Education was the carrot. One day Caldera actually said the Army was the finest educational experience in the world. I suppose Harvard and MIT would be surprised to hear this. On high school campuses between 1992 and 1997, especially those with high percentages of Latino students, Junior ROTC units more than doubled, from 1,600 to 3,500. This promise of money for college and "high-tech" training was a powerful draw for our youth. Chicanos and Chicanas have a 48 percent high school drop-out rate, and less than 4 percent of all Chicano/a high school graduates are eligible for the University of California system.
During this period recruiters didn't say much about the military's primary mission. In the roaring '90s, the possibility of a protracted war seemed out of the question. But now war, if not multiple wars, are a real possibility.It would not be unfair to claim that Mexicans, Native Americans, and Filipinos functioned as a kind of military or warrior caste in the United States throughout most of the second half of the 20th century. Mexican Americans have won more Congressional Medals of Honor than any other ethnic group. Depending on your point of view, this is either a reason to be proud or inconsolably sad.
I use the term "Mexican American" at points deliberately in this essay. In the current climate of unquestioning loyalty to administration dictates, I find it more suitable than Chicano/a. During the Vietnam era, the term Chicano/a meant the exact opposite of blind patriotism.
During this period recruiters didn't say much about the military's primary mission. In the roaring '90s, the possibility of a protracted war seemed out of the question. But now war, if not multiple wars, are a real possibility.It would not be unfair to claim that Mexicans, Native Americans, and Filipinos functioned as a kind of military or warrior caste in the United States throughout most of the second half of the 20th century. Mexican Americans have won more Congressional Medals of Honor than any other ethnic group. Depending on your point of view, this is either a reason to be proud or inconsolably sad.
I use the term "Mexican American" at points deliberately in this essay. In the current climate of unquestioning loyalty to administration dictates, I find it more suitable than Chicano/a. During the Vietnam era, the term Chicano/a meant the exact opposite of blind patriotism.