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Ever since William McSwain Jr.’s honorable discharge from the Marines, following a leg injury, he often finds himself awake in the early morning darkness.

They’re not exactly nightmares, the 19-year-old says, just scenes from his training ground, the station he was assigned in South Carolina and other reminders of his few months in the service. The dreams don’t leave him frightened, just confused. Depressed. Sometimes even in tears.

When he was first injured during training, he wanted to stay and serve, but the strange thing now, McSwain says, is that he’s no longer sure he still wishes he was in the military. The dreams and depression stay with him as he struggles to find employment and get his young life on track again, since his return to Detroit in March.

“I asked one of my uncles (who served in the military), ‘Does it always stay with you?’” McSwain says. “He said, ‘It will always be with you.’”

Young people like McSwain are the target audience of the year-old Detroit organization Finding Alternatives to Military Enlistment (FAME). Since spring 2005, Detroit-based FAME has reached out to schools and community organizations, spreading its message of opposition to America’s so-called “war on terrorism” and what FAME calls deceptive recruiting methods. FAME’s list of objections to claims often made by recruiters includes:

• The “military job training myth” – Most military jobs require particular skills “that won’t do you much good in the civilian world,” FAME’s Web site states, reporting that only half of all military members surveyed in 1999 said they were satisfied with their training and job assignments.

• The “easy money for college myth” – “To qualify for any college aid at all, you have to pay a $1,200, non-refundable deposit to the military,” states FAME’s Web site; 57 percent of veterans who signed up for the GI Bill “have never seen a penny in college assistance,” FAME says.

• “You won’t have to fight” – FAME cites Reserve soldiers who were sent into battle during the Persian Gulf War as recent examples of youth who were told they would not see combat.

“All they taught me was how to kill people,” says McSwain.While many military supporters criticize anti-war activism as disloyal to the country, FAME member Isis Smith says true disloyalty is betraying youth in urban communities with misinformation.

A recent graduate of prestigious Barnard College, Smith, 22, says her personal career path has seen obstacles, but the war in Iraq defers far more of her peers’ dreams.

“I have friends who are in the military and nothing has come out of their participation,” Smith says. “I feel like the government is being very unpatriotic toward American citizens.”

Overseas military operations since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks have never enjoyed as much support in the Black community as elsewhere in the country, numerous polls have shown. In fact, the percentage of new Black recruits to the U.S. Army, historically the most racially diverse military branch, has dropped steadily during the past five years, according to the Army Recruiting Command. In 2000, Blacks comprised 23.5 percent of total recruits; in 2001, 22.7 percent; in 2002, 19.9 percent; in 2003, 16.4 percent; in 2004, 15.9 percent; and in 2005, 13.9 percent.

FAME says such numbers indicate an underlying sentiment, not just among Blacks, but among countless others whose opinions aren’t reflected in the media.

“It definitely seems to be an unpopular message (to discourage military enlistment), but I personally haven’t received much opposition,” says founding member Jennifer Teed.

Instead, FAME’s greater challenge has been to move beyond “preaching to the choir” of local organizations and activists, who already oppose the war, and penetrating audiences of Black youth. With the exception of Smith and a few others, FAME is predominantly White, Teed says, and recruiting grounds such as the Detroit Public Schools have not welcomed the organization. Letters and telephone calls to administrators have mostly been ignored, but FAME has made presentations to Crossman Alternative, Martin Luther King, Oak Park and University Prep high schools, she adds.

FAME has received other positive receptions at events such as Detroit’s annual “Concert of Colors,” held in July.

“Everyone – and I talked to at least 100 people – stopped and listened, and thanked me for the work I’m doing,” Teed says, “and then they put the fliers in their pockets, instead of throwing them away.”

FAME’s inception was a result of concerned parents and grandparents at the First Unitarian Universalist Church in Detroit, where Teed worked as director of religious education. Elders in the congregation asked Teed how their loved ones could show conscientious objection to war in a way that would prevent being called to fight in Iraq, Teed says.

“So I started investigating some of the answers to these questions” and came across what FAME calls the “economic draft,” Teed adds. “I said, ‘We need to let people know what’s going on.’”

“Economic draft” is FAME’s description of strategic efforts by the military to enlist the poor and underprivileged. As depicted in filmmaker Michael Moore’s controversial 2004 documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, it is common for recruiters to pitch the military as an option in communities where unemployment is pervasive. But FAME’s position is that the “economic draft” devalues the lives of targeted citizens by de-emphasizing the dangers of enlistment.

FAME collaborates with agencies that share a similar message for youth and the community-at-large, including the Michigan Emergency Coalition Against War and Injustice, but there is ongoing discussion of whether it should maintain an emphasis on discouraging Detroit residents to enlist, or work harder to change pro-war sentiment elsewhere. Members agree that capitalizing on the gradual decline in public support for operations in Iraq would eliminate the economic draft’s relevance.

“Regardless of whether they’re aware (of recruitment efforts in Detroit), there’s no mobilization effort against it,” says Smith.

Organizations like the Huntington Woods Peace Group, meanwhile, work to mobilize suburban residents. As far away as Ann Arbor, Michigan Peaceworks distributes fliers, organizes summits and educates the public in similar ways to FAME’s Detroit efforts. Peaceworks Outreach Director Tony Morgan helped inform FAME about the “opt out” privilege, which lets high school students request non-disclosure of their personal information to military recruiters, who might otherwise contact them at home.

“Their ability to communicate with other activists is commendable,” Morgan says of FAME.

Michigan Peaceworks plans to meet with FAME during the fall 2006 school year and continue to “lay pipelines” in the state’s anti-war network, Morgan adds. He encourages parents and youth to visit the Web site michiganpeaceworks.org to learn more about “opt out” and other issues relevant to students considering the military.

FAME acknowledges that content on its Web site famedetroit.org gives an occasional tone of being anti-armed forces, rather than just anti-war or anti-recruitment. Smith says they don’t mean to be unfair.

“Particularly in the African American community where the military has been a springboard to other things, it’s untrue to say the military is all bad. But I think that’s understood, so I don’t think it hurts our position,” Smith adds.

What does hurt FAME’s position is its rigidity, says Detroit native and retired U.S. Navy Master Diver Mike Washington, one of fewer than 10 Blacks to achieve his rank. Having recently attended the funeral of Carl Brashear, the Navy’s first Black master diver, portrayed by Cuba Gooding Jr. in the film Men of Honor, Washington says counter-recruitment still leaves youth at risk.

“While there are perils and risks to going to a place like Iraq, the alternative might be that I get stuck in a city where I can’t see any opportunities,” Washington says. “So which would I do?”

Washington travels on consulting assignments for the U.S. Navy and frequently does motivational speaking at schools like Detroit’s Lions Academy and his alma mater, Henry Ford High. He says he doesn’t necessarily encourage students to enlist, but insists that they consider all life and career possibilities. Telling young people to rule out their options is the equivalent of slamming a door, he adds.

“For someone who has nothing going on in life, that perspective can be dangerous,” says Washington.

FAME, on the other hand, says the risks to youth and young adults outweigh potential benefits in the present climate of military aggression. Almost 100 soldiers from Michigan, including some with metro Detroit ties, have died in support of Iraq operations. FAME plans to renew its focus on student outreach this fall, along with demonstrating its opposition to the war by drawing chalk body outlines to represent fallen recruits at a public location to be determined.

“Our country was founded on democracy and the First Amendment, and that’s what I believe,” Teed says. “…It’s because of our love of the troops and their families that we’re opposed to the war.”

Saying No To Uncle Sam

Anti-enlistment organization urges urban youth to resist pie-in-the-sky recruitment efforts that target the poor and disadvantaged.