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This was sent to me by one of my reporters in the field -- one of my students who is back from Iraq.

Army to stand down all recruiting for one day

By Joseph R. Chenelly
Times staff writer

The Army plans to stand down all of its recruiters for one day on May 20 amid several allegations of misconduct by some of them trying to fill the ranks, according to Army Recruiting Command.

The active duty Army, Army Reserve and Army National Guard have each missed their monthly recruiting goals for three consecutive months.

As of the end of April, the three components combined had shipped some 16,500 fewer recruits to basic training than their goals had called for.

Recent reports have hinted that a few recruiters are getting desperate.

In Colorado, a 17-year-old high school student claims to have audio tapes of two recruiters telling him how to forge a high school diploma and cheat on a drug test so that he could enlist.

A recent article in The New York Times detailed claims that recruiters in Ohio knowingly pushed a mentally ill man through the enlistment process.

The television newsmagazine Inside Edition aired a report May 6 apparently showing recruiters on a hidden camera telling someone posing as a potential enlistee how to lie about possibly disqualifying background information. The show said that nine of the 13 recruiters it visited told the "enlistee" how to lie or cheat to get into the Army.

Recruiting Command is expected to issue a formal announcement of the stand down as early as later today.