Top recruiter blasts recent misconduct

[unhappycamper]

Top recruiter blasts recent misconduct
By Dan Lamothe - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Oct 12, 2009 20:10:08 EDT

Allegations of recruiter misconduct, including rape, pimping and sex with underage girls, has the Corps’ top recruiter drawing the line and holding staff noncommissioned officers responsible for failing to provide sufficient leadership and oversight.

“I’m convinced it’s a leadership issue,” Maj. Gen. Robert Milstead, recruiting command commander, said in an interview Oct. 7. “I’m convinced I need staff noncommissioned officers paying more attention.”

Milstead sent a scathing Sept. 11 letter to all recruiting stations in which he said he is “downright angry” about recent allegations of misconduct. Recruiter misconduct is currently “the elephant in the room” that needs to be addressed “anytime you talk about recruiting,” he said in the interview.

The most recent arrest came in September, when former Staff Sgt. Trevor Hooper, 26, was charged with 14 felonies, including rape and forcible sodomy. Police near Salt Lake City, where Hooper was assigned, say he met a 15-year-old girl while recruiting in a high school and later used a cell phone to take photos and videos while they had sex at a motel.

Milstead’s letter does not refer to any specific cases, but instead notes “some very seedy sexual misconduct by a few” has threatened to overshadow the professionalism of everyone else, and that too often recruiters look the other way, rather than turn in their buddies.


Article at: http://marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/10/marine_recruiters_101209w/