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ARMY to Suspend Recruiting
WASHINGTON (May 11) - The U.S. Army has ordered a one-day suspension this month of its recruiting efforts, already made difficult by the Iraq war, to confront incidents of misconduct by its recruiters.
The incidents included a Texas recruiter threatening a man with arrest if he did not show up at a recruiting station for an interview and Colorado recruiters telling a high school student how to get a phony diploma from a nonexistent school, Army officials said.
On May 20, all 7,545 recruiters at 1,700 recruiting stations nationwide will be counseled by Army officials about what is permitted and what is not in the effort to coax people to enlist, officials said.
Army Recruiting Command spokesman Douglas Smith said the Army was investigating 480 allegations of improper conduct by Army recruiters in fiscal 2005, which began Oct. 1. The Army looked into 473 such allegations in all of 2000, 643 in 2001, 745 in 2002, 955 in 2003 and 957 in 2004, Smith said.
"This is not a crisis situation. It is not an emergency situation. This is a prudent leadership move," said Col. Joe Curtin, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon, adding that the one-day training session would remind recruiters of the need to "continue to abide by a professional code of ethics."
The Army is already struggling to meet recruiting goals, with potential recruits and their families wary about volunteering to serve during wartime.
"Yes, recruiting is very difficult right now. Recruiters, obviously all of us, are under great pressure to provide the Army with the soldiers it needs. But there's a way to do it, and that's with ethics and within the boundaries that we have to work," Smith said.
'MARKETING TECHNIQUE'
Army officials said a staff sergeant who recruited in Houston faced "corrective action" after telling a 20-year-old man to get to a local recruiting station by a certain time or face a warrant for his arrest. The officials said the recruiter told the man such a threat was merely a "marketing technique."
The New York Times
The Army also is looking into allegations that recruiters offered to help people hide drug problems into order to enlist, officials said.
The Army is providing the majority of the ground forces in the Iraq war in the first protracted conflict since the creation of the all-volunteer military three decades ago.
Aiming to sign 80,000 recruits in fiscal 2005, the Army has missed its goals in three straight months, including falling 42 percent short in April, and is 16 percent behind its year-to-date recruiting target.
Smith said the last thing the Army wanted the public to think was that it would start "bending the rules" amid recruiting shortfalls.
Bending the rules, for example, to sign up unqualified recruits would risk bringing into the Army soldiers with drug or disciplinary problems or who may not be willing to serve their full term of enlistment, Smith said.
The difficult recruiting environment has placed additional stress on recruiters who have individual quotas to meet, said an Army official who asked not to be named.
The Houston incident was "a good case in point," the official said. "You're trying to get people (recruits). You get somebody who's interested. How do you hook them? Is lying to them going to work? No, it's going to backfire."
05/11/05 14:46 ET
The incidents included a Texas recruiter threatening a man with arrest if he did not show up at a recruiting station for an interview and Colorado recruiters telling a high school student how to get a phony diploma from a nonexistent school, Army officials said.
On May 20, all 7,545 recruiters at 1,700 recruiting stations nationwide will be counseled by Army officials about what is permitted and what is not in the effort to coax people to enlist, officials said.
Army Recruiting Command spokesman Douglas Smith said the Army was investigating 480 allegations of improper conduct by Army recruiters in fiscal 2005, which began Oct. 1. The Army looked into 473 such allegations in all of 2000, 643 in 2001, 745 in 2002, 955 in 2003 and 957 in 2004, Smith said.
"This is not a crisis situation. It is not an emergency situation. This is a prudent leadership move," said Col. Joe Curtin, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon, adding that the one-day training session would remind recruiters of the need to "continue to abide by a professional code of ethics."
The Army is already struggling to meet recruiting goals, with potential recruits and their families wary about volunteering to serve during wartime.
"Yes, recruiting is very difficult right now. Recruiters, obviously all of us, are under great pressure to provide the Army with the soldiers it needs. But there's a way to do it, and that's with ethics and within the boundaries that we have to work," Smith said.
'MARKETING TECHNIQUE'
Army officials said a staff sergeant who recruited in Houston faced "corrective action" after telling a 20-year-old man to get to a local recruiting station by a certain time or face a warrant for his arrest. The officials said the recruiter told the man such a threat was merely a "marketing technique."
The New York Times
The Army also is looking into allegations that recruiters offered to help people hide drug problems into order to enlist, officials said.
The Army is providing the majority of the ground forces in the Iraq war in the first protracted conflict since the creation of the all-volunteer military three decades ago.
Aiming to sign 80,000 recruits in fiscal 2005, the Army has missed its goals in three straight months, including falling 42 percent short in April, and is 16 percent behind its year-to-date recruiting target.
Smith said the last thing the Army wanted the public to think was that it would start "bending the rules" amid recruiting shortfalls.
Bending the rules, for example, to sign up unqualified recruits would risk bringing into the Army soldiers with drug or disciplinary problems or who may not be willing to serve their full term of enlistment, Smith said.
The difficult recruiting environment has placed additional stress on recruiters who have individual quotas to meet, said an Army official who asked not to be named.
The Houston incident was "a good case in point," the official said. "You're trying to get people (recruits). You get somebody who's interested. How do you hook them? Is lying to them going to work? No, it's going to backfire."
05/11/05 14:46 ET
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