The Marines are looking for a few good men.

[techs]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200...e_us/recruitment_fraud

Marine recruiters punished for cheating

The military has punished nine Marine Corps recruiters who arranged for stand-ins to take Armed Services entrance exams for new enlistees.

The cheating was made public Wednesday, though officials at the Military Entrance Processing Station in Houston noticed in April that signatures of test takers didn't match those on enlistment forms, said Capt. John Niemann, a spokesman for the recruiting district.

"I don't know why this happened here. Obviously, we do not tolerate it," Niemann said. "We learned of it. We investigated it and took appropriate disciplinary action."

The worst offender was discharged from the service while the remaining eight were reassigned and given non-judicial punishments, which could include fines and demotion.

The military would not release the names of the recruiters or say who the stand-in test-takers were.

Officials said they found 15 instances of fraud, although they weren't sure how widespread the practice was or how long it had been going on.

The cheating took place on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, a test given to prospective recruits to determine whether they're eligible for the service and what type of military jobs they're best suited for.

Officials said the recruits who didn't take their own tests faced a range of consequences, including expulsion from the service. They also had an opportunity to take the exam on their own, authoritie said.



Good for the Marines finding this out and going public.

 

[StageLeft]

Anyone with a pulse could pass that test. Does the military really want people who are failing it?

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Anyone with a pulse could pass that test. Does the military really want people who are failing it?

Ohhh YEA. They are really desperate. Heck the state department (where I work) will be making some diplomats go to iraq. Needless to say they are not happy. DoS can;t get enough people to go even though it looks really good for your record and also pays very well on top of what they already make, again already good pay if they are GS13+.
I looked into for myself but I am too new and in a different program so I have to wait another 18months beofre i can moev to another area.

 

[kylebisme]

I'd say the recruiters should be charged in civil courts with reckless endangerment, both for risking the lives of those not competent enough to take the test themselves as well as those Marines who otherwise might have died due to the incompetence of those recruits.

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Anyone with a pulse could pass that test. Does the military really want people who are failing it?

It's not really a pass/fail thing... more like a basic skills test designed to see where your strengths/weaknesses are. Somewhat akin to an IQ test...

But you can't fail it. If you score low you are sent to the infantry where you become a hyper-velocity projectile impediment.

Which makes it all the more strange why they would cheat on the test. Of course the recruiters could have been promising champange and chocolate to get the recruits to sign... and we all know that sort of thing requires a high asvab score. Who knows...

Good for the Marines for ferreting this out so fast.

 

[nageov3t]

as long as they don't have Teh Gay.

 

[jersiq]

Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Anyone with a pulse could pass that test. Does the military really want people who are failing it?

It's not really a pass/fail thing... more like a basic skills test designed to see where your strengths/weaknesses are. Somewhat akin to an IQ test...

But you can't fail it. If you score low you are sent to the infantry where you become a hyper-velocity projectile impediment.

Which makes it all the more strange why they would cheat on the test. Of course the recruiters could have been promising champange and chocolate to get the recruits to sign... and we all know that sort of thing requires a high asvab score. Who knows...

Good for the Marines for ferreting this out so fast.

Things may have changed since I took the ASVAB, but I don't believe they have.
There was aminimum score on the test in a certain area that you had to achieve. The only way around it was to get an approval from someone to allow the person in.

We had one of those "waiver guys" in bootcamp, and he was as dumb as a stump and washed out.

If you couldn't fail it, then why did they send ringers to take the test?

 

[fskimospy]

Yeah, you can definitely fail the ASVAB. If I'm not mistaken anything below the 30th percentile or so and you're determined to be too dumb for the military. (I don't remember what the exact number is).

I worked at a recruiting station for about a month, and I saw the lengths recruiters would go to in order to get people to pass that test. I know they lowered the standards recently because they are having so many problems meeting their recruiting goals too... and if people can't pass with the lower standards... jesus.

 

[ayabe]

The real problem with this is that officers are having to spend a lot of time dealing with discipline problems. More so than in the past. These trouble soldiers are going AWOL and getting into all kinds of trouble and is one of the reasons we don't have a draft anymore.

I took the AVSVAB about 10 years ago so and if you couldn't pass that version of the test then I would be comfortable labeling you a retard. The test might be harder now, but still.

 

[chucky2]

The ASVAB, god.....I took it like 11 years ago in high school and got like a 224, which put me in the Accountant MOS. I'm like, F that, I don't want to go and be a freaking bean counter in the military, I want to do something cool. Sorta wierd though: When my aunt took it back in the day, she wanted to be an accountant, but didn't score high enough. I take it, and they put me in Accountant, but no way would I want to do that, although what they offered her - Turbine Engine Mechanic or something like that - would have been plenty cool enough for me. Bummer...

Chuck

 

[bamacre]

I wonder if the Commander in Chief has to take the ASVAB.

 

[chucky2]

Originally posted by: bamacre
I wonder if the Commander in Chief has to take the ASVAB.

We all know pretty much any of the candidates we're going to have for our upcoming Presidential election are panderers and worthless mouths just blabbing...

...do you really want to reach the full depression stage when the corrupt POS politician that's elected next to the Presidency takes and fails the ASVAB?

I don't.

Chuck

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: chucky2

Originally posted by: bamacre
I wonder if the Commander in Chief has to take the ASVAB.

We all know pretty much any of the candidates we're going to have for our upcoming Presidential election are panderers and worthless mouths just blabbing...

...do you really want to reach the full depression stage when the corrupt POS politician that's elected next to the Presidency takes and fails the ASVAB?

I don't.

Chuck

If it is true, yeah, I would like to know about it.

 

[Phokus]

Originally posted by: loki8481
as long as they don't have Teh Gay.

Seriously. Clearly, limiting the number of qualified military personnel based on sexual preference is a winning military strategy.

 

[palehorse]

Originally posted by: chucky2
The ASVAB, god.....I took it like 11 years ago in high school and got like a 224, which put me in the Accountant MOS. I'm like, F that, I don't want to go and be a freaking bean counter in the military, I want to do something cool. Sorta wierd though: When my aunt took it back in the day, she wanted to be an accountant, but didn't score high enough. I take it, and they put me in Accountant, but no way would I want to do that, although what they offered her - Turbine Engine Mechanic or something like that - would have been plenty cool enough for me. Bummer...

Chuck

That's not really how it works, so I think the recruiters were screwing with you when they only offered you one job. Your job selection is actually based on the sum of several of the individual scores for each category. The scores required for each each different MOS is calculated by adding the scores from different categories, depending on the core skills necessary for each job. With any decent scores at all, you can generally pick from a list of dozens of different jobs in the military.

Your recruiter simply had a memo in his inbox that said "WE NEED MORE ACCOUNTANTS." It's a common trick for them to try and tell you that one particular job is all they have available; when, in reality, as long as your scores are decent, you can pretty much get them to give you whatever job you want!

Hell, nowadays, you can even get Special Forces (18X) written into your contract!

check out this page for a decent explanation of the ASVAB, including the scoring system:
http://usmilitary.about.com/cs...ningup/a/asvababcs.htm

When I took it 16 years ago, I almost maxed several portions of the exam, and got a 96% AQFT... but, my dumb ass chose the infantry for the "excitement" factor. Luckily, more than a decade later, my scores were still high enough to switch to Intel after I grew tired of kicking in doors...

As a side note, a GT score of 110 is required to become an officer... mine is 126, which is proof that I really am smarter than most of those SOB's! lol...

 

[Sinsear]

Originally posted by: palehorse74

When I took it 16 years ago, I almost maxed several portions of the exam, and got a 96% AQFT... but, my dumb ass chose the infantry for the "excitement" factor. Luckily, my scores were still high enough to switch to Intel more than a decade later when I grew tired of kicking in doors...

As a side note, a GT score of 110 is required to become an officer... mine is 126, which is proof that I really am smarter than most of those SOB's! lol...

Tell me about it; I scored in the 99th percentile, have a GT of 130, and not one line score lower than 126. What did my ass choose? Artillery, because it looked cooler and more exciting than say intel analyst or counter intel. I grew up, learned alot of good stuff in the artillery, and met some of the best people on the planet, but I still look back and kick myself in the ass for not going the intel route.


And you were spot on about the recruiters playing games with what they offer job wise. As long as you have the line scores, you can have pretty much whatever you want. There were probably bonus points or something to sign up accountants, or like you said a memo in the inbox.

 

[ProfJohn]

I took the test 13 years ago. My life was lacking direction and my brother who was a recruiter convinced me that the Navy would be a good thing for me to get my life in order.

I maxed out on the test. Got a 99, which I assume means 99% ranking, but I don?t remember the individual scores.

Since my brother was my recruiter he was able to hook me up with a sweet job. Wanted to go Air Warfare and ride around in the back of a plane doing something interesting. But since that was not available we decided to go for Air Rescue, again getting to fly around.

Sadly I failed the physical due to scoliosis. And thus am forced to live life on P&N driving all you libs crazy.

My brother did get his wives cousin in as a weatherman, what a sweet ass job that is.

Moral of the story: if you want to join the military research some of the really cool jobs they offer and go for something like that.

 

[Aimster]

My friend went to the Army and the recruiter was generously nice.

They helped him cheat on all the tests even the test where he said he knew Farsi. I don't know how they helped him cheat on that one, but he got 10k out of it just for saying he knew Farsi. His Farsi was alright, but nowhere near as good as it should have been for him to get 10k.

This was before all the enlistment bonuses. Guy went to Iraq served the nation and came back. He technically wasn't supposed to even be allowed to go to the Army because he had a felony drug charge, but the recruiter again hooked him up.

 

[palehorse]

Originally posted by: Aimster
My friend went to the Army and the recruiter was generously nice.

They helped him cheat on all the tests even the test where he said he knew Farsi. I don't know how they helped him cheat on that one, but he got 10k out of it just for saying he knew Farsi. His Farsi was alright, but nowhere near as good as it should have been for him to get 10k.

This was before all the enlistment bonuses. Guy went to Iraq served the nation and came back. He technically wasn't supposed to even be allowed to go to the Army because he had a felony drug charge, but the recruiter again hooked him up.

This one time, at band camp...

 

[Aimster]

Originally posted by: palehorse74

Originally posted by: Aimster
My friend went to the Army and the recruiter was generously nice.

They helped him cheat on all the tests even the test where he said he knew Farsi. I don't know how they helped him cheat on that one, but he got 10k out of it just for saying he knew Farsi. His Farsi was alright, but nowhere near as good as it should have been for him to get 10k.

This was before all the enlistment bonuses. Guy went to Iraq served the nation and came back. He technically wasn't supposed to even be allowed to go to the Army because he had a felony drug charge, but the recruiter again hooked him up.

This one time, at band camp...

As always nothing to add. Cause I > YOU. That isn't a love sign so don't blush.

 

[palehorse]

Originally posted by: Aimster

Originally posted by: palehorse74

Originally posted by: Aimster
My friend went to the Army and the recruiter was generously nice.

They helped him cheat on all the tests even the test where he said he knew Farsi. I don't know how they helped him cheat on that one, but he got 10k out of it just for saying he knew Farsi. His Farsi was alright, but nowhere near as good as it should have been for him to get 10k.

This was before all the enlistment bonuses. Guy went to Iraq served the nation and came back. He technically wasn't supposed to even be allowed to go to the Army because he had a felony drug charge, but the recruiter again hooked him up.

This one time, at band camp...

As always nothing to add. Cause I > YOU. That isn't a love sign so don't blush.

I believe that you and the story about your "friend" are entirely full of shit.

And, just in case you didn't notice, I already contributed the most factual post in this thread.

GG.

 

[jonmcc33]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Anyone with a pulse could pass that test. Does the military really want people who are failing it?

Yes, the Marines need more IED fodder to die for oil.

 

[StageLeft]

I'm not mistaken anything below the 30th percentile or so and you're determined to be too dumb for the military.

Too dumb for the military. Oh, depressing.

 

[palehorse]

Originally posted by: Skoorb

I'm not mistaken anything below the 30th percentile or so and you're determined to be too dumb for the military.

Too dumb for the military. Oh, depressing.

We currently have the most highly educated military in the history of mankind.

So, what exactly were you trying to say?

 

[Noobtastic]

So sad. Military recruiters have one of the hardest and most pressured jobs within the armed forces.