Recruiters 'stand down'

John Aguilar, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 20, 2005 at midnight

Text size  

• 0 Comments
• Email
• Print

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

• DNC in Denver

  

  Complete coverage of the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

• The Crevasse

  

  A five-part series that examines one tragic day on Mount Rainier.

• Deadly denial

  

  Sick nuclear workers applied for government compensation but most haven't seen a dime.

• Final Salute

  

  The Rocky followed Maj. Steve Beck as he took on the most difficult duty of his career.

• 'Colorado's burning'

  

  Coverage of the state's worst wildfires.

• Columbine shootings

  

  Coverage of the April 20, 1999, shootings at Littleton's Columbine High School.

• The Crossing

  

  Colorado's deadliest traffic accident killed 20 children on Dec. 14, 1961.

• Osveli's journey

  

  Osveli Sales left Guatemala for a better life. Two months later, he came home in a box.

• Wake for an Indian warrior

  

  Oglala Sioux bestow a tribute to the first tribal fatality in Iraq.