Army recruiters in the Tulsa area stand down on Friday

Friday, May 20th 2005, 10:43 am

By: News On 6

Tulsa area Army recruiters stand down. The US Army suspended all recruiting operations Friday. It's an effort to focus on recruiting rules and ethics in response to a series of allegations of improper recruiting.

News on 6 reporter Ashli Sims says Army recruiters reported for duty in Broken Arrow. But this time, their mission was not to recruit, but to stand down.

Major General Michael Rochelle, US Army Recruiting Command: "we're going to talk about what those values our army values mean in terms of our day to day recruiting."

The focus on values comes after a series of allegations of improper recruiting. A Denver journalism student caught recruiters on tape helping him get a fake diploma and pass a drug test. Now all 7,500 recruiters are getting a refresher course on values and ethics.

The Tulsa soldiers I talked to aren't saying much just that they will be in class all day. Oklahoma has traditionally done well in meeting local recruiting goals, but across the nation recruits have fallen short for several months in a row.

In other areas some believe the pressure to meet those goals might have caused soldiers to cut corners. Major General Rochelle: "The very reason for focusing this as a values stand down day was to get away from the possibility of relativism with respect to what's right and what's wrong.â€

The Army is taking the matter very seriously. And they estimate the stand-down will cost them up to 1,000 potential recruits. Major General Rochelle: "we are making a sacrifice here that's how important I believe it to be."

The Army hopes, with their values back at the forefront, they can make up for it.