You should have seen some of the youths they called up for their National Service over here, you didn't have to be nuts to get called up but it helped

Originally Posted by AJChenMPH

Schwarzkopf talks about this exact same problem in his book, that the US Army was having serious issues in the late 70's and early 80's with recruitment and retention. Fascinating stuff from an organizational behavior perspective.

Not to beat on a dead horse, but just to prove that it's been a problem in the past:

"...the Modern Volunteer Army campaign was still having trouble attracting first-rate recruits. The summer before, there had been a big scandal when the Army had discovered that recruiters, under pressure to make their quotas, had been cutting corners for years -- coaching applicants, giving out copies of the entrance exams, even helping people hide the kinds of felony convictions that would have made them ineligible for service." -- GEN H. Norman Schwarzkopf, US Army (Ret.)

This was back in 1981. It basically goes to show that the Army (which, from my naive eyes, seems to have the most problems with recruitment of the four major military services) needs to re-look at its recruiting goals/policies and how they drive their recruiters to sometimes not do the right thing.

It was happening in 1986 when I was going through MEPS... not just the Army but the Marine recruiters in Colorado Springs were doing it. The only ones I know weren't having this problem was the Air Farce as they had a one year waiting list at the time to go to Basic and when I told them I wanted Pararescue they swallowed a laugh and said try the Army... so I did. Recruiters are in a tight spot and I was lied to by mine as well but ya know shame on me for not researching it better and for trusting him. He had to hit his number for promotion and if he rolled too many donuts he would be booted from the service. Who wants that kind of pressure for your job? Not everyone is cut out for sales and I really don't blame the guys that cut a corner once in a while to preserve the careers they have on the line.

I really don't think you can compare the two (original story and what AJ has posted). One is laziness/lack of ethics, etc, the other is someone managing to get under the wire and fool everyone. There is no evidence that indicates the recruiter even knew the kid had autisim, and since it wasn't on his med review, the MEPS doctors obviously didn't know either. He scored well enough on his ASVAB and passed the physical (which many healthy kids can't do).

I don't think it's fair or even right to compare this recruiter to those (and all branches have them) that are unwilling to preform their job to standards. Two completely different circumstances. It's easy to smear a guy by insinuating he did something unethical when you don't have to look him in the face.

Agreed.