Truth in advertising?

[featherynscale]

Yesterday afternoon, as triadruid and I were driving home from work, we noticed a profusion of American flags up at the funeral home next to the Masonic cemetary. They were accompanied by a large number of motorcycles, and we thought, "Ah. That must be a biker's funeral. And they all came up on the bikes, how nice." Then, as we drove a bit further, we noticed a camper with a yellow banner on the side. It appeared to be soliciting volunteers to join the Army. But surely, I thought, there's no way the Army would recruit at a funeral home. It's just, I don't know, in poor taste.

This morning, when we drove by, the bikes were gone, but the flags were still there. The camper had been relocated to a spot right in front of the building. It did, in fact, bear a recruitment banner. They are, in fact, recruiting for the Army, at the funeral home. For the life of me I cannot figure out why anyone would think this was a good idea, but I am open to suggestions.

Comments

44th Zombie Company

[gamera-spinning.livejournal.com]

Obviously the US Armed Forces is not satisfied with soldiers dying for the cause and have begun reanimating the dead.

[iron-clad.livejournal.com]

"How many more young men have to die like this? Join and help the fight and end this conflict before more good soldiers lives are lost." Something like that I'm sure.

[capriciouslass.livejournal.com]

Ewwww! That just strikes me as being in extremely poor taste.

I thought maybe the bikers were part of the American Legion people that were blocking the Phelps boycott of military funerals... (and don't get me started on what I think about how poor taste those boycotts are)

[beccak1961.livejournal.com]

People don't think clearly while in grief. I think the gnereral rule is not to make any life altering decisions in the first few months or so. Maybe the army is counting on sad depressed people who feel they have nothing left to lose joining them.

[diermuid.livejournal.com]

I believe the phrase "if you have to ask, you wouldn't understand" applies.

A fighting buddy stopped out on Thursday, he's outprocessing for Iraq right now. It occured to me how much that inspires me to go back in.

Ditto for funerals, young men that served tend to have friends of a similar mindset. With the age limit now up to 42 for the army, there have been a number of cases where fathers and mothers have enlisted to pick up where their children left off.

And if anyone finds this a 'bad idea', keep in mind that a 40 year old adult joining 5 years after the war started has a far better idea of what they're up against compared to those who enlisted at 17 in a time of peace. The Army selects no one, interested individuals select the Army, and if they are lucky, they will qualify and be able to serve. The restrictions are looser now, but there is still a grand assortment of things that will disqualify people. The military lists I am on have a steady stream of people asking if there is anything they can do to get around certain things that disqualified them.

[matchgirl42.livejournal.com]

The Armed Forces are on MySpace, too. Hrm.

Three theories:

[wildnsquirrelly.livejournal.com]

(in no particular order)

1) Seemed like a good idea at the time?

2) Counter-recruiting scheme? These have been more frequent since the new wave of Veterans are hitting the streets chock full of bile about their experiences and ready to keep H.S. kids from going that route.

3) (my favorite) Truth in Advertising?
"How about a [ ] rifle? Never been fired, only dropped once?"

It's important to keep in mind that I have an admittedly dark view on such matters.

[karinablack.livejournal.com]

what the hell?