http://www.denverpost.com/style/ci_4066762Erin Durban is just 22, a recent graduate of Metro State College, but she's got an incredibly important job: reaching low-income high school students before military recruiters do.
It's a race. There are just a handful of counter-recruiters like Durban in Colorado, but hundreds of military recruiters. In fact, last year there were 22,078 full-time recruiters working across the nation for the U.S. armed services, according to the Government Accountability Office.
And those recruiters have all kinds of neat toys to entice young people: pimped-up Humvees, helicopter flight simulators, climbing walls, faux hand grenades.
At best, Durban has pamphlets.
But she also offers convincing words: "The military is not your only option. Don't believe the people who tell you your life is not going to amount to anything. You have options."
She tells them about the federal college grants that amount to more than the Montgomery G.I. Bill. She explains how to find apprenticeship programs at local unions. She talks up the AmeriCorps program as an alternative way for them to serve their country.