Preying on recruits

[thedrifter]

September 04, 2006 <br />
Preying on recruits <br />
More than 80 recruiters were disciplined in 2005 for sexual misconduct or other inappropriate behavior <br />
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By Martha Mendoza <br />
The Associated Press <br />
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More than...

[thedrifter]

September 04, 2006 <br />
‘It shouldn’t happen to anybody’ <br />
Victims seek justice in courts <br />
<br />
By Martha Mendoza <br />
The Associated Press <br />
<br />
Dissatisfied with the military’s handling of sexual assault and...

[thedrifter]

September 04, 2006
Lawmaker urges misconduct penalty increases

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee said Aug. 20 that he would push to increase penalties for sexual misconduct by military recruiters.

Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., was reacting to an investigation by The Associated Press that found more than 80 military recruiters were disciplined last year for sexual misconduct with potential recruits.

“These abuses … are absolutely unacceptable,” Skelton said in a telephone interview from Washington. “The National Guard’s recently adopted rule of ‘no one alone’ makes a great deal of sense and should be followed by all services, whether active duty, National Guard or reserve.”

The “no one alone” policy, adopted by the Indiana Army National Guard, prohibits recruiters from being alone with potential enlistees of the opposite sex.

The investigation found that the sexual misconduct occurred in all branches of the military and across the country. According to information obtained after dozens of Freedom of Information Act requests, at least 35 Army recruiters, 18 Marine Corps recruiters, 18 Navy recruiters and 12 Air Force recruiters were disciplined in 2005 for sexual misconduct or other inappropriate behavior with potential enlistees.

Skelton said he would seek a hearing of the armed services committee with a view toward inserting language in the 2007 defense authorization bill that would increase penalties for “such outrageous activities.”


Congress will take up the bill after its August recess.

— The Associated Press

Ellie

[thedrifter]

September 04, 2006
Recruiter’s view: ‘Stay professional’

By Martha Mendoza
The Associated Press

SAN JOSE, Calif. — On a warm spring Tuesday, a 19-year-old girl walks into the Marine recruiting office and flings herself into the fake leather chair, adjusting a spaghetti strap on her skimpy tank top.

Marine Sgt. Edward Green, in a pressed and neat uniform, greets her warmly, with a genuine smile and a handshake. Green has long dark lashes, tight shoulders and the chest of a wrestler. He’s 23, opens doors for women and remembers everyone’s names.

If girls are flirting with him, he says he doesn’t notice. And he certainly doesn’t respond.

This girl had filled out an online form from the Corps’ recruiting Web site asking for more information. Green called her up and invited her in.


For the next hour, an intense conversation ensues. She talks fast, her voice shaking at times as she explains that her father is urging her to enlist, that he wants her to have some structure in her life.

“I want the courage to stand up for myself,” she says. “I never looked up to my mother. She was nothing. She never did anything. I don’t want to stay at home like my mother. But I can’t do a push-up, just to let you know. I don’t know how. Can you teach me?”

She slouches forward onto the table, leaning her chin onto her folded hands and pouting for a moment.

He asks why she wants to be a Marine.

“I just want to be hot. I just want to be buff. I want to be fit,” she says. “Do you think I’ll lose a couple of pounds in boot camp?”

Green loves the Corps. He loves the institution, the public service, the noble tradition dating back to the American Revolution. He’s done two tours in Iraq and is now putting in a few years as a recruiter.

Like his fellow recruiters around the nation, Green spends hours each day making cold calls to students whose names are on lists provided by schools as mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act.

He also walks around high school and junior college campuses and has one-on-one meetings in the recruiting offices with potential enlistees.

It’s far more stressful than it sounds. The military calls it one of the toughest assignments there is. Recruiters face immense pressure to meet their mission, their numbers. In Green’s case, this means two new recruits each month.

But the hostilities in Iraq make it tough to persuade young people to join. Further, Pentagon researchers estimate that more than half of Americans aged 16 to 21 don’t meet military eligibility requirements.

Recruiters rarely take vacations and are often isolated, living off base in the communities where they recruit.

Half of recruiters say they are dissatisfied with the job, and three out of four say they would choose another assignment if they were allowed to, according to a 2005 internal Defense Department survey of recruiters, released in part in a recent Government Accountability Office report.

Suicide, drugs and alcohol are a problem among recruiters in all services, as is sexual misconduct.

“Look,” says Green, grabbing a sandwich between recruiting sessions. “It’s easy to stay out of trouble at this. All you do is stay professional.”

Ellie

[David Jameson]

Chicken **** ,PC crap.I wonder when they are going to start following our people around in liberty ports to monitor or behavior and language.