It takes a nation of millions to hold us back.
Jared’s story illustrates a growing national problem as the military faces increasing pressure to hit recruiting targets during an unpopular war.
Tracking by the Pentagon shows that complaints about recruiting improprieties are on pace to approach record highs set in 2003 and 2004. The active Army and the Reserve missed recruiting targets last year, and reports of recruiting abuses continue from across the country.
A family in Ohio reported that its mentally ill son was signed up, despite rules banning such enlistments and the fact that records about his illness were readily available.
In Houston, a recruiter warned a potential enlistee that if he backed out of a meeting he would be arrested.
And in Colorado, a high school student working undercover told recruiters he had dropped out and had a drug problem. The recruiter told the boy to fake a diploma and buy a product to help him beat a drug test.
Violations such as these forced the Army to halt recruiting for a day last May so recruiters could be retrained and reminded of the job’s ethical requirements.
The Portland Army Recruiting Battalion Headquarters opened its investigation into Jared’s case last week after his parents called The Oregonian and the newspaper began asking questions about his enlistment.
He’s an autistic 18-year-old who didn’t even know a war was going on in Iraq.
“When Jared first started talking about joining the Army, I thought, ‘Well, that isn’t going to happen,’ “ said Paul Guinther, Jared’s father. “I told my wife not to worry about it. They’re not going to take anybody in the service who’s autistic.”
But they did. Last month, Jared came home with papers showing that he not only had enlisted, but also had signed up for the Army’s most dangerous job: cavalry scout. He is scheduled to leave for basic training Aug. 16.
Officials are now investigating whether recruiters at the U.S. Army Recruiting Station in Southeast Portland improperly concealed Jared’s disability, which should have made him ineligible for service.
He won’t be going, thanks to the Oregonian.
On Tuesday, a reporter visited the U.S. Army Recruiting Station at the Eastport Plaza Shopping Center, where Velasco said he had not been told about Jared’s autism.
“Cpl. Ansley is Guinther’s recruiter,” he said. “I was unaware of any type of autism or anything like that.”
Velasco initially denied knowing Jared but later said he’d spent a lot of time mentoring him because Jared was going to become a cavalry scout. The job entails “engaging the enemy with anti-armor weapons and scout vehicles,” according to an Army recruiting Web site.
After he had spoken for a few moments, Velasco suddenly grabbed the reporter’s tape recorder and tried to tear out the tape, stopping only after the reporter threatened to call the police.
With the Guinthers’ permission, The Oregonian faxed Jared’s medical records to the U.S. Army Recruiting Battalion commander, Lt. Col. David Carlton in Portland, who on Wednesday ordered the investigation.
The Guinthers said that on Tuesday evening, Cpl. Ansley showed up at their door. They said Ansley stated that he would probably lose his job and face dishonorable discharge unless they could stop the newspaper’s story.
Our armed forces are cold-calling schoolkids with leads from No Child Left Behind red tape and county fair honeypots, under such ferocious pressure to put boots on the ground that Corporal Ansley’s put his career in the shitter for one more dubious checkmark in his ledger. —Yes, I’m asking for sympathy for this particular devil. After all, the consensus among the few who still support this war is that we aren’t fighting hard enough. 110% just won’t cut it, goddammit!
Can you even begin to imagine what it felt like, to realize what he’d done? Realize the line he’d crossed? Feel it go so searingly wrong that he tried to wrestle the tape out of the reporter’s recorder?
(Perhaps I have it wrong. Perhaps it was with a profound sense of entitlement that he went to the Guinthers’ door, cap in hand, to beg for his career; extremism in the defense, and all that, and why should I lose my job over your kid’s decision? —Perhaps. But I do try to see the best in people, when I can.)
—Meanwhile? Recruiting’s up up up for the Fighting Keebees. Not even two weeks, and they’ve got 300 recruits and counting!
Soar, you mighty chickenhawk. Soar.
