Background:
Investigators began examining this case in 2003, after a Marine made allegations to recruiting officials that recruiters were falsifying documents and asking Marine applicants, during the enlistment process, to conceal background information such as past drug use or medical issues.
In addition to his own fraudulent enlistments, the recruiter was apparently encouraging other recruiters in the substation to conceal applicants' background information to help them make their quotas.
"He wasn't just committing it himself, he was counseling his recruiters under his charge to do the same thing," White said. (
Marine Corps Times, Nov. 1, 2004)
CONCLUSION:
* Marine, Staff Sgt. Lance A. Shetrompf, 28, of Naples, Fla., who was court-martialed in December 2003
* Charged with 27 counts of enlistment fraud and other charges!
* Illegal recruitment practices were being pushed on recruiters from top down - not just a few "bad apples" in the recruitment bunch!
Background:
In Jan. 2002 the Indianapolis Star published a report on the troubling state of the Indiana Army National Guard and how the Guard inflated membership to obtain federal money. Among the allegations was that recruiters forged potentially hundreds of physicals to enlist unqualified recruits.
"Leaders of the Indiana Army National Guard inflated membership numbers by counting soldiers who had left the ranks and retaining soldiers who routinely missed weekend training....These actions of the state Army National Guard, the sixth-largest in the country, are described in records obtained by The Indianapolis Star." (
Indianapolis Star, Jan. 20, 2002)
National Guard Sergeant was found guilty during court marshal of conspiring to forge physical exam documents and only sentenced to seven days in jail and a $1,000 fine!!!
CONCLUSION:
* The investigation that led to the trial found that more than 150 soldiers were enlisted without valid physicals from October 1999 to March 2001.
* Recruiter only got a small penalty - nothing to really set a high standard or send a clear message against illegal recruitment tactics!
* These Problems were occurring to help push the demand of state budget needs…. Imagine what is occurring now to meet federal demands and increases on military recruiters!!!
In 1997 the Navy investigated a recruiter who arranged for a recruit to hide drug use from a routine urine test by drinking a 'kidney cleanser'.
A spokesman for the US Navy's New England recruiting district in Boston said the investigation into the Holyoke recruiting station is focusing on one incident. But Petty Officer Robert Natereli, who was assigned to the Holyoke office at the end of May and reassigned in August, said in a recent interview that other officers at the recruiting station arranged for at least two others seeking to join the Navy to take the drug-concealing drink.
In something of a ritual in the office, Natereli said, recruiters would drive the 20 miles to Enfield, Conn., to purchase 16-ounce bottles of the substance, which the manufacturer says is a health-food drink that flushes toxins from the kidneys. The product was used at least twice successfully this summer by recruits to mask drug use, Natereli said.
In the case of his recruit, Natereli said another recruiter drove the young woman to the store in Connecticut, purchased the substance for $ 42, and told her how and when to drink it. (
Boston Globe, Sep. 15, 1997)
CONCLUSION:
* More proof of going to extremes to get kids into the military and meet quotas!
* Long history of these misleading recruitment practices!
* Small punishments
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