Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Group tries to shield info from military
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
RENO -- A new organization is trying to curb information about high school students provided to the military for recruiting purposes.
Janine Hansen of Reno heads Mothers Against the Draft, a group that has started a campaign urging students to opt out of having Social Security numbers, grades, e-mail addresses and ethnicity shared with the military.
"This is Big Brother sticking (his) hands into your family, trying to bypass parents in order to recruit your children and put them on the front line in Iraq," Hansen said.
Male citizens ages 18 to 25 are required to register with Selective Service by providing their names, birth dates and Social Security numbers.
Military officials say the new measures that include information on field of study, telephone number, high school name, graduation date and college intent are an effort to consolidate information for recruiting purposes.
Students or the parents of minor students can download a form on MAD's Web site at http://www.mothersagainstthe
draft.org/ that lets them opt out of having their information used for recruitment.
Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, said reports that the Department of Defense is collecting personal information on students for a massive new database are incorrect.
The new database, she said, is the result of consolidating recruitment information formerly gathered by different branches of the military.
A private marketing firm, BeNow, of Wakefield, Mass., was hired in 2002 as a subcontractor to warehouse the data and compile the personal information to make sure it is not duplicated, Krenke said.
She said students 18 or older and the parents of students 16 to 17 can request that personal information not be used for recruitment purposes, but the information will remain on the database so recruiters know who does not want to be contacted.
