Army recruiting news stories on Newser

Army Recruiters May Have Pocketed Millions in Scam

Rob Quinn — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 04:22:05 CDT

Pentagon fraud investigators believe large numbers of recruiters used the Army's efforts to boost its ranks to boost their own bank accounts. Internal documents show that more than 1,700 recruiters are suspected of defrauding an Army National Guard and Reserve program that paid $2,000 bounties to civilian or...

Mom: My Son Dieted to Death ...Thanks to the Army

Evann Gastaldo — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 16:26:05 CDT

Glenni Wilsey, about six feet tall, weighed roughly 270 pounds in high school. When he died this month at age 20, he weighed just 197 pounds. He had shed 85 pounds in only 3 and a half months—because, his mother says, Army recruiters encourgaged him to do so. Wilsey...

Imposter Tricks Army to Become an Officer

Fri, 21 May 2010 09:34:24 CDT

A Texas man with no military experience managed to trick the Army into letting him enter a reserve unit as a noncommissioned officer earlier this year, putting an untrained soldier in a leadership position in a time of war, an AP investigation has found. Jesse Bernard Johnston III, 26, joined...

Economy Sparks Record Military Recruitment

Rob Quinn — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 03:41:53 CDT

The recession has helped boost the US military to its best recruitment year since the post-Vietnam switch to an all-volunteer force. Recruiters hit or exceeded all their targets for the first time since 1973, surprising even Pentagon officials. In addition to rising unemployment, recruiting was helped by bonuses, a recruiting...

Army Recruiters' Video Arcade Draws Fire

Nick McMaster — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:26:56 CDT

The Army Experience Center in Philadelphia—a sort of video arcade/recruiting center—has numerous detractors, and those opponents have an influential ally. “This is just a new version of an old attempt” at recruiting, Pulitzer Prize winner and former New York Times war correspondent Chris Hedges tells dscriber. The simulations...

No Child Left Unrecruited

Harry Kimball — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:32:56 CDT

The military is using a host of behind-the-scenes methods—including the No Child Left Behind Act—to gather information on high school students for recruitment, writes David Goodman in Mother Jones . A little-known provision in NCLB, for instance, requires schools that get funding to supply recruiters with info on all...

Army Uses Facebook, Twitter to Recruit

Kevin Spak — Sat, 02 May 2009 11:19:22 CDT

Uncle Sam wants you…to friend him on Facebook. Social networking sites have become a key part of the army’s recruitment process, the AP reports. Recruiters try to friend prospective soldiers on Facebook, while Gen. Ray Odierno updates his “fans” on the progress in Iraq. The sites have proven key in...

Army May Not Want You So Bad After All

Matt Cantor — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 10:14:48 CDT

Rising unemployment and safer conditions in Iraq have boosted interest in joining the Army, allowing recruiters to raise acceptance standards. The Washington Post reports that felons and recent drug users need not apply, and the pool of applicants also is better educated. For the first time since 2004, the Army...

Psst , Fat Boy: Uncle Sam Wants You

Rebecca Smith Hurd — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:25:00 CST

To reel in more recruits, the US Army is relaxing weight restrictions on would-be soldiers. A waiver program gives outsize volunteers a year after signing up to get in shape, measured by body-mass index, or be booted, the Christian Science Monitor reports. With the youthful population consuming more and exercising...