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Semper Fi!!
I don't about this young man but I joined the Marines because I wanted to be a Marine and serve my country. Simple as that.
Maura and David Shepard have asked military leaders and legislators to help their son Brian (center), a freshman at New Hampshire Technical Ins ute, leave the Marine Reserve. (Bill Polo/ Globe Staff)
Family feels misled by recruiter
Kingston student to be sent to Iraq
By Jenna Russell, Globe Staff | October 10, 2005
Continued:Boston.comKINGSTON -- Brian Shepard thought he had the perfect plan: a special program, offered by a Marine Corps recruiter last spring, that would let him finish four years of college before he faced active duty.
Instead, the 18-year-old was notified last week -- less than one month into his freshman year at New Hampshire Technical Ins ute -- that his Marine Reserve unit will be sent to Iraq early next year, a development that Shepard said his recruiter never told him was possible.
A Marine spokesman said recruiters make no guarantees to enlistees about their deployment. The enlistment paperwork signed by Shepard stated he would have to leave college if his unit was activated, according to the spokesman.
The college student and his parents have appealed to military leaders, state legislators, and US Representative William D. Delahunt to help Shepard leave the Marines. Their complaint joins a rising chorus of concern nationwide over military recruiting tactics as the conflict in Iraq drives high demand for new enlistments, and pressure grows on recruiters to meet quotas.
Both the Army and the Marines have missed some monthly recruiting quotas this year as casualties in Iraq have continued to mount, and polls have shown steep increases in the number of parents who said they would discourage their children from enlisting.
''Recruiters are under pressure, and they will say anything," said Neil Berman, a Somerville lawyer and volunteer for the GI Rights Hotline, a national organization that advises enlistees who are trying to leave the military.
In an interview Saturday at their blue-clapboard, Cape-style Kingston home, where the large, fireplaced family room looks out on rambling woods, Shepard's parents said they hope, with assistance from Delahunt, to help their son exercise an early-exit option available within the first 180 days of enlistment. They said they don't know if the Marines must honor his request.
Members of the Shepard family, who described how they got to know the local recruiter, and came to trust him over several months, said they relied on him -- not the fine print in a written contract -- to explain Shepard's options and guide him.
That guidance, they say now, was marked by deception.
The family's dilemma was set in motion last fall, when Shepard, then a senior at Silver Lake Regional High School in Kingston, sent in a request for more information about the Marine Corps. A recruiter called his home repeatedly, and insisted they meet in person, he said.
When they met in February at the family's kitchen table, Maura Shepard listened as her son explained that he wanted to go to college and finish in four years. The recruiter described a ''split" reserve program that would let him finish college before he was deployed.
Semper Fi!!
I don't about this young man but I joined the Marines because I wanted to be a Marine and serve my country. Simple as that.
"A Marine spokesman said recruiters make no guarantees to enlistees about their deployment. The enlistment paperwork signed by Shepard stated he would have to leave college if his unit was activated, according to the spokesman."....................................... ...........................Hmmmmmm! How conveniently you overlook this fact Dan! Just like anything else, maybe one should read the contract before signing!
You know, this case would be just as open-and-shut if it were a civil dispute over property.
There was a contract - a legally binding contract - that the kid didn't read.
Faith? Faith! It may just be me but I try to treat the other person I'm making a contract with with some respect, but with the thought in the back of my mind that they could screw me over if I'm not careful. It would take a of a lot for me to believe somebody on pure "faith."
People more about reading fine print when they buy a car and they didn't insist on reading a contract before joining the military?
You know, I don't know a whole lot about the military. I've never served and I fully respect those who have made that decision. My step-dad was active in the Corps for 19 years. He was in Lebanon when the bomb went off at the Marine barracks (he had been drinking the night before and decided to stay in bed instead of going to breakfast with some of his buddies...that saved his life that day). Like I said, I don't know about the military or its essential rules or how they disperse funds for people signing up for college and the like.
Look, this kid obviously doesn't want to go and it probably wouldn't benefit his military group (I don't know that specific terminology) to have somebody who doesn't want to be there and is not in it for the right reasons (their own).
I get pissed off when people don't take their jobs at The University Star seriously and take pride in the entirety of the paper instead of only their specific job.
Let this kid out. Take away his funds given for college and let him buy out his contract. It's not going to do the military any good to have a kid who doesn't want to be there in the line of fire.
Bottom line: They didn't read a contract.
Oh, and to the Boston Globe, can we please try to refrain from the posed profile shots as much as possible?
i'd say let him out, IF AND ONLY IF, he pays back the military for all the training they have given him.. the pay, every single thing he has been given so far.
woah I agree with Clandestino
except it has to be the actual cost and not the governments cost that they pull out of thin air
well, i have known a guy who was in rotc for like 3 years, then started ing up and was going to drop out of colllege the military told him pay us back or join as enlisted.. he enlisted! haha...
Sounds to me like this prick wanted a free eduction and didn't want to do his part. If you are a reservist and the country needs you...you go. I have a good friend who has deployed twice while in college. He does it without ing and then comes back and enrolls in classes again. This wanted a free ride.
How does one join the military and not expect to see action? The military isn't handing out all those goodies so that you can go camping a few weekends out of the year. You signed up for all of that taxpayer financed and now you want out? that.
Taxpayer financed !? WTF is that!?
Everyone benefits from taxpayer financed .
Those who enlist in the military because it is more than a job...it's an adventure or buys into the commercials they see on TV or in magazines isn't looking at reality.
I would recommend, and wouldn't even have a problem with mandatory service, military service to anyone.
It pisses me off when a Marine does this crap. If any service should be ready to see action it is the Corps.
NO. Do NOT let him out.
There are many who may not like being in the military but that is no excuse to get out.
Don't sign the line if you can't to the time.
offer him, "we let you out if you pay us back" probably at least $30,000 minimum... then he'll say, no problem, when do i deploy again?
I am sure that a lot of people get into the millitary for reasons other than the right ones... but once they are there they do their best to make due with a less than optimal situation. What about all the ones who stuck it out, what message would it send to them if this guy was allowed to buy his way out?NO. Do NOT let him out.
There are many who may not like being in the military but that is no excuse to get out.
Don't sign the line if you can't to the time.
BTW, back in the old days, they had buyout clauses (at least in peacetime). I knew an old vet who did so... and re-enlisted at the beginning of WWII and went on to become a career NCO.
On the one hand, yes his contract stipulated that his unit could be activated at any time, so him and his family obviously didn't read the fine print, or where somehow verbally assured that this clause was just a formality by the recruiter, probably present in every contract.
On the other hand, the Marine Corps have to live up to the promises by their recruiters or they drive away potential recruits, especially those with some higher education like Brian Shepard. In effect, exasterbating an already bad situation considering that some forces are already having to lower standards to beef up their sign-up numbers.
This is just me, but I think it would send the signal even stronger than it already is that those that chose to stay are bonded even tighter.
The recruiters are under such pressure and their targets are so few (especially red-state, right-wing Repugs that don't want to enlist to help dubya in Iraq) that I'm sure the recruiter lied by omission, by suggestion, by insinuation, if not actually speaking mis-truth. It's a he said-he said situation.
But, the poor mofo signed the paper, he's ed. Semper Read The Fine Print.
If they let him go, he gave time and service, and he got paid. It's not like he was on Navy ROTC college scholarship for 4 years, or was sent by a company on expensive training program. He owes the Marines nothing, Marines owe him nothing.
"I'm sure the recruiter lied by omission, by suggestion, by insinuation, if not actually speaking mis-truth."........................................... ............. I'd like for you to explain how you"know" this! Sure....it's possible but for you to say "Im sure" is a reach!
Wrong.
The Marine Corps invested money and time training him. They did send him to school to learn a skill that they have a use for and intend on utilizing him and his skill.
He owes the Marine Corps for the time and effort they invested in him.
I owe the Corps!
Spoken like the true Non-USA serving pussy you truly are. How long did you serve & in what unit? Oh, I forgot you are a WIMP.
LOL
marcus now Dios got you on the run chump
hunting you down in political to own you
ROFLROFLROFL
That is respectable, but these days with them offering "Adventure" and "college scholarships" i dont think they're marketing towards that kind of warrior spirit anymore.
I almost laughed out loud at just the subject. Recruiters will tell you anything verbally, and conceal anything they think will hinder you from joining. That's their job. Honestly, if I were in trouble and had ONLY two numbers to call, a military recruiter or a used car salesman, I'd call the used car salesman for help first.
Awww, someone's feelings are hurt.
I didn't serve?
mookie, don't forget to take out mommy's trash.
The only thing you ever served Mucus was some ASS in the Dixie Chicken men's restroom when you couldn't pay your bar tab.
Quick cash cash for so loose ass!
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