Pentagon Says 100% of 2010 Army and Marine Recruits Were H.S. Grads: Air Force and Navy Not So Educated

H.S. Grads Are Flocking to Military

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The Defense Department is crowing:  All 74,577 soldiers recruited into the U.S. Army in fiscal year 2010 have a high school diploma, which is a quality record.  The Marines had 28,041 recruits and they, too, were all grads -- another first.  Those are the two branches of  the military that do most of the fighting -- they have infantry and field artillery.  In the old days, brawn was more important than brains.   Of the Air Force's 28,493 newest members, 99% finished high school.  98% of the Navy's 34,180 sailors held diplomas -- last place.  Clifford Stanley, the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said the down economy helped create a banner year for recruiting -- high unemployment spurred young Americans to sign up and all four services met their quotas.  Stanley said 7 of 10 Americans in the prime age groups for enlistment -- ages 17 to 24 --are ineligible due to medical, educational or conduct (i.e. law enforcement, drug use) issues.  Still, Stanley said patriotism and love of country motivate people to enlist:

"As we look at where we are right now in terms of the challenges facing us, it's more to it than the economy.  To a person -- serving their nation, doing it with honor, being patriots -- seems to be the recurring theme that come up every time we look at and talk to those who are wearing a uniform today.  And we're still proud to have that in our active and our reserve components, and our Guard."

Ohio Anti-War Rallies: Pentagon Spied In 2005

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- A federal appeals court in Cincinnati today will be the site of a legal showdown between Bush Administration and ACLU lawyers over the constitutionality of the NSA's now-abandoned warrantless eavesdropping program. But other government documents reveal the Pentagon monitored recent peace demonstrations, including an Akron protest in 2005 and another at Kent State University.

The ACLU obtained the records under the Freedom of Information Act last year via a U.S. District Court lawsuit in Pennsylvania. The documents contain summarized information about 186 "anti-military protests or demonstrations in the U.S." The Akron rally was described in a Pentagon database as possibly affiliated with terrorism. -- even though the plan was merely to read names of slain American troops.

''Protests against the war in Iraq were a common trigger for TALON reporting," the ACLU said. "For example, a protest entitled 'Stop the War NOW!' was reported as a potential terrorist threat in a March 2005 TALON. The TALON describes the protest, aimed at a military recruiting station and federal building in Akron, Ohio, as including a rally, march and "Reading of Names of War Dead."

A Kent State University event scheduled by Veterans For Peace also was monitored by the Pentagon even though the St. Louis-based organization is described as a "peaceful anti-war/anti-military organization." VFP does believe that President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should be impeached for the war. Could that have made the group a target of monitoring?

The ACLU considers the government's efforts to track anti-war activities part of a broader infringement on personal liberty. In others words, in a free society it is not the business of the military or spy agencies to poke around gathering data about citizens and lawful activities.

"The Pentagon's misuse of the TALON database must be viewed in the wider context of increased government surveillance," the ACLU said. "With the help of phone companies, the National Security Agency has been tapping phones and reading e-mail without a warrant. The FBI has gathered information about peace activists, and recruited confidential informants inside groups like Greenpeace and PETA. All of these actions are part of a broad pattern of the executive branch using "national security" as an excuse for encroaching on the privacy and free speech rights of Americans without adequate oversight."

A complete version of the ACLU's report is HERE. It is not clear yet how much of an airing the NSA eavesdropping will receive before the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals today. Some legal strategists in the Justice Department contend the case in moot, and the government has tried to cloak the dispute in a national security mantle.