Local Contacts

Veterans who have served in our Military Forces can be a great resource for helping you make sense of the information, promises and guarantees given by Military Recruiters. If you have family or friends in the Service, ask the hard questions that Recruiters haven’t answered. Several Cincinnati area Vets have volunteered to assist young people involved in the recruitment process. They have been there and can give complete answers to difficult questions. Please send your contact information to The Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center info@ijpc.org or call us at 513.579.8547 to arrange this very important conversation.

National Contacts

Many Veterans Groups have information on recruiting and life in the Military on-line. Before making such a life changing decision get all the information you can. Visit these websites and contact these Vets if you have questions.

Veterans for Peace
http://www.afn.org/~vetpeace/workshopa.htm

Veterans Against The Iraq War
http://www.vaiw.org

Iraq Veterans Against the War
http://www.ivaw.net

“When I was on recruiting duty, I really began to question what was going on, I’m not going to say that the Marine Corps is all flat-out lies, but it is very misleading the way we enlist recruits. A lot of the kids joining the military are from the ‘barrios’ and ‘hoods,’ or the poor parts of the Appalachian Mountains, where we’re sitting right here. Appalachia has some of the poorest counties in the country—so they’re sweeping them up. You know, these kids are just thankful that they’ve got some health care—for a lot of them, the first time they even went to the dentist is when they joined the Marine Corps. Then you pump them full of patriotism and intangible benefits—self-confidence and what not—and now you’re indoctrinating a young person with an ideology.

“Boot camp is designed to dehumanize and desensitize a person to violence. I was a Marine Corps boot camp instructor for two-and-a-half years, and I know that it is designed to strip you down and rebuild you. The only purpose of the Marine Corps is to meet the enemy on the battlefield and destroy them.”

Jimmy Massey, Former Staff Sergeant USMC, 12-year Marine veteran, deployed to Iraq March 2003