RYAN had talked non-stop over dinner about the military recruiters in his high school"and the cool free stuff like t-shirts and video games! They said he could be a helicopter pilot and get a job anywhere. His little brother said helicopters were cool" His sister said a friend's boyfriend died in Afghanistan. She was dumb -- the recruiters said he wouldn't even have to go to combat!

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RYAN had talked non-stop over dinner about the military recruiters in his high school -- and the cool free stuff like t-shirts and video games! They said he could be a helicopter pilot and get a job anywhere. His little brother said helicopters were cool. His sister said a friend's boyfriend died in Afghanistan. She was dumb"the recruiters said he wouldn't even have to go to combat!

His folks said not to sign anything the night he and his friend went with the recruiter to visit a military base. But they'd stayed in a hotel and never got to the base - the recruiter said the CO had called to say it wasn't a good time to visit.

Then the recruiter talked all friggin' night about how cool the military was, how much they'd learn, how much people would respect them, what a great opportunity it was to get money for college. They'd signed after he offered a $10,000.00 bonus!

His folks had been furious and asked the recruiter to tear up his papers. But the recruiter said it was all legal and binding and even a lawyer and a lot of money couldn't break the contract.

So Ryan went to basic training where he learned he couldn't train as a helicopter pilot as his test scores were too low. Now he's an infantryman.

Basic was pretty weird -- kinda like high school with buzz cuts and uniforms. There was funny shit too: a recruiter had promised a vegetarian guy that of course the military served vegetarian food. So at Basic he couldn't eat anything! He just cried and cried; finally, when he couldn't take it anymore -- everybody laughing at him and dragging him out of bed for another midnight blanket party – he slit his wrists at morning chow.

They stuck him in the brig for damaging military property – that is, he was the property!

Two weeks after Ryan arrived at his permanent duty station his unit got order to deploy to Iraq. When he told them his recruiter had promised he wouldn't be in combat they'd just laughed and called him a “pussy.”

Now Ryan can't reach his recruiter on the phone.

Authors Website: www.motherspeak.org

Authors Bio:
Susan Galleymore is the author of Long Time Passing: Mothers Speak about War and Terror, sharing the stories of people in Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and U.S. [Pluto Press 2009]. She is also host and producer of Raising Sand Radio (www.raisingsandradio.org) a former counselor on the GI Rights Hotline, founder of MotherSpeak (www.motherspeak.org) and and itinerant artist illustrating the effects of war in the Families of War Series. She lives in California and South Africa and has traveled fairly extensively in the Middle East and southern Africa. She focuses on the intercultural issues, war, and the environment.