Recruiters 'stand down'
John Aguilar, Rocky Mountain News
Published May 20, 2005 at midnight
The U.S. Army Recruiting Command has ordered its 7,500 recruiters at more than 1,700 recruiting offices nationwide to "stand down" today.
The one-day suspension of operations comes in the wake of several improprieties that have come to light, including one in Golden in which two recruiters allegedly encouraged an Arvada high school student to create a fake high school diploma.
"We're going to stop the normal recruiting activities and spend the day in small-group discussions and go over Army values. We're going to address the kind of improprieties that we've seen," said Douglas Smith, a spokesman for the recruiting command in Fort Knox, Ky.
Smith said he doesn't recall the Army ordering a stand-down day to address values in more than 20 years.
Some critics speculate that the pressure to meet monthly recruiting quotas has forced a few recruiters to resort to dishonest measures.
The Army has experienced a shortfall of more than 6,600 recruits since Oct. 1, Smith said, leaving it about 16 percent short of its goal.
In Colorado and some surrounding states, the figures are no better. Lt. Col. Jeffrey Brodeur, commander of the Denver Army Recruiting Battalion, said the 129 recruiters at 38 offices under his watch have been 32 to 35 percent short of their goals in each of the last three months.
He said the stand-down day would give his hard-pressed recruiters a "breather" and said the pool of applicants will become deeper as students graduate from high school.
"The mission is not the most important thing, integrity is," Brodeur said.
Featured
-
Holiday Lights
Is your house the jolliest on the block? Submit your holiday lights display.
-
Mount Crushmore
Which four Broncos greats should be immortalized on Mount Crushmore? Vote here.
-
Broncos-Jets Action
Visit our photo galleries for some hard-hitting action photos from Sunday's game.
-
Bronco Dean's rant
Listen to Bronco Dean's postgame rant on the Jets.
-
Rocky Multimedia
The news comes alive in our videos and slide shows. Catch up on what's happening today.
-
Stein's View
Editorial cartoons by Ed Stein
-
Holiday Gift Guide
Looking to get a jump-start on the holiday shopping season?
-
Live updates
Sign up for mobile alerts and breaking news e-mails to keep up with the latest news.
-
The Rocky @ 150 Years
Read the Rocky's coverage of Colorado's cannibal, Alfred Packer, in 1886.
Post your comment
Registration is required. Click here to create your free user account, or login below.
Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.