drteknikal's blog

Army pair's tactics eyed: Student-led sting ensnarls recruiters: "The report featured David McSwane, an Arvada West High School honors student and editor of his school newspaper, who was 'curious' to see what recruiters at a Golden recruitment facility would do if he told them he wanted to join the Army as a high school dropout with a serious marijuana problem.
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"Starting in January, McSwane met with two recruiters in Golden several times and secretly taped a series of phone calls with them. On the tapes, one recruiter is apparently heard encouraging McSwane to create a fake high school diploma to cover for the fact that he had dropped out.

"'It can be like Faith Hill Baptist School or something - whatever you choose,' the recruiter said.

"McSwane said he bought a phony diploma, complete with a transcript, from a Web site for $200. He was told that it passed the Army's academic evaluation.
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"McSwane got a friend to film another recruiter driving him to a store to purchase a detoxification kit to rid his system of supposed marijuana traces."

To be fair, I worked as a recruiter briefly. "Answering the phone, putting people on hold, and putting people in the Navy." Drug waivers were all but rubber-stamp as long as the applicant didn't test positive. I saw some questionable things done by people who would have to pack up their family and move if they didn't make their quota, but never anything that rose to this level.