[Peace-discuss] Recruitment

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Two items from the Rocky Mountain News suggest our fellow citizens in the
West prefer direct action on these matters.  --CGE]

 
[1] <http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/
0,1299,DRMN_15_3741396,00.html>:

	Army pair's tactics eyed
	Student-led sting ensnarls recruiters
	By John Aguilar, Rocky Mountain News
	April 30, 2005

Two Army recruiters in Golden have been suspended from their jobs while
military officials look into allegations the two men used improper tactics
to get an Arvada high school student to sign up for duty.

The Denver Army Recruiting Battalion, which oversees recruiting for
Colorado and parts of three other states, launched the investigation
Friday after CBS 4 News broadcast a report the previous night about the
alleged improprieties.

The report featured David McSwane, an Arvada West High School honors
student and editor of his school newspaper, who was "curious" to see what
recruiters at a Golden recruitment facility would do if he told them he
wanted to join the Army as a high school dropout with a serious marijuana
problem.

McSwane, 17, said he had read about the challenges the military was facing
in recruiting and wanted to find out "how desperate they really are."

"Being my age and in high school, you see recruiters all the time. It's
something that's affecting people my age," he told The Rocky Mountain News
Friday.

Starting in January, McSwane met with two recruiters in Golden several
times and secretly taped a series of phone calls with them. On the tapes,
one recruiter is apparently heard encouraging McSwane to create a fake
high school diploma to cover for the fact that he had dropped out.

"It can be like Faith Hill Baptist School or something - whatever you
choose," the recruiter said.

McSwane said he bought a phony diploma, complete with a transcript, from a
Web site for $200. He was told that it passed the Army's academic
evaluation.

"At one point, I thought he would look up my academic record, but he never
did," McSwane said.

McSwane got a friend to film another recruiter driving him to a store to
purchase a detoxification kit to rid his system of supposed marijuana
traces.

By the middle of March, McSwane was asked to sign a routine paper
attesting that everything he had told recruiters was true.

"He wanted me to strip down and get on the scale and sign some papers -I
walked out ... and never came back," he said.

McSwane's story was published with his principal's approval in the high
school newspaper, The Westwind, on March 17.

Debbie Cannon, public affairs chief for the Denver Army Recruiting
Battalion, wouldn't comment on the allegations. She expected the
investigation to be completed within 30 days.

"Recruiter misconduct is not acceptable and it violates honor, duty and
trust," Lt. Col. Jeffrey Brodeur, the battalion's commander, said in a
statement.

McSwane said he got the feeling from the recruiters he talked to that they
were desperately trying to sign him up by a certain date so that they
could meet a monthly quota.

"I'd like to see the Army investigate this thoroughly, not just two guys
in this office," he said.

	aguilarj at RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2550
	Copyright 2005, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.

An Army and Marines recruitment center was shot at eight times this
morning, an incident police believe is related to the airing of a
television news report Thursday night that raised questions about
recruitment practices.

[2] <http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/news/article/
0,1299,DRMN_3_3739782,00.html>

An Army and Marines recruitment center was shot at eight times this
morning, an incident police believe is related to the airing of a
television news report Thursday night that raised questions about
recruitment practices.

	###