Military training program for teens expands in US

CHICAGO (AFP) - Dozens of teens dressed in uniforms provided by the US Marines stand at attention in the gym of a Chicago public high school as a drill sergeant goes through a list of the day's do's and don'ts.


Bring your books to class. Come for extra help if you need it. And wear your uniform with pride.

"Young men, you think you can get a haircut and say I'm done for two or three weeks. WRONG," Sgt. Major Thomas Smith Jr. intones.

"Young ladies. There's been no problem with your uniforms but there is a problem with your ties. Again, I will go through it again. Wear your ties when you come to my class."

One in 10 public high school students in Chicago wears a military uniform to school and takes classes -- including how to shoot a gun properly -- from retired veterans.

That number is expected to rise as junior military reserve programs expand across the country now that a congressional cap of 3,500 units has been lifted from the nearly century-old scheme.

Proponents of the junior reserve programs say they provide stability and a sense of purpose for troubled youth and help to instill values such as leadership and responsibility.

But opponents say the programs divert critical resources from crumbling public schools and lead to a militarization of US society.

"To call these young people child soldiers might be technically inaccurate, but it does reveal the truth of it," said Oscar Castro, a spokesman for the National Youth and Militarism Program, an advocacy group.

Military recruiters already have the right to give presentations in public schools and to access databases with the contact information of all public school students whose parents do not remove their children from the list.

But they don't have nearly the same impact as daily interaction with teachers and students in uniform, Castro said.

While military officials say the junior reserve programs are not used as recruiting tools, about 30 to 50 percent of cadets eventually enlist, according to congressional testimony by the chiefs of staff of the various armed services in February 2000.

This is particularly troubling given that the programs are concentrated in low-income and minority neighborhoods, said Sheena Gibbs, a spokeswoman for the Chicago branch of the American Friends Service Committee which lobbies against the programs.

"If you want to teach discipline and leadership then do it for everyone and don't make them wear (military) uniforms," Gibbs said. "Students (at regular schools) protest that they have to still share books but the military academy has laptops."

At Chicago's Marine Military Math and Science Academy, the first public Marine academy in the nation and the fifth military academy run by the city's school district, it's easy to see how signing up for service would be a logical post-graduation step.

The hallways are lined with prints depicting historic recruiting posters and great moments in military history, like the Battle of the Bulge. Teachers in uniform lead classes in military history, civics, health, and physical fitness.

"The purpose of our school is to send all of our students to post-secondary education," principal Paul Stroh told AFP.

"What's different about this school is we take the military model of discipline, structure and leadership and put it into a high school.

"All of our students wear a uniform and all of our students are expected to be accountable for their actions."

And every morning in formation, Sgt. Major Smith draws a line between the discipline and stability of the Marines and the chaos of the high-crime, low income neighborhood where most of the students live.

"My elementary school was out of control. Everybody just did whatever they wanted," said Mariah Coleman, 14.

"Here there's discipline, but there's freedom as well. Everybody just respects each other and we get respect from the teachers."

Link to source

This news article reminded me of the history of the Hitler Youth from 1933 - 1945. Seeing that the US has been a war with Iraq since 2003 and the volunteer Army has of late failed to meet its quota, has the Gov resorted to "training students" to fight in Iraq and future wars? I am not suggesting the students would be taken out of school to fight, just getting them ready as soon as they graduated from high school.

Will add the history of the Hitler Youth to the thread for background knowledge. The question is; are we seeing a replay of 1933 - 1945 by our gov for our youth?

On the night of January 30, 1933, Nazis in Berlin celebrated the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany by conducting massive torchlight parades. Hitler Youth units were among those in the columns passing under the watchful gaze of Hitler and Paul von Hindenburg, the elderly president of Germany.

Within two months, Hitler acquired dictatorial powers resulting from the Enabling Act passed by the Nazi controlled Reichstag. Hitler's acquisition of power meant the Hitler Youth and all other Nazi organizations now had the official power of the State on their side. The period of Nazi Gleichschaltung (forced coordination) immediately began in which all German institutions and organizations were either Nazified or disbanded. Hitler Youth leader Baldur von Schirach now sought to eliminate all 400 of the other competing youth organizations, large and small, throughout Germany.

On April 3, 1933, Schirach sent fifty Hitler Youths storming into the Berlin offices of the Reichs Committee of German Youth Associations, an organization representing nearly six million German children involved a huge array of youth programs. Staff members inside the building were told to continue working and were simply informed they were now under the authority of the Hitler Youth. Thus the majority of Germany's youth organizations had instantly been placed under Schirach's control.

Many leaders among the conservative and nationalist youth groups willingly joined ranks with the Hitler Youth. Others, such as the Communist and Jewish youth organizations were quickly disbanded. Various Protestant groups were pressured by the Nazis to join and soon yielded. Offices of the Socialist Workers' Youth were also raided. Other groups were prevented from holding any gatherings by order of the police and Nazi storm troopers under the pretext of being a "public nuisance." Within months, most of the competing political and religious youth organizations in Germany vanished.

The only major holdout was the Catholic Youth Organization due in part to the international clout of the Church and an agreement (Concordat) that had been signed between the Vatican and Hitler's government protecting Catholic institutions in Germany. In Catholic sections of Germany, high ranking Nazis could still be found at Sunday mass along with groups of Hitler Youth in uniform and Hitler Youths serving at the altar wearing their uniforms beneath altar boy robes.

On June 17, 1933, Hitler promoted Schirach to Jugendführer des Deutschen Reiches (Youth Leader of Germany) answerable only to Hitler, with all youth activities in Germany now placed under Schirach's command. In July, Schirach dissolved the old Reichs Committee of German Youth Associations since it no longer served any purpose.

Reorganization

Schirach soon introduced a new structure to the Hitler Youth based on age. Little boys aged 6 to 10 were allowed to hang around the older boys and participate informally. Boys 10 to 14 belonged to the Jungvolk, then from 14 to 18 were in the actual HJ, the commonly used abbreviation for Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth). Each boy was given a performance booklet recording his progress in athletics and Nazi indoctrination throughout all of his years in the HJ.

Girls 10 to 14 joined the Jungmädel and from 14 to 18 belonged to the BDM, the commonly used abbreviation for Bund Deutcher Mädel (League of German Girls). The girls wore a schoolgirl-style uniform with skirts and blouses along with army-style hiking boots.


[edit on 11/26/2007 by pstrron]

However, the Hitler Youth organization was primarily male oriented and would remain so throughout the duration of the Third Reich, although the HJ and BDM did share common traits including a very heavy emphasis on competition.

Just about every task, now matter how big or small, was turned into an individual, team, or unit competition. This included boys and girls sports, the quality of singing during propaganda marches, and Winter Aid collections. Boys and girls were kept constantly busy. The Nazis capitalized on the natural enthusiasm of young people, their craving for action and desire for peer approval, hoping, ultimately, each young person would come to regard his or her HJ or BDM unit as a home away from home, or perhaps as their real home.

Activities for boys included games of hide and seek called 'Trapper and Indian,' and war games in which the boys formed platoons, put on red or blue arm bands, then were supposed to hunt down the 'enemy' and rip off the other color arm bands. This often resulted in fist fights and outright brawls between platoons. Younger, weaker boys got pummeled while platoon leaders stood by or even encouraged the fighting. Ripped shirts, along with scrapes and bruises were common during these field exercises which were intended to toughen them up.

Leadership Schools

By the end of 1933, the Hitler Youth organization had absorbed twenty German youth leagues and totalled over 3.5 million members, an enormous increase from a year earlier, before Hitler's acquisition of power, when it had numbered just 107, 956. But this rapid increase also brought big problems, namely the lack of trained, politically reliable local youth leaders. New members absorbed from non-Nazi youth groups brought along non-Nazi sentiments and also struggled to adjust to the strict regimentation and tighter discipline of the Hitler Youth.

To resolve this problem, Reichsführer (leadership) schools were established throughout Germany offering three week cram courses on Nazi racial principles and German history along with practical leadership training, rigorous physical activity and rifle shooting. By August 1934, Schirach reported that over 12,000 Hitler Youth leaders and 24,000 Jungvolk leaders had completed these courses.

The Year of Training

Schirach labeled 1934 as "The Year of Training," and proclaimed during a speech, "...Whoever marches in the Hitler Youth is not a number among millions but the soldier of an idea. The individual member's value to the whole is determined by the degree to which he is permeated by the idea. The best Hitler Youth, irrespective of rank and office, is he who completely surrenders himself to the National Socialist world view."

Vocational training was also emphasized as Schirach and Nazi labor leader Robert Ley initiated the annual National Vocational Competition for Hitler Youth in which teens learning various trades were judged and rewarded, with the winners in each catagory getting to meet Hitler.

In September, Hitler Youth made a notable appearance at the annual Nuremberg rally, an event well-documented in the propaganda film Triumph of the Will by Leni Riefenstahl. A ten minute sequence shows Hitler's emotional appearance before the enthralled assembly inside the sports stadium amid frequent shouts of "Heil." In his speech he told them, "Regardless of whatever we create and do, we shall pass away, but in you, Germany will live on...And I know it cannot be otherwise because you are flesh of our flesh, blood of our blood, and your young minds are filled with the same will that dominates us...And when the great columns of our movement march victoriously through Germany today I know that you will join these columns. And we know that Germany is before us, within us, and behind us."

In October, amid the slogan "Blood and Soil," the Reich's Land Service was introduced, offering young city dwellers the opportunity to experience life on German farms. All HJ and BDM members were expected to participate, helping to bring in the harvest, while learning the value of hard labor and the simple life.

Junior Gestapo Agents

An ominous new development within the HJ was the appearance of HJ-Streifendienst (Patrol Force) units functioning as internal political police, maintaining order at meetings, ferreting out disloyal members, and denouncing anyone who criticized Hitler or Nazism including, in a few cases, their own parents.

One case involved a teenaged HJ member named Walter Hess who turned in his father for calling Hitler a crazed Nazi maniac. His father was then hauled off to Dachau under Schutzhaft (protective custody). For setting such an example, Hess was promoted to a higher rank within the HJ.

HJ-Streifendienst members also secretly infiltrated remnants of the old German Youth Movement and provided tips to the Gestapo which led to the arrest of several leaders of these now-clandestine youth groups.

During the 1934 Blood Purge, the top leadership of the SA was systematically murdered on Hitler's orders. The Nazis also used the occasion to settle old scores with a variety of political foes. Several former rival youth leaders were executed including Catholic Youth leader Adalbert Probst who was "shot while trying to escape."

The close working relationship between the HJ-Streifendienst and the Gestapo aroused the attention of SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler. Members of the HJ-Streifendienst were targeted for recruitment into the SS and proved to be very valuable recruits. Many entered directly into SS officer training schools. Others joined the SS Totenkopfverbände, the Death's Head Brigades that operated Dachau and other concentration camps, and later operated the extermination centers in occupied Poland.

Bronze Over Brains

By 1935, about 60 percent of Germany's young people belonged to the Hitler Youth. Schirach declared it "The Year of Physical Training" and introduced the second major annual HJ event -- the Sports Competition. Medals were awarded to youths who performed rigorous athletic drills and met strict physical fitness standards. Every summer, a day would now be set aside as the "Day of the State Youth" for these events.

Physical fitness, according to Hitler, was much more important for his young people than memorizing "dead facts" in the classroom. In his book Mein Kampf, he stated that "...a less well-educated, but physically healthy individual with a sound, firm character, full of determination and willpower, is more valuable to the Volkish community than an intellectual weakling."

School schedules were adjusted to allow for at least one hour of of physical training in the morning and one hour each evening. Prior to this, only two hours per week had been set aside. Hitler also encouraged young boys to take up boxing to heighten their agressiveness.

Hitler believed tough physical training would instill confidence and that "...this self-confidence must be instilled from childhood into every German. His entire education and training must be designed to convince him of his absolute superiority over others." He viewed education as a means of raising nationalist enthusiasm in German boys while teaching them to be ready to sacrifice themselves for the Fatherland. Special assemblies were often held in school halls featuring themes of heroism and readiness to die for "the cause."

I don't think I have ever seen 1 person bump their own thread on ATS as I have seen you do... better take it easy there killer...

The Nazi Classroom

A portrait of Hitler hung in every classroom. Particular emphasis was paid to the subject of history, which was rewritten to emphasize Nazi themes of racial struggle and German pride. "It is the task of the racial state," Hitler declared, "to ensure that at long last world history will be written and that within its context the racial question will be elevated to the dominant position...so that a generation will emerge capable of facing the final and decisive decisions on this globe..."

Hitler's struggle for power from 1918 to 1933 was emphasized, glorifying events such as the Beer Hall Putsch and offering hero-worship of Nazi figures such as Horst Wessel (a Berlin SA leader killed by Communists) along with Nazi mythology concerning Hitler's liberation of Germany from the international Jewish/Bolshevik world conspiracy.

Racial indoctrination in the classroom included teaching young children how to spot a Jew by describing the physical traits which Nazis believed were associated with inferior peoples. In some classrooms, where Jews were still present, a Jewish child would be brought to the front of the class as an example. The teacher would then use a pointer, highlighting certain facial characteristics.

Hitler Youth songs also contained anti-Semitic lyrics including one song that said: "Yes, when the Jewish blood splashes from the knives, things will go twice as well."

In addition to the traditional German school system, the Nazis established three types of elite schools for the training of the young Nazis: the Adolf Hitler Schools run by the Hitler Youth organization; the Napolas (National Political Institutes of Education) and the Ordensburgen (Order Castles) both run by the Nazi Party.

There were eventually ten Adolf Hitler Schools which took boys at age 12 from the Jungvolk and provided six years of intensive, highly disciplined leadership training under Spartan-like conditions. Top rated graduates of these school were eligible for the exclusive Ordensburgen for another three years of training after which they would be ready to assume high level positions in the Nazi Party. It was from these Ordensburgen, steeped in Teutonic mythology, that Hitler hoped would emerge a "violently active, dominating, brutal youth...indifferent to pain, without weakness and tenderness."

Lowered Educational Standards

Throughout Germany, the entire teaching profession all the way up to university level had been purged of Jewish professors and anyone deemed politically unreliable regardless of their proven teaching abilities or achievements, including Nobel Prize recipients. Teachers who remained in the college classroom lived under the constant fear they might be denounced by one of their students and wind up in a concentration camp. This insecurity resulted in academic timidity which further lowered educational standards.

National Socialist teachers of questionable ability stepped into grammar school and high school classrooms to form young minds, strictly abiding by the Party motto, "The supreme task of the schools is the education of youth for the service of Volk and State in the National Socialist spirit." They taught Nazi propaganda which was then recited back by their students as unshakable points of view with no room for disagreement or discussion.

Over the years, the Hitler Youth organization would gradually supplant the traditional elementary and secondary school system and become the main force educating German youth. And the quality of that education would get worse. Students emerging from the elite Adolf Hitler Schools were in superb physical condition and thoroughly drilled in Nazi ideology, but lacked basic skills in math and science. Biology, for example, had been completely corrupted to advance Nazi racial doctrine.

[edit on 11/26/2007 by pstrron]

Under Hitler, a school system that had once been considered among the finest in the world, became substandard almost overnight. Nazi scientists, educated before Hitler, would later complain they were partially hindered in developing new super weapons by the recruitment of young graduates from the elite Nazi schools.

In 1936, all of the Catholic parochial and Protestant denominational schools were abolished. Church holy days which had usually meant a day off from school were now ignored and classroom prayers were banned. Celebrations of Christmas and Easter were discouraged, replaced by pre-Christian Yule or Solstice celebrations. The Nazis later forced teachers to renounce any affiliation with professional church organizations.

Year of the Jungvolk

Schirach's goal in 1936 was to enroll the entire population of ten-year-olds throughout Germany into the Hitler Youth as a present for Hitler on his 47th birthday. Called "The Year of the Jungvolk," enormous pressure was put on young children to join. In school, they were pressured by Nazi-affiliated teachers. At home and at play, they were aggressively pursued by individual Hitler Youths and through neighborhood propaganda marches, meetings for parents, and special childrens' sing-a-longs.

On April 20, Hitler's birthday, a ceremony was held inside the ancient Marienburg Castle of the Teutonic Order. Amid the glow of torchlights, solemn beating of drums and fanfare of trumpets, ten-year-old boys entered the Jungvolk by swearing the following oath: "In the presence of this blood banner which represents our Führer, I swear to devote all my energies and my strength to the saviour of our country, Adolf Hitler. I am willing and ready to give up my life for him, so help me God." This was followed by the singing of the Hitler Youth anthem, the Fahnenlied (Banner Song) written by Schirach.

After first joining the organization, the boys spent a few months on probation while undergoing training by older HJ members. A test was then given in which they had to recite all the verses of the Horst Wessel Song and answer basic questions concerning Nazi ideology and the history of the Party. They also had to prove physical fitness by running 60 meters in twelve seconds, and take part in a cross country hike lasting a day and a half.

A Mutprobe (courage test) was then given such as jumping from a first or second story ledge into a large canvass held by older HJ. After passing all of the tests, each boy was entitled to wear the brown shirt bearing the Jungvolk insignia with a leather shoulder strap and the coveted Hitler Youth dagger bearing the inscription Blut und Ehre (Blood and Honor).

Mandatory Participation

On December 1, 1936, Hitler decreed "The Law concerning the Hitler Youth" which mandated that all young Germans (excluding Jews) would "be educated physically, intellectually and morally in the spirit of National Socialism" though the Hitler Youth from the age of ten onward. This law also effectively ended the Catholic Youth Organization which had managed to hold for three years amid continual Nazi harrassment.

Parents who prevented their children from joining the Hitler Youth were subject to heavy prison sentences. Membership thus grew to nearly six million. As a result, the organization sprouted into a giant bureaucracy in Berlin and began to acquire the dreariness of a big governmental institution in marked contrast to the dynamic organization it had been in the 1920s and early '30s when members battled daily to bring Hitler to power. The compulsory nature of weekly HJ meetings for everyone led to a gradual decline in morale and discipline.

To add more excitement, a new phase began for the Hitler Youth with increased emphasis on para-military training in direct association with the Wehrmacht (Army) Luftwaffe (Air Force) and Navy. In 1937, a Hitler Youth rifle school was also established. About 1.5 million boys were trained in rifle shooting and military field exercises over the next few years with over 50,000 boys earning a marksmanship medal that required near perfect shooting at a distance of 50 meters (164 feet).

Special Hitler Youth para-military formations for boys eventually included: the Flieger-HJ in which aviation enthusiasts built gliders, participated in annual glider flying competitions, visited Luftwaffe facilities and went for rides in fighters and bombers; the Motor-HJ for boys 16 and older in which they acquired their driver's license and learned to ride motorcycles; and the Marine-HJ in which they obtained sailing certificates, learned river navigation, and participated in naval exercises aboard German training ships.

Hitler's Plan

In 1938, Hitler expanded Germany's borders by absorbing neighboring Austria and the Sudetenland (western portion of Czechoslovakia) with their large populations of ethnic Germans. As a result, Hitler Youth membership swelled to 8.7 million.

In September, the last peacetime Nuremberg rally took place. It had the theme Grossdeutschland (Greater Germany) and was the largest one ever held, with nearly 700,000 members of various Nazi Party organizations participating during the week-long festivities.

On Saturday, September 10, over 80,000 Hitler Youths marched into the city stadium and performed military-style parade maneuvers which they had been practicing for an entire year, ending with a grand finale in which they spelled out the name 'Adolf Hitler' in the grandstand. After a tumultuous welcome, Hitler gave a speech in which he spoke candidly about his own youth and painful adolescence and then ended by telling them, "You, my youth, are our nation's most precious guarantee for a great future, and you are destined to be the leaders of a glorious new order under the supremacy of National Socialism. Never forget that one day you will rule the world!"

In November, Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass) occurred in which Nazi storm troopers, the SS and Hitler Youths attacked Jews throughout the Reich. Police stood by and crowds watched as Jews were beaten while their shops and synagogues had their windows smashed and contents wrecked. Special pleasure was taken in the desecration of sacred religious scrolls. Over 25,000 Jewish men between the ages of 18 and 65 were hauled off to concentration camps.

Local Hitler Youths participated in the violence voluntarily but had not been officially instructed to do so. Schirach, on hearing of the extent of their participation, called a meeting of all high level group leaders and expressly forbade further participation in such "criminal actions."

But the violence was just beginning. Germany was on the path toward achieving Hitler's two main goals which he had stated years earlier in Mein Kampf -- the forced acquisition of living space to the east of Germany (resulting in World War II) and destruction of 'international Jewry' (resulting in the Holocaust).

Many Hitler Youths now regarded Hitler as their Führer-god and even recited prayers to him such as: "Führer, my Führer, give me by God. Protect and preserve my life for long. You saved Germany in time of need. I thank you for my daily bread. Be with me for a long time, do not leave me, Führer, my Führer, my faith, my light, Hail to my Führer!"

Hitler, in a somewhat cynical mood in 1938, expressed his attitude toward them. "This youth learns nothing but to think German and to act German. When these boys enter our organization at the age of ten, it is often the first time in their lives that they get to breathe and feel fresh air; then four years later they come from the Jungvolk into the Hitler Youth, and we keep them there for another four years, and then we definitely don't put them back into the hands of the originators of our old classes and status barriers; rather we take them straight into the Party or into the Labor Front, the SA, or the SS, the NSKK [motorized corps] and so on. And if they are there for another two years or a year and a half and still haven't become complete National Socialists, then they go into the Labor Service and are polished for another six or seven months, all with a symbol, the German spade. And any class consciousness or pride of status that may be left here and there is taken over by the Wehrmacht for further treatment for two years, and when they come back after two, three, or four years, we take them straight into the SA, SS, and so on again, so that they shall in no case suffer a relapse, and they will never be free again as long as they live."

By 1939, about 82 percent (7.3 million) of eligible youths within the Reich belonged to the Hitler Youth, making it the largest youth organization in the world. A new law was issued on March 25, 1939, conscripting any remaining holdouts into the organization amid warnings to parents that their children would be taken from them and placed in orphanages unless they enrolled.

Sorry for the long background but if we are not aware of the past we are doomed to repeat it. Everything the gov does looks innocent on the surface but so does and iceberg.

Is this just a program to discipline kids or something more?

Link to Source

[edit on 11/26/2007 by pstrron]

reply to post by Diplomat

I don't think I have ever seen 1 person bump their own thread on ATS as I have seen you do... better take it easy there killer...

Not trying to bump the thread at all. Just giving the background to the Hitler Youth that might show us the possible model the gov could use on our youth.

Thank you for your reply!

Fair enough, I agree. But, what is this doing in the alien/UFO forum?

Unless we are putting portable DEWs or Plasma Pistols in the kids hands, or even training them to squash bugs, then I think you have the wrong forum.

reply to post by tezzajw


OOP'S, your right, its in the wrong forum ....mods please move this thread to the proper forum.

I wouldn't be too concerned over some school's JROTC running wild and taking over. Some kids need/enjoy the dicipline.

In the AF Times, there was a story of some Hispanic gangbanger from CA that joined the Marines. Real low life and loser. The Corps straightened him out and gave him some pride.

He also was awarded the Navy Cross, second highest decoration in the Marines, for actions in Iraq.

reply to post by jerico65

In the AF Times, there was a story of some Hispanic gangbanger from CA that joined the Marines. Real low life and loser. The Corps straightened him out and gave him some pride.

It is true that you will always have those that can and do need discipline of this type to "straighten" them out. The only possible problem is the misuse's of such a program.

While i did enjoy the lengthy read i don't believe that this will happen on the scale in which it did in nazi germany. look for the draft to go active first

reply to post by pstrron

One in 10 public high school students in Chicago wears a military uniform to school and takes classes -- including how to shoot a gun properly -- from retired veterans.

My question is, "What is going on in this country?" Are we now preparing our children for battle before they even have a clue as to what they want to do with there lives? Don't get me wrong, I am thankful for our troops. I hope they all get home very soon and safe.
I am no military expert, but I do know that everyone has to report to someone above them. Are these teachers reporting on their students to a higher ranking officer? And if so, who exactly is keeping tabs on these kids and why.
Is this country that desperate for soldiers that we know go after our youth. Is the government trying to see if a program like this will work so they can get our youth on their side at an early age?
The most troublesome thing is that these programs are in public schools.

[edit on 11/27/2007 by palehorse23]