Each branch has its own version of the program. The Army's, which involves roughly 3½ years of training and active duty before anyone can switch, went nationwide in May. Funny thing, nobody in Congress told the Peace Corps this was coming, and some of the higher-ups are honked off about it. Serving your country in both war and peace is about as easy as explaining how the two intertwine. That only took Tolstoy 1,472 pages.
War or peace? We'll take one of each
War or peace? We'll take one of each
By Mike Moore
Usually, it's a choice. Will that be war or peace? Guns or butter? Hawk or dove? Not anymore. We can have it all.
I read an article recently about a funky new option for serving your country. Actually, more like unopened than new. Congress ordered it a couple of years back, but we in Wisconsin are finally getting the chance to try it on.
Recruits can now finish their military obligation in the Peace Corps or its U.S. equivalent, Americorps.
Each branch has its own version of the program. The Army's, which involves roughly 3½ years of training and active duty before anyone can switch, went nationwide in May.
Funny thing, nobody in Congress told the Peace Corps this was coming, and some of the higher-ups are honked off about it. I talked to a few Racine County residents who spent time volunteering in the Peace Corps to get their views on what it'll all mean.
Keith Petersen was in Ghana, teaching math and physics there from 1994-97 in the Peace Corps, spurred on after hearing his fifth-grade teacher moan about not joining.
"He was kind of an ex-hippie dude," Petersen said.
Aha, the stereotypical peacenik. Might lead you to think these Peace Corps types would fight any attachment to the military on principle. Nah. Petersen wanted to be a Navy pilot, except his bad hearing kept him out.
The pilot life bypassed Steve Case, too, when his not-perfect-enough eyesight ended his hope to fly in the Marines. He went to Tunisia instead, teaching language classes to prospective hotel workers from 1966-68 before beginning his teaching career here.
Carl Bumpurs did serve in both. First, he was a Peace Corps volunteer in two different parts of Africa. Later, he beat the draft to the punch and enlisted, spending a year with the Navy's Seabees during Vietnam.
"I looked at 'em as two entirely different (things)," he said. "I didn't see much connection."
So Bumpurs was shocked to hear about the window Congress opened between the two distinct types of national service.
"It's so un-Kennedy-like," he said of the president who oversaw the first steps of the Peace Corps.
With his jaw back in place, Bumpurs admitted it could turn out a decent program. France has a similar system. (I bet the American military branches don't use that in their pitch).
The local volunteers do have some concerns. They're practical ones.
In Ghana, Petersen had to bust through the paranoia that he was a CIA spy. The volunteers always joked among themselves, wondering who'd be the one fingered as a mole.
In places where guards hold AK-47s at checkpoints and military takeovers are a constant fear, Americans with ties to the military won't automatically be handed the keys.
"It's going to be harder for them to garner the trust," Petersen said.
Then there are the soldiers themselves. Only the ones who recognize the difference would work out.
By that, I mean the Peace Corps is about immersing yourself in the culture of the land. The military isn't. There, "you carry your little North American cocoon around with you," as Bumpurs said.
At least armed forces go through the same application process as anybody else to get into one of the service agencies. All Congress did was to un-block the door. They have to knock and go inside on their own.
So far, they aren't. The National Call to Service Plan has yet to catch fire here. At least not with the Army.
"It's not a seller for us, locally," said Pat Grobschmidt, spokesperson for the Army recruiting battalion in Milwaukee.
No wonder. She had a tough enough time explaining the specifics of the policy to me. Fifteen months of this, then 24 months of that before a boatload of options begin.
See? Serving your country in both war and peace is about as easy as explaining how the two intertwine. That only took Tolstoy 1,472 pages.
Mike Moore's Weblog is at http://www.youknowmoore.com and his column runs three days a week. He can be reached at (262) 631-1724 or by e-mail at: mike.moore@lee.net
