The Way of the Soldier-Jarheads and Hurt Lockers: Perpetual War, Identity, and Critical Media Literacy

Starting this year, no American will be forbidden from serving the country they love because of who they love. And with that change, I call on all our college campuses to open their doors to our military recruiters and ROTC. It is time to leave behind the divisive battles of the past. It is time to move forward as one nation. (Obama, 2011) These are the times in which we live. Despite that fact, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” had long been overdue for elimination. President Barak Obama in his 2011 State of the Union address made a direct statement concerning military recruiters and their “reentry” onto college and public high-school campuses. After a search of current media sources (i.e., New York Times, Huffi ngton Post, CNN on-line, etc.), the author could not fi nd any discussion of this important opening (reopening) of educational institutions to the military. This o cially condoned reopening was also not covered to any extent by the so-called mainstream media or other news outlets. Even the 24-hour-news-cycle channels did not mention this phenomenon. It is consistent with earlier statements made by top Obama administration o cials such as Robert M. Gates, a former university president (Texas A&M), who had encouraged the close connections between universities and the military.