Army Recruiters Say They Feel Pressure to Bend Rules (and not

punished or suffer any consequeces) --no surprize-the army needs boots on the ground.


http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050502/pl_nm/iraq_usa_recruiting_dc

Army Recruiters Say They Feel Pressure to Bend Rules
By DAMIEN CAVE

Published: May 3, 2005

It was late September when the 21-year-old man, fresh from a three-week commitment in a psychiatric ward, showed up at an Army recruiting station in southern Ohio. The two recruiters there wasted no time signing him up, and even after the man's parents told them he had bipolar disorder - a diagnosis that would disqualify him - he was all set to be shipped to boot camp, and perhaps Iraq after that, before senior officers found out and canceled the enlistment.

Despite an Army investigation, the recruiters were not punished and were still working in the area late last month.

...Recruiters and some senior Army officials, however, said that for every impropriety that is found, at least two more are never discovered. And the Army's figures show that it is not punishing serious offenses as it once did. In 2002, roughly 5 of every 10 recruiters who were found to have committed improprieties intentionally or through gross negligence were relieved of duty; last year, that number slipped to 3 in 10.

General Rochelle said that decline could be explained, in part, by his decision two years ago to end a policy that nearly always dismissed serious offenders from recruiting.........(more stories)

In any way they can, even if it involves recruiting poor shlubs like this. Can't have people like Rangel looking prescient, can we?

,,,,,Two hundred miles away, in northern Ohio, another recruiter said the incident hardly surprised him. He has been bending or breaking enlistment rules for months, he said, hiding police records and medical histories of potential recruits. His commanders have encouraged such deception, he said, because they know there is no other way to meet the Army's stiff recruitment quotas.

"The problem is that no one wants to join," the recruiter said. "We have to play fast and loose with the rules just to get by.",,,,,,,

.....Interviews with more than two dozen recruiters in 10 states hint at the extent of their concern, if not the exact scope of the transgressions. Several spoke of concealing mental-health histories and police records. They described falsified documents, wallet-size cheat sheets slipped to applicants before the military's aptitude test and commanding officers who look the other way. And they voiced doubts about the quality of some troops destined for the front lines........

Couldn't be the backdoor drafts could it? The extended tours? The lack of armour? the 1600 dead?


Or maybe most people (the ones they don't poll) realize there is nothing of value in dying for a lie.

Yup that's the ticket. </sarcasm>

this sort of abuse publicized where I live and no doubt elsewhere..

about a teen doing an investigative report for his high school. He wanted to show the lengths recruiters go to, to enlist warm bodies in this point in history. This young man told the recruiter that he was a dropout. The recruiter instructed him on getting a diploma on line, just to "make up" a school and a transcript, and that everything would be alright, he'd get in.
He then told the recruiter that he had "a little drug problem", after questioning, the recruiter found that it was "just marijuana" and actually drove him to a store where he could get a "kit" to clear his system of any marijuana residue.

Of course, when the brass were shown this tape this young man had produced, they were all up in arms and the recruiter was reprimanded.

It was quite a story by a young man who wants to be a "real journalist", not one of the talking heads we've come to expect from cable news. I wish him good luck.

good!

Impeach Bush for starting an illegal war and then bring our troops home. THe army really is an excellent career path but who wants to join when you know you'll be shipped off to an illegal war.

a dropout with a drug problem, videotaped a recruiter telling how to fake a diploma and hide the drug problem, in order to join the service.

last night. I explained it above. I can't believe how low these schmucks will go to make their quotas. :grr:

Then they can make it sound better.
'Oh, yeah, we're doing great! Everything is under control!' :eyes:

It's crap like this that will really damage cohesion and morale in the armed forces. Imagine having to serve with a high school dropout who has a drug problem and a criminal record. I was just reading an article in "The Nation" about soldiers who go AWOL. One of them said that he was quite willing to fight and die for his country and for freedom but that he was not willing to fight with and die for people he didn't like. If recruiters go around signing up anyone they can get their hands on we're going to end up with a bad mix of guys in our military. How many of them will feel the kind of loyalty for and brotherhood with each other that is necessary for the kind of cohesion and morale the military needs to maintain?

What sort of support system will they find to deal with all the things that happened to them in country? These people weren't being well served by our society before their enlistment: dropping out of school, mental health problems, inability to find steady work at a good wage, and all the rest. Will the administration suddenly decide to begin providing services for people who don't make seven figures a year? I highly doubt it.

And when these young men come back, more screwed up than when they left but now with mad fighting skizzils, how long will it be before they blow up another federal building or take their service rifle to the top of a tower? And the military types will all cluck their tongues and say what a shame it is, and the media will file many serious reports with appropriately frowny faces, and no one except the immediate community will wonder if maybe, just maybe, the military hadn't been so desperate for warm bodies back in 2005 this young man might not have ended so many lives in such spectacular fashion.

Got health problems? Who cares? Your going to Iraq as cannon fodder, so health doesn't really matter!
No high school diploma? No education beyond the 5th grade? No problem! Who cares? Your going to Iraq as cannon fodder, so education doesn't really matter!
Have a drug problem or mental illness? Who cares? Your going to Iraq as cannon fodder, so drug addiction and mental health doesn't really matter!

The new slogan for today's action Army is: "If you can stop a bullet - we've got a job for you!"

It seems there are no rules today. Maybe they'll let recruiters work welfare offices, halfway houses, and prisons to meet their numbers.

If not, be careful walking in a dark alley alone...

:grr::nuke::mad: