Virtual Army Experience At Air Show

I spent the better part of the last decade (before leaving the effort in late 2007), employed as a civilian marketing professional, in support of U.S. military recruiting strategies, executed on a wide range of platforms- from motorsports to air shows to music festivals. I began the work before 9/11, and was so disgusted with it by the time I left that I started a non-profit advocacy group called CAMMMO. We fight for equal and truthful messaging in U.S. military marketing, advertising and recruiting strategies. The ability for any young person to educate themselves about both sides of the argument, for or against service in today's U.S. military, is vastly diminished by this type of deceptive brand activation. But it is only one of the countless tactics that seek to unlevel what should be a very level brand identity playing field. Make no mistake that the ability for our veterans to receive the debt they are owed, and have been promised, is inversely proportional to the U.S. military's ability to find new recruits to fill those veterans’ boots in the field. Our society's willingness to allow these forms of deceptive recruiting strategies and sponsorships (NASCAR, NHRA, X Games, NBA, NFL, air shows, music festivals, events with the Boy Scouts of America, provisions of No Child Left Behind that make the information of minors available to the military, the use of moral conduct waivers-of which 17% of U.S. Army recruits in 2008 required to be eligible), build the necessary bridge for the Pentagon to turn its back on our veterans. Just think how expensive it is to care for a soldier who is only 19, will never walk again, and needs round the clock medical assistance. We must rein in the hundreds of millions of dollars used to disguise the U.S. military to kids. You can't support the troops if you support this marketing tactic. The VA backlog has now topped one million cases. And they spend hundreds of millions of dollars on deception like this and other nonsense.