After 12 years in the military and three college degrees, U.S. Army Recruiter Raul Narvaez is offended by Senator John Kerry's comments. In fact, many of the young men and women who come to him for information about the service sign up to earn money for college. And a lot of high school students join the military having already earned up to 24 college credits.
Narvaez said, "A lot of people coming in [to the recruiting office] believing that they've got nothing else going on so they'll just join the military, when seven times out of ten, those people aren't qualified - whether it be through educational levels, moral, or even medical, they're just not qualified."
Before the Vietnam War, a high school diploma was not needed to join the military, but that changed after the draft. "A lot of times, they are believed to be some of the 'bottom of the barrel' type people and that's just not the case," said Narvaez. "They are the most intellectual people that you'll ever meet in your life because of what they have to go through everyday. Not just in a war zone, but there are hundreds of humanitarian missions going on around the world that they have to deal with and being in a situation like that, you've got to be able to think on your feet and be an intellectual person and an educated person in order to handle the mission in that type of situation."