The Army Recruiting Command changed its homeschool URL

Last October I was very surprised to find that the Army Recruiting Command (USAREC) had put up an information page for homeschooled graduates who were interested in enlisting in the Army.  My surprise was because of the page’s URL: http://www.goarmy.com/hslda 

The inclusion of a civilian business’s acronym in an official URL appeared to violate a long-standing policy held by the DoD prohibiting the appearance of endorsement.  The policy was most prominent throughout my years of reading the overseas military newspaper, Stars and Stripes.  I had long been conditioned to the standard policy as written in the newspaper’s disclaimer, an item that appeared in each issue, and is included in the paper’s web site.

• Stars and Stripes disclaimerStars and Stripes is authorized for publication by the Department of Defense for members of the Military Services overseas. However, the contents of Stars and Stripes are unofficial, and are not to be considered as the official views of, or endorsed by, the U.S. Government, including the Department of Defense or the U.S. European or Pacific Commands. As a DoD newspaper, Stars and Stripes may be distributed through official channels and use appropriated funds for distribution to remote and isolated locations where overseas DoD personnel are located.

  The appearance of advertising in the print edition or on this website does not constitute endorsement by the Department of Defense or Stars and Stripes of the products or services advertised.

Yesterday, I was asked by email about the information at the USAREC page, and I typed the /hslda URL into the Address task bar on my computer screen to make sure I’d typed it correctly before I gave it to my email correspondent.  When the page appeared on my screen, the URL was different:  http://www.goarmy.com/homeschool/ 

Again, I was surprised, but this time it was with relief.  “My Army” reverted to type.  I was back where I knew what was going on.

This entry was posted on May 23, 2006 at 5:55 pm and is filed under Military Homeschoolers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.