RECRUITERS ARE NOT OBLIGED TO KEEP ANY PROMISES
“Laws and regulations that govern military personnel may change without notice to me. Such changes may affect my status, pay allowances, benefits and responsibilities as a member of the Armed Forces, REGARDLESS of the provisions of this enlistment/re-enlistment document.” (Section 9.5b; DD FORM 4/1)

MILITARY SERVICE OBLIGATIONS
“In the event of war, my enlistment in the Armed Forces continues until six months after the war ends unless my enlistment is ended sooner by the President of the United States.” (Section 9.5c; DD FORM 4/1)
“FOR ALL ENLISTEES: If this is my initial enlistment, I must serve a TOTAL OF EIGHT (8) YEARS. Any part of that service not served on active duty must be served in a Reserve Component unless I am sooner discharged.” (Section 10a; DD FORM 4/1)

THERE IS NO GUARANTEED MONEY FOR COLLEGE
--GI participants must pay $100 per month (NON-REFUNDABLE) during their first year to potentially qualify for college funding. Even then only 57% of those who enroll in this program receive those benefits due to a variety of other loopholes favorable to the military and not the vet. (Veteran’s Administration)

JOBS, TRAINING AND TRANSFERABLE SKILLS ARE NOT GUARANTEED
--Only 50% of all military members, including officers, said they were satisfied with their training and job assignment. (www.ProjectYano.org-citing a military survey)
--Only 12% of male veterans and 6% of female veterans surveyed made any civilian use of skills learned in the military. ( www.objector.org)
--50,000 unemployed veterans are on the waiting list for the military’s “retraining program.” (Army Times)

VETERANS’ BENEFITS ARE NOT GUARANTEED
--“Today the Pentagon owes soldiers $653 billion on future retirement benefits that it cannot pay.” (The Eugene Register Guard, 2/16/05)
--The 2004 federal budget cut funding for veteran’s health care and benefit programs by nearly $25 billion over the next ten years. (The Tacoma News Tribune)
--Veterans filing a claim for disability compensation must wait on average six months and sometimes as long as two years before receiving any compensation. (Dept. of Veteran Affairs).
--Nationally, only12.7% of the adult population are vets (The News Tribune) while 30% of homeless adults are veterans (Veterans Administration).

ABUSE IN THE MILITARY
–90% of women veterans report harassment and a third report being sexually assaulted while in the military (Veteran’s Administration).
--75% of Blacks and 67% of Latinos reported racially offensive behaviors by other military personnel. (GI Rights Hotline)
--871 incidents of anti-gay harassment were documented in 2000. (GI Rights Hotline)

COMBAT ZONE RISKS
Combat exposure: About 90% deployed in Iraq engage in combat (Walter Reed Army Research Institute)
American Dead: 2,066 as of Nov. 15, 2005 (Department of Defense)
American Wounded in Action: approximately 20,000 (Department of Defense)
Medical Evacuations: approximately 17,000 (American Legion)
Iraqi Casualties: 100,000+ deaths caused by the war through August, 2004 (The Lancet medical journal)
Deadly exposures: Gulf war syndrome suffered by 30% of Gulf War veterans has been related to depleted uranium (DU) exposure. Use of DU shells in the current Iraq war has been 2 to 4 times greater. (Source: www.iacenter.org) The U.S. has also used prohibited white phosphorous and napalm on Iraqi cities.
PTSD: About one in five Iraq veterans suffers from major depression, generalized anxiety or post traumatic stress disorder (New England Journal of Medicine). These remain lifelong for about 30%.