History Main / RecruitersAlwaysLie

* The Canadian War Museum's older ChooseYourOwnAdventure game ''Armoured Warrior'' (about a troop corporal of the Sherbrooke Fusiliers in the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falaise_pocket Falaise Gap]]), after one of your tanks becomes bogged down and C Squadron is diverted to help the Polish detachment, your tank's gunner says, "First we lose a tank, and now we lose an entire squadron. I say we join the Navy!"

** Not quite as odd as it looks: completing a tour of duty is the only way to become a full citizen of that society, so there's a law that says the military has to accept every single recruit who volunteers, irrespective of any possible suitability for the job (though, just like in most real volunteer armies, the job you ''think'' you're volunteering for may not be the job you actually wind up getting). The trick is to minimize the number of [[TheLoad less than ideal recruits.]]

** Except in the movie the sergeant says the above with a straight face with no reference to his disability. Rico is the only one who made the connection.

* ''Literature/BillTheGalacticHero'' (a specific parody of ''Starship Troopers'') features an over-the-top parody example of this, who grabs Bill at the start of the book/series. And then [[spoiler: a DistantFinale shows that Bill ends his military career as an ethics-free recruiting sergeant himself.]]

* [[TruthInTelevision It happens.]] [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment Let's leave it at that.]]

* The Canadian War Museum's older ChooseYourOwnAdventure game ''Armoured Arrior'' (about a troop corporal of the Sherbrooke Fusiliers in the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falaise_pocket Falaise Gap]]), after one of your tanks becomes bogged down and C Squadron is diverted to help the Polish detachment, your tank's gunner says, "First we lose a tank, and now we lose an entire squadron. I say we join the Navy!"

* The 5.50 mark of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQmHfq-V3cQ this]] clip from ''Lliterature/{{Sharpe}}'s Regiment''.

* Pretty much the entire premise of ''PrivateBenjamin'':
-->'''Judy Benjamin:''' I think they sent me to the wrong place.
-->'''Capt. Lewis:''' Uh-huh.
-->'''Judy Benjamin:''' See, I did join the army, but I joined a ''different'' army. I joined the one with the condos and the private rooms.

* Also "Arthur McBride" in which the sergeant promises gold and women and good food but the two cousin refuse, knowing they would only get shot.

-->''The biscuits in the Army''
-->''They say are mighty fine,''
-->''One rolled off the table,''
-->''And killed a pal of mine.''

* The Army recruiters in ''Theatre/APieceOfMyHeart'' convince Leeann and Sissy with a) tons of fancy equipment, b) gorgeous hospitals, and c) the promise that they'd have to ''volunteer'' for Vietnam��otherwise, they could work in somewhere like Germany or Hawaii if they so pleased. [[SarcasmMode Riiiiiiiiiiight]].

* ''[[VideoGame/WarCraft WarCraft II]]'': The Footman's StopPokingMe quotes are thus; "''Join the army'', they said � ''See the world'', they said � [[InterserviceRivalry I'd rather be]] ''[[InterserviceRivalry sailing]]''."

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* The 5.50 mark of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQmHfq-V3cQ this]] clip from ''Lliterature/{{Sharpe}}'s Regiment''.

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* The Billy Connolly song "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk7T-NTUIeE Sergeant Where's Mine]]" that provides the page quote. [[WordOfGod Inspiration struck]] when he walked past a recruiting station and noticed that nowhere in the photos of soldiers partying and having fun were there any of dead bodies. It's about a poor private who is now lying in a grimy hospital bed, and lamenting that despite what the sergeant said all ''he'' has is no medals, and a lot of bad memories from being shot at or having to do questionable things.

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* The Army recruiters in ''Theatre/APieceOfMyHeart'' convince Leeann and Sissy with a) tons of fancy equipment, b) gorgeous hospitals, and c) the promise that they'd have to ''volunteer'' for Vietnam––otherwise, they could work in somewhere like Germany or Hawaii if they so pleased. [[SarcasmMode Riiiiiiiiiiight]].

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* ''[[VideoGame/WarCraft WarCraft II]]'': The Footman's StopPokingMe quotes are thus; "''Join the army'', they said … ''See the world'', they said … [[InterserviceRivalry I'd rather be]] ''[[InterserviceRivalry sailing]]''."

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-->''They say are mighty fine,

* While it might fall more under changing market realities than outright lying, one common selling point among American recruiters is that enlistment makes it easier to get a job later. [[http://www.newser.com/story/108624/for-returning-troops-an-even-worse-job-reality.html Not so much these days, though.]]

* In the Franchise/StarCraft [[ExpandedUniverse novel]] ''[[StartOfDarkness I, Mengsk]]'', the protagonist Arcturus Mengsk joins the marines, after the recruiter, a gorgeous captain, told him recruits have a 25% chance of seeing combat. She later mentioned, after he becomes a lieutenant and is about to see combat for the first time, that most recruits never pass basic training or even die or are badly maimed in training. The chances of a ''successful'' recruit seeing combat is nearly 100%.

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[[caption-width-right:300:Now that's just mean.]]

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* ''Literature/BillTheGalacticHero'' features an over-the-top parody example of this, who grabs Bill at the start of the book/series. And then [[spoiler: a DistantFinale shows that Bill ends his military career as an ethics-free recruiting sergeant himself.]]

A sister trope to JoinTheArmyTheySaid, which is about the recruitment pitches themselves, although the {{Stock Phrase|s}} itself is likely to be used in regard to this trope. It is worth noting that not all recruiters are like this, but amongst the military, they can have a reputation not entirely unlike that of HonestJohnsDealership. See also FencePainting.

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->''oh Sergeant is this the adventures you meant,''

-->-- '''Billy Connolly''': "Sergeant Where's Mine?"

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[[caption-width-right:350:{{Iron|y}}ically, [[http://www.pvtmurphy.com/ Tim Murphy]] ''wanted'' to join the Infantry, but got tricked into signing on as a CunningLinguist]]

** The WWI-era ''Recruiting Sergeant'' follows a dialogue between an Irish civilian and an English recruiter. Many Irish songs of [[UsefulNotes/TheIrishRevolution this period]] contrast the high causes of the war with the treatment the Irish received at the time, such as ''The Foggy Dew: