Rap has become the music of modern young men and women, and now the Army is using the popular art form to recruit new enlistees.
The Army reported that Sgts. 1st Class Arlondo Sutton and Jason Brenner Locke, who are assigned to the Atlanta and Houston recruiting battalions, respectively, made the track, called “Giving All I Got.”
Its hook: “Giving all I got. I’m never going to stop. Army changed my life. Gave me a new clock.”
The video, filmed in and around Atlanta, shows young potentials the many Army career fields that exist, such as military working dogs, infantry, snipers, and the Maneuver Center of Excellence Band.
Military recruiters have struggled to compete in a growing U.S. economy, with low unemployment rates, and private companies paying more to graduating seniors. Only about 30 percent of 17- to 24-year-olds meet the physical, mental and moral requirements for the military, and only one in eight is interested in serving, according to the Associated Press.
Army recruitment last year fell short of goals by about 6,500 soldiers.
Army leaders said in September they signed up about 70,000 new active-duty recruits in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2018 — well below the 76,500 needed.
The Army is planning to grow to 500,000 by 2024, meaning increased recruiting goals.
The Army also is dealing with young people who aren’t combat-ready.
Commanders have complained in recent years that the soldiers they get out of basic training aren’t fit enough. Nearly half of the commanders surveyed last year said new troops coming into their units could not meet the physical demands of combat. Officials also say about 12 percent of soldiers at any one time cannot deploy because of injuries, according to the Associated Press.
After missing its recruiting goal last year for the first time since 2005, the Army decided to cross the American divide of red military country and blue civilian country — going to 22 left-leaning cities for new enlistees.
Recruitment usually ventures into the red states from Virginia through the South to Texas, where young Americans enlist at numbers two to three times greater than in other regions.
Within big blue metropolitan areas of the Northeast, Midwest and West Coast, young Americans are less likely to have military family, friends and mentors and therefore don’t enlist.
The rap video is another tactic to get young Americans interested in serving their country.
Sutton, of Norfolk, Virginia, said he made rap songs to relax while deployed in Iraq.
A Marine’s Actions Shocked a Nurse A nurse took the tired, anxious serviceman to the bedside. “Your son is here,” she said to the old man. She had to repeat the words several times before the patient’s eyes opened. Heavily sedated because of the pain of his heart attack, he dimly saw the young uniformed […]
A new round of talks between the United States and China to resolve their trade war will take place in Washington on Tuesday, with follow-up sessions at a higher level later in the week, the White House said on Monday.
The talks follow a round of negotiations that ended last week in Beijing without a deal but which officials said had generated progress on contentious issues between the two trading partners.
The talks are aimed at "achieving needed structural changes in China that affect trade between the United States and China. The two sides will also discuss China’s pledge to purchase a substantial amount of goods and services from the United States," the White House said in a statement.
Britain's Labour Party MP Chuka Umunna arrives at a news conference in London, Britain, February 18, 2019. REUTERS/Simon Dawson
February 18, 2019
LONDON (Reuters) – Seven lawmakers split from Britain’s opposition Labour Party on Monday, saying that the party leadership’s failures over Brexit, anti-Semitism and a culture of bullying in the party had left them no choice.
The group of lawmakers, calling themselves “The Independent Group”, included Chuka Umunna, who had at one point been seen as a future leadership candidate, and Luciana Berger, who has been outspoken about the party’s approach to anti-Semitism.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said he was disappointed in their decision to leave the party.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper and William James, writing by Alistair Smout; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
A 23-year-old domestic violence suspect in Florida, who was armed with a gun and live-streaming the incident on Instagram, was shot at last week after he opened fire first at officers, according to police.
The Orange County Sheriff's Office released body camera video on Thursday of the incident Wednesday involving Laforest Duron Gray Jr and three officers.
"After talking with the deputies involved and reviewing the bodycam footage, the suspect clearly shot at our officers one time," Orange County Sheriff John Mina told reporters. "The officers returned fire."
Officers had been called to the home after a neighbor called 911 to report a domestic violence incident between Gray and his wife, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by FOX35.
The neighbor had told deputies that Gray's wife jumped into his car asking for help before the suspect opened the car door, dragged her out by her hair, and implied to the driver that he had a gun, according to the arrest report.
Laforest Duron Gray Jr. is now charged with four counts of attempted murder on a law enforcement officer, domestic violence, and burglary. (Orange County Jail)
Video released by the sheriff's office shows that when deputies arrived and ordered Gray to put both hands up in the air as he was holding a phone in his left hand and live-streaming the encounter on Instagram.
When Gray finally lifted his left hand, the video shows Gray holding onto a silver pistol with his right hand, pointing it at deputies and firing off a round. Three deputies then fired at Gray, but no one was struck during the gun battle.
Deputies used a K-9 to eventually get Gray into custody. He is now charged with four counts of attempted murder on a law enforcement officer, domestic violence, and burglary. He is currently being held at the Orange County Jail without bond.
Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear speaks to the denomination's executive committee Monday, Feb. 18, 2019, in Nashville, Tenn. Days after a newspaper investigation revealed hundreds of sexual abuse cases by Southern Baptist ministers and lay leaders over the past two decades, Greear spoke about plans to address the problem. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – More than a decade after the Southern Baptist Convention rejected the idea of creating a database of ministers credibly accused of sexual abuse, leaders say the possibility is on the table.
The denomination already was looking at how it could better respond to abuse when two Texas newspapers published an investigation last week that detailed hundreds of cases of abuse in its churches.
Those revelations added a sense of urgency to a meeting of the SBC's executive committee on Monday night, where President J.D. Greear reported on the progress of a sexual assault advisory committee.
He said the advisory group was studying the possibility of a database but that the subject is complicated.
He also suggested the denomination should kick out churches that show a wanton disregard for sexual abuse.
Gracelynn Bradeberry and Bryce Mason were arrested. (Randleman Police Department)
Two people were arrested after a North Carolina man allegedly had $10,000 and his pants stolen from him as he was getting ready to have sex with a woman he had just met while his girlfriend waited downstairs, police said.
Bryce Mason, 23, and his girlfriend, Gracelynn Bradeberry, were arrested in connection with the January incident, The State reported Saturday. Randleman police were still searching for Brandon Cooke.
Christopher Hancock told police he had the money stolen from him as he was getting ready to have sex with a woman, according to The Courier-Tribune. Hancock reportedly told authorities he had an open relationship with his girlfriend.
Hancock and the new woman went into a bedroom and got naked when two men allegedly attacked him and choked him until he blacked out, WFMY-TV reported. When he regained consciousness, he called authorities and told them $10,000 and his pants were gone.
The alleged incident occurred on Jan. 23 and since then only Mason and Bradeberry have been arrested.
Mason was charged with assault by strangulation, possession of stolen property and common law robbery. He was held on $150,000 bond. Bradeberry was charged with giving police false information about Mason’s identity, according to The Courier-Tribune.
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