected of them.

My memory of that time, of my father leaving again, my awareness of now, and the feelings this article stirs in me all run together as so much noise in my head and in my emotions. It’s difficult to find amusement in this post, I realize.