In light of the recent crappy news on recruitment figures comes this story from the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Apparently a "few good men" means those who have lost the willpower to resist constant phone calls, abduction, and sleep deprivation. The story doesn't make it clear whether this happened before the recent recruiter "stand down" (to deal with agressive pursuit of potential recruits), but this Marine should (probably) be brought up on charges of kidnapping.
Welcome back to the good ole days of press gangs.
Here are some of the more choice entries from the article: (forgive me -- I haven't figured out how to do the pretty block quoting thing like the big boys yet)
"The next weekend, when Marcia went to Seattle for the Folklife Festival and Axel was home alone, two recruiters showed up at the door.
Axel repeated the family mantra, but he was feeling frazzled and worn down by then. The sergeant was friendly but, at the same time, aggressively insistent. This time, when Axel said, "Not interested," the sarge turned surly, snapping, "You're making a big (bleeping) mistake!"
Next thing Axel knew, the same sergeant and another recruiter showed up at the LaConner Brewing Co., the restaurant where Axel works. And before Axel, an older cousin and other co-workers knew or understood what was happening, Axel was whisked away in a car...."
"At about 3:30 in the morning, Alex was awakened in the motel and fed a little something. Twelve hours later, without further sleep or food, he had taken a battery of tests and signed a lot of papers he hadn't gotten a chance to read. "Just formalities," he was told. "Sign here. And here. Nothing to worry about."..."
I especially like the twelve hours of sleep deprivation and testing from 0330 before getting him to sign anything -- this is fundamental psych 101 techniques to lower the inhibitions and impair judgement.