Jessica Lynch says US used her as Iraq war symbol

Setanta wrote:

Did your personal friend describe what sort of "rescue" was necessary from a hospital at which the staff have said there were no armed men?

Yes he did. And that is as much as I will say. You can take it or leave it. I am not about to attempt to convince you or anyone else as to the validity of what he told me. It would do very little good as y'all seem to have decided what you believe about this. Think what you will.

I actually am more mad at how the armed forces advertise. Their commertials glamorize war. Certainly there is much honor and bravery involved, but there is not glory in war.

Tenoch wrote:

I actually am more mad at how the armed forces advertise. Their commertials glamorize war. Certainly there is much honor and bravery involved, but there is not glory in war.

How do they glamorize war? If anyone glamorizes war that would be Hollywood.

I have seen them advertise about training for the civilian world opportunities to become a leader.

Baldimo wrote:

Tenoch wrote:

I actually am more mad at how the armed forces advertise. Their commertials glamorize war. Certainly there is much honor and bravery involved, but there is not glory in war.

How do they glamorize war? If anyone glamorizes war that would be Hollywood.

I have seen them advertise about training for the civilian world opportunities to become a leader.

whatyou talkin' 'bout, willis ?

Watch the ads, Baldimo.

They're a fascinating bit of advertising art. Military recruiting, in times of war, often needs better ads than during peace. Nothing new about that.

The American military did some significant revamping in 2001 - anyone remember what changed? or was it only obvious to advertising geeks who follow that sort of thing?

military ad campaigns/ u.s. link

Quote:

Of course, the numbers haven't been so good lately - so there had to be another ad revamping for the active military and the reserves. Fascinating stuff.

U.S. Defense Department and a private marketing firm are creating a database of personal information on students ages 16 to 18 to be used to bolster slumping wartime military recruitment numbers.

The marketing firm, BeNow Inc. of Wakefield, Mass., was hired in late June by the Defense Department to analyze student data and profile individuals who meet the age and school requirements for military service.

The database, known as Joint Advertising and Marketing Research and Studies, is updated daily and distributed monthly to military recruiters. It consists of information such as cell-phone numbers, e-mail addresses, height, weight, ethnicity, areas of study, grade-point averages, birth dates and Social Security numbers.

I just saw a commercial for the Reserves and the kid trying to sell his father on letting him join uses the 'fact' that they will only call him when they need him. Who's idea was it to run this ad NOW?

This seems on cue to me, Merry Andrew. Aren't we talking about the military and the selling of the war?

We don't need the commercials, Baldimo. We have you.

Doing some selective reading, eh? Refer to DTOM's post about jumping out of helicopters and cool video game-like effects. There are none so blind as those who will not see.

Alexander excelled as a leader in his ROTC unit at Loyola College in Maryland. He started an athletic club during his four years, and he won the George C. Marshall award his senior year.

He also took advantage of the Army schools available to ROTC students. He went to Airborne school, Air Assault School and cadet troop leadership training.

Alexander likes the commercial, though it wasn't what he expected.

"I thought it would be like the typical Army commercial, where they usually have an infantry guy running through the woods all excited, trying to get someone pumped up to join the Army," said Alexander. "The way they formatted it -- this is my perception of the commercial -- what they did was they made it in such a way to get you interested in either the person or the kind of job, and then kind of linked it to the Website. You can see all the additional footage."

The television commercial features Alexander on his first helicopter ride, called a nickel ride, and expressing his feelings about it.

"Then it shows me flying, and then the narrator comes in and says, 'Go see if David can make the cut,'" he says, laughing.

The commercial is designed to drive the audience to the Website. The site opens with the option to view the stories on the Soldiers currently seen on the television commercials. Once on the site, visitors can choose which geographical locale, Soldier and job they're interested in.

"The idea is that someone in the Army is doing something in the world 24 hours a day, seven days a week," said Anderson, describing the global view of the Army as depicted by the Website.

Each Soldier has his own page, with three short videos depicting him on the job. The site also offers a timeline of the Soldier's career, as well as more information on the job itself.

Alexander's page shows him flying his OH-58 Kiowa during instrument training, as well as shots of him in the classroom and working on the helicopter with his stick buddy, Sage.

There is also a section describing his career thus far. The site offers links to more information on helicopters of the Army as well as career fields involving Army helicopters.

"The stuff on the Internet is awesome, how they tied everything in," said Alexander. "I think they made it look really good."

"The Army is not a lumbering, old thing," said Fox-Robertson. "It's a forward-thinking, fast-moving thing."

The commercial featuring Alexander will run until Dec. 1.

Alexander, who graduated in October, will be flying UH-60 BlackHawks, his helicopter of choice. His next duty station will be Giebelstadt, Germany, working with 12th Aviation Brigade.

Overall, Alexander described his flight school experience with a smile.

"A really big motivator for me was I would always think to myself, 'Learning to fly in the outside world would take thousands of dollars, and I'm actually getting paid to do this,'" said Alexander. "It's not a bad deal."