Army Punishes Recruiters Caught on Hidden Camera

NC5 Investigates: Dishonorable Deceptions

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The U.S. Army says it has punished four Nashville-area recruiters.

It all stems from our exclusive NewsChannel 5 investigation of the recruiters and their Dishonorable Deceptions.

The Army's announcement came in a news release, headlined "Army recruiters punished."

Those recruiters were caught on hidden camera, urging a prospective recruit to lie about his mental health history.

"There's ways around the system," one recruiter told our undercover producer. "You've probably seen TV reports and all that. More or less, me and you are the only ones that know it."

Altogether, our investigation caught three recruiters on camera -- and a fourth who was just off camera -- urging our producer to lie to get into the Army.

After reviewing our video and conducting its own investigation, the Army announced that all "four recruiters were found to have committed a recruiting impropriety."

One was relieved of his recruiting duties and returned to regular Army duty.

Two other recruiters received what are called General Officer Letters of reprimand.

The fourth recruiter received a less serious "letter of concern."

"The message is the U.S. Army Recruiting Command expects its recruiters to recruit with integrity, to be hones and to be honorable," Army spokesman Lee Elder told NewsChannel 5's chief investigative reporter Phil Williams.

"Those recruiters who don't follow those guidelines will be punished and that's pretty much what happened."

As to which recruiter received which punishment, the Army says that -- because of federal privacy laws -- it can't say.

As to what the Army is doing to make sure that this doesn't happen again, the spokesperson says the entire Nashville Battalion -- which includes most of Tennessee and Kentucky -- had received additional training in how to recruit with integrity.

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