This soldier had to have a valid diploma from a real high school and pass a legitimate drug test before he could join the US Army National Guard. Of course, it was the Summer of 1985 and we were in the process of defeating our enemies diplomatically and economically rather than illegally invading sovereign nations in the Middle East. There also wasn’t a severe deficit in recruiting that the Army was desperate to overcome.
…[T]wo recruiters from Colorado have been suspended as the Army investigates accusations that they encouraged a teenager to lie and cheat so he could join up.
…[H]e told his recruiter, he was a dropout and didn’t have a high school diploma.
No problem, McSwane says the recruiter explained. He suggested that McSwane create a fake diploma from a nonexistent school.
McSwane recorded the recruiter saying on the phone: “It can be like Faith Hill Baptist School. Whatever you choose.”
…The Army doesn’t accept enlistees with a drug problem, but that’s what McSwane pretended to have when he spoke with the recruiter.
“I have a problem with drugs. I can’t kick the habit. Just marijuana,” McSwane recalls telling the recruiter. “And he says, ‘Not a problem. Just take this detox.’ He said he would pay for half of it, and told me where to go (to get it).”
…”The two times that I had the guys use it,” the recruiter says on the tape, “it’s worked both times. We didn’t have to worry about anything.”
A friend of McSwane’s shot video as the sergeant drove McSwane to a store where he could purchase the so-called detox kit.
Wanna bet this isn’t an isolated incident?
The Bush Maladministration has been treating soldiers pretty poorly. Stop-loss orders, filling the ranks with Guardsmen and Reservists never meant to be full-time long-term soldiers, extended tours, lack of supplies, ammo, and armor, cuts in combat pay and veteran’s benefits, and of course that steady drip-drip-drip of casualties in the desert. It’s no wonder they can’t meet their recruiting quotas!
I’ve always maintained that if you can’t raise a volunteer army to fight your war, then your war is not just. There weren’t any recruiting shortages for World War II; my grandpa and his generation lined up in droves to fight the Germans and Japanese.
Now, if only all the people with those yellow ribbons on the back of their SUV’s would sign themselves or their kids up for the service, there’d be no quota problems, would there?
