by Caleb Fort
Daily Lobo
Nadia McCaffrey was on the verge of tears as she spoke about her son's death.
"I needed to realize that I would never see my son again," she said. "I would never hear his voice on the phone, calling me from Iraq."
McCaffrey's son, Sgt. Patrick McCaffrey, was killed in 2004 during an ambush in Iraq.
She was a speaker at a conference on campus titled Truth in Military Recruiting.
She said Patrick joined the National Guard after Sept. 11, 2001, because he wanted to defend his country. Patrick did not want to go to Iraq, and recruiters told him he would not have to leave the United States, she said.
After her son's death, McCaffrey became a vocal opponent of the war in Iraq. She said she wants people to understand the human losses caused by the war.
"I wanted the world to know his value," she said. "He was a true American. People need to know his story, and that's what I'm doing."
She spoke to about 60 people in the SUB ballroom on July 23.
Rick Jahnkow, another speaker, said New Mexicans should be concerned with recruiting because the military is going to start recruiting Hispanics more heavily. Jahnkow is the head of San Diego-based Youth and Non-Military Opportunities, an organization that sends veterans to schools to warn students about the dangers of military life.
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"Latinos are being targeted," he said. "Not just for recruitment, but for over-recruitment."
Jahnkow said the military is trying to recruit a disproportionate percentage of Hispanics.
The number of Hispanics in the military went up 5 percent from 1976 to 2003, while the number of whites decreased almost 15 percent, according to numbers from the military's Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute in Florida.
Nancy Hutchinson, chief of advertising and public affairs at the Phoenix Army Recruiting Battalion would not comment on any of the allegations Jahnkow made, or any other part of the conference.
Jahnkow also spoke about high schools giving students' contact information to recruiters. The No Child Left Behind Act says any school that receives funding from the act must grant recruiters' requests to access student listings, including names, phone numbers and addresses. The act says students or their parents can request their information not be released.
However, Jahnkow said students who take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery Test negate any request they might have made to keep recruiters from getting their contact information. Although the test is supposed to be optional, he said many high schools tell their students it is mandatory.
Jahnkow said about 14,000 high schools nationwide give the test every year. His statement was confirmed on the U.S. National Guard's Web site.
Student Jen Wolfe said she considered joining the Army, but did not trust what recruiters said about life in the military.
"They wouldn't tell me anything bad about it," she said.
Wolfe said she was not aware high schools released students' contact information to recruiters.
Student James Olaveson, a member of Air Force ROTC, said nobody should enlist without going to college afterward.
"I strongly encourage students to take all the benefits the military will give you," he said. "Take all the money they have to offer, and use it for college."
The conference ran from July 22 to July 24, and included discussion sessions with veterans and lawyers. Another Side and Students Organizing Actions for Peace sponsored the conference.
McCaffrey said she would be the first person in the streets defending her country if the United States was attacked, but does not agree with the war in Iraq.
"I just try to put a human face on a word: Iraq," she said. "I want peace, as a mother and as a human being."
