I was disappointed that you would print a piece as disingenuous as Stewart Ugelow’s tale of his recruitment by the U.S. Navy ["Bombarded by the U.S. Navy," Outlook, Aug. 27]. While Ugelow professes that his story is told out of some benevolent concern over wasted tax dollars, it appears that he is doing nothing more than relating an elitist joke.

Many high school and college students are flooded with recruitment mail from various branches of the armed forces. I am a senior at Swarthmore College (certainly as unlikely a launching pad for a career in the military as Yale) and despite …