Family Feels Mislead By Marine Recruiter

[Nbadan]

http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/Globe_Photo/2005/10/10/1128922122_3235.jpg

Maura and David Shepard have asked military leaders and legislators to help their son Brian (center), a freshman at New Hampshire Technical Institute, leave the Marine Reserve. (Bill Polo/ Globe Staff)


Family feels misled by recruiter
Kingston student to be sent to Iraq
By Jenna Russell, Globe Staff | October 10, 2005


KINGSTON -- Brian Shepard thought he had the perfect plan: a special program, offered by a Marine Corps recruiter last spring, that would let him finish four years of college before he faced active duty.

Instead, the 18-year-old was notified last week -- less than one month into his freshman year at New Hampshire Technical Institute -- that his Marine Reserve unit will be sent to Iraq early next year, a development that Shepard said his recruiter never told him was possible.

A Marine spokesman said recruiters make no guarantees to enlistees about their deployment. The enlistment paperwork signed by Shepard stated he would have to leave college if his unit was activated, according to the spokesman.

The college student and his parents have appealed to military leaders, state legislators, and US Representative William D. Delahunt to help Shepard leave the Marines. Their complaint joins a rising chorus of concern nationwide over military recruiting tactics as the conflict in Iraq drives high demand for new enlistments, and pressure grows on recruiters to meet quotas.

Both the Army and the Marines have missed some monthly recruiting quotas this year as casualties in Iraq have continued to mount, and polls have shown steep increases in the number of parents who said they would discourage their children from enlisting.

''Recruiters are under pressure, and they will say anything," said Neil Berman, a Somerville lawyer and volunteer for the GI Rights Hotline, a national organization that advises enlistees who are trying to leave the military.

In an interview Saturday at their blue-clapboard, Cape-style Kingston home, where the large, fireplaced family room looks out on rambling woods, Shepard's parents said they hope, with assistance from Delahunt, to help their son exercise an early-exit option available within the first 180 days of enlistment. They said they don't know if the Marines must honor his request.

Members of the Shepard family, who described how they got to know the local recruiter, and came to trust him over several months, said they relied on him -- not the fine print in a written contract -- to explain Shepard's options and guide him.

That guidance, they say now, was marked by deception.

The family's dilemma was set in motion last fall, when Shepard, then a senior at Silver Lake Regional High School in Kingston, sent in a request for more information about the Marine Corps. A recruiter called his home repeatedly, and insisted they meet in person, he said.

When they met in February at the family's kitchen table, Maura Shepard listened as her son explained that he wanted to go to college and finish in four years. The recruiter described a ''split" reserve program that would let him finish college before he was deployed.

Continued:Boston.com (http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/10/10/family_feels_misled_by_recruiter/)

[JoeChalupa]

Semper Fi!!

I don't about this young man but I joined the Marines because I wanted to be a Marine and serve my country. Simple as that.

[Hook Dem]

"A Marine spokesman said recruiters make no guarantees to enlistees about their deployment. The enlistment paperwork signed by Shepard stated he would have to leave college if his unit was activated, according to the spokesman.".................................................. ................Hmmmmmm! How conveniently you overlook this fact Dan! Just like anything else, maybe one should read the contract before signing!

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

You know, this case would be just as open-and-shut if it were a civil dispute over property.

There was a contract - a legally binding contract - that the kid didn't read.



He admitted he erred by not reading the fine print, but said he had faith that the recruiter guided him fairly.


Faith? Faith! It may just be me but I try to treat the other person I'm making a contract with with some respect, but with the thought in the back of my mind that they could screw me over if I'm not careful. It would take a hell of a lot for me to believe somebody on pure "faith."

People bitch more about reading fine print when they buy a car and they didn't insist on reading a contract before joining the military?

You know, I don't know a whole lot about the military. I've never served and I fully respect those who have made that decision. My step-dad was active in the Corps for 19 years. He was in Lebanon when the bomb went off at the Marine barracks (he had been drinking the night before and decided to stay in bed instead of going to breakfast with some of his buddies...that saved his life that day). Like I said, I don't know about the military or its essential rules or how they disperse funds for people signing up for college and the like.

Look, this kid obviously doesn't want to go and it probably wouldn't benefit his military group (I don't know that specific terminology) to have somebody who doesn't want to be there and is not in it for the right reasons (their own).

I get pissed off when people don't take their jobs at The University Star seriously and take pride in the entirety of the paper instead of only their specific job.

Let this kid out. Take away his funds given for college and let him buy out his contract. It's not going to do the military any good to have a kid who doesn't want to be there in the line of fire.

Bottom line: They didn't read a contract.

Oh, and to the Boston Globe, can we please try to refrain from the posed profile shots as much as possible?

[Clandestino]

i'd say let him out, IF AND ONLY IF, he pays back the military for all the training they have given him.. the pay, every single thing he has been given so far.

[mookie2001]

woah I agree with Clandestino
except it has to be the actual cost and not the governments cost that they pull out of thin air

[Clandestino]

well, i have known a guy who was in rotc for like 3 years, then started fucking up and was going to drop out of colllege the military told him pay us back or join as enlisted.. he enlisted! haha...

[Big Pimp_21]

Sounds to me like this prick wanted a free eduction and didn't want to do his part. If you are a reservist and the country needs you...you go. I have a good friend who has deployed twice while in college. He does it without bitching and then comes back and enrolls in classes again. This bitch wanted a free ride.

[Marcus Bryant]

How does one join the military and not expect to see action? The military isn't handing out all those goodies so that you can go camping a few weekends out of the year. You signed up for all of that taxpayer financed shit and now you want out? Fuck that.

[JoeChalupa]

Taxpayer financed shit!? WTF is that!?
Everyone benefits from taxpayer financed shit.

Those who enlist in the military because it is more than a job...it's an adventure or buys into the commercials they see on TV or in magazines isn't looking at reality.
I would recommend, and wouldn't even have a problem with mandatory service, military service to anyone.

It pisses me off when a Marine does this crap. If any service should be ready to see action it is the Corps.

NO. Do NOT let him out.

There are many who may not like being in the military but that is no excuse to get out.

Don't sign the line if you can't to the time.

[Clandestino]

offer him, "we let you out if you pay us back" probably at least $30,000 minimum... then he'll say, no problem, when do i deploy again?

[SWC Bonfire]

NO. Do NOT let him out.

There are many who may not like being in the military but that is no excuse to get out.

Don't sign the line if you can't to the time.

I am sure that a lot of people get into the millitary for reasons other than the right ones... but once they are there they do their best to make due with a less than optimal situation. What about all the ones who stuck it out, what message would it send to them if this guy was allowed to buy his way out?

BTW, back in the old days, they had buyout clauses (at least in peacetime). I knew an old vet who did so... and re-enlisted at the beginning of WWII and went on to become a career NCO.

[Nbadan]

On the one hand, yes his contract stipulated that his unit could be activated at any time, so him and his family obviously didn't read the fine print, or where somehow verbally assured that this clause was just a formality by the recruiter, probably present in every contract.

On the other hand, the Marine Corps have to live up to the promises by their recruiters or they drive away potential recruits, especially those with some higher education like Brian Shepard. In effect, exasterbating an already bad situation considering that some forces are already having to lower standards to beef up their sign-up numbers.

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

What about all the ones who stuck it out, what message would it send to them if this guy was allowed to buy his way out?


This is just me, but I think it would send the signal even stronger than it already is that those that chose to stay are bonded even tighter.

[boutons]

The recruiters are under such pressure and their targets are so few (especially red-state, right-wing Repugs that don't want to enlist to help dubya in Iraq) that I'm sure the recruiter lied by omission, by suggestion, by insinuation, if not actually speaking mis-truth. It's a he said-he said situation.

But, the poor mofo signed the paper, he's fucked. Semper Read The Fine Print.

If they let him go, he gave time and service, and he got paid. It's not like he was on Navy ROTC college scholarship for 4 years, or was sent by a company on expensive training program. He owes the Marines nothing, Marines owe him nothing.

[Hook Dem]

"I'm sure the recruiter lied by omission, by suggestion, by insinuation, if not actually speaking mis-truth.".................................................. ...... I'd like for you to explain how you"know" this! Sure....it's possible but for you to say "Im sure" is a reach!

[1369]

If they let him go, he gave time and service, and he got paid. It's not like he was on Navy ROTC college scholarship for 4 years, or was sent by a company on expensive training program. He owes the Marines nothing, Marines owe him nothing.

Wrong.

The Marine Corps invested money and time training him. They did send him to school to learn a skill that they have a use for and intend on utilizing him and his skill.

He owes the Marine Corps for the time and effort they invested in him.

[JoeChalupa]

I owe the Corps!

[Mr Dio]

How does one join the military and not expect to see action? The military isn't handing out all those goodies so that you can go camping a few weekends out of the year. You signed up for all of that taxpayer financed shit and now you want out? Fuck that.


Spoken like the true Non-USA serving pussy you truly are. How long did you serve & in what unit? Oh, I forgot you are a WIMP.

[mookie2001]

LOL
marcus now Dios got you on the run chump

hunting you down in political to own you


ROFLROFLROFL

[Cant_Be_Faded]

Semper Fi!!

I don't about this young man but I joined the Marines because I wanted to be a Marine and serve my country. Simple as that.


That is respectable, but these days with them offering "Adventure" and "college scholarships" i dont think they're marketing towards that kind of warrior spirit anymore.

[exstatic]

I almost laughed out loud at just the subject. Recruiters will tell you anything verbally, and conceal anything they think will hinder you from joining. That's their job. Honestly, if I were in trouble and had ONLY two numbers to call, a military recruiter or a used car salesman, I'd call the used car salesman for help first.

[Marcus Bryant]

Spoken like the true Non-USA serving pussy you truly are. How long did you serve & in what unit? Oh, I forgot you are a WIMP.

Awww, someone's feelings are hurt.

I didn't serve?

[Marcus Bryant]

LOL
marcus now Dios got you on the run chump

hunting you down in political to own you


ROFLROFLROFL


mookie, don't forget to take out mommy's trash.

[Mr Dio]

Awww, someone's feelings are hurt.

I didn't serve?


The only thing you ever served Mucus was some ASS in the Dixie Chicken men's restroom when you couldn't pay your bar tab.
Quick cash cash for so loose ass! :lol

[Marcus Bryant]

Good one. If you are high on freon, I suppose. Do you realize how incredibly stupid your posts make you sound?

[mookie2001]

ROFLROFLROFLRROFLROFL
marcus you need your own forum where you can just get scoffed all day

[Marcus Bryant]

mookie, you need your own place where you don't live with your mother.

[mookie2001]

you need your own rollercoaster

ROFLROFLROFLROFLROFLROFLROFL

[Marcus Bryant]

Now I will replicate what mookie has to offer this forum:

ROFLROFLROFFFLOROFLROF

Damn that was hard.

[SpursWoman]

(you forgot the last "F")

[mookie2001]

i guess we all cant lead ST in avg ownage per day
and weakest comebacks against Dio

[Marcus Bryant]

Yeah, it's not too hard to "own" you and Dio.

[Clandestino]

The recruiters are under such pressure and their targets are so few (especially red-state, right-wing Repugs that don't want to enlist to help dubya in Iraq) that I'm sure the recruiter lied by omission, by suggestion, by insinuation, if not actually speaking mis-truth. It's a he said-he said situation.

But, the poor mofo signed the paper, he's fucked. Semper Read The Fine Print.

If they let him go, he gave time and service, and he got paid. It's not like he was on Navy ROTC college scholarship for 4 years, or was sent by a company on expensive training program. He owes the Marines nothing, Marines owe him nothing.

you seriously must be retarded. do you think the training he receieved for tech school was free? what about all the plane rides he took to and from basic, boot, tech school, etc... not to mention the uniforms, time and energy spent on this little pussy. i hope when he gets to his unit they beat his ass the first time he complains.

if anyone could join the army, air force, navy, etc and just do basic training for free, then quit many fatties would. people are paying top dollar for simulation boot camps to lose weight.

[Mr Dio]

Good one. If you are high on freon, I suppose. Do you realize how incredibly stupid your posts make you sound?


My girl Mucus getting upset again? How cute, Mucus acting like a :princess again.

[Trainwreck2100]

I have no doubts in my mind that the recruiter lied, however the boy signed a contract with the Marines w/out reading it so he should start packing his bags.

[boutons]

The Marines can't let him out, bad precedent certainly to be referenced in future cases.

But if they did, the Marines would look very cheap and petty, living luxuriously on a $440B ANNUAL military budget with probably $100B wasted every year on boondoggles, chairwarmers, and egregiously silly equipment/weapons programs, to go after a kid for a couple $1000.

[Clandestino]

it is more than a couple thousand to train and equip a marine.

also, recruiters have been known to be liers since the beginning of time!!!

[Trainwreck2100]

One actually convinced my mom that if I signed up I wouldn't go, until after school. Luckily when my mom dragged me to the recruiter I didn't back down an inch on not signing.

[Clandestino]

i assume you mean college right? bc they won't take you before you finish your senior year if you're a high schooler

[Trainwreck2100]

i assume you mean college right? bc they won't take you before you finish your senior year if you're a high schooler


Yeah college.

[Clandestino]

why didn't your mom drag you to the recruiter?

[Trainwreck2100]

why didn't your mom drag you to the recruiter?

I'll assume you mean did. It's because both of my siblings are in the army, my older sister was able to complete one whole semester before gettin called up. My younger brother went straight out of high school.

[Clandestino]

yeah, that is what i meant...

[thispego]

http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/Globe_Photo/2005/10/10/1128922122_3235.jpg

lololololol, i coudlnt get past the picture

[ClintSquint]

http://www.141empire.com/images/cinema/inyourface.gif
"What the hell is your problem Pvt. Shepard!!!??"

[boutons]

Here's a great example of how dubya and his Pentagon neo-con bogus war architects and chair-warmers "support the troops".

Everybody got your bumper stickers on your cars and yellow ribbons on your trees?

===================================


washingtonpost.com

For Injured U.S. Troops, 'Financial Friendly Fire'

Flaws in Pay System Lead to Dunning, Credit Trouble

By Donna St. George
Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, October 14, 2005; A01

His hand had been blown off in Iraq, his body pierced by shrapnel. He could not walk. Robert Loria was flown home for a long recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he tried to bear up against intense physical pain and reimagine his life's possibilities.

The last thing on his mind, he said, was whether the Army had correctly adjusted his pay rate -- downgrading it because he was out of the war zone -- or whether his combat gear had been accounted for properly: his Kevlar helmet, his suspenders, his rucksack.

But nine months after Loria was wounded, the Army garnished his wages and then, as he prepared to leave the service, hit him with a $6,200 debt. That was just before last Christmas, and several lawmakers scrambled to help. This spring, a collection agency started calling. He owed another $646 for military housing.

"I was shocked," recalled Loria, now 28 and medically retired from the Army. "After everything that went on, they still had the nerve to ask me for money."

Although Loria's problems may be striking on their own, the Army has recently identified 331 other soldiers who have been hit with military debt after being wounded at war. The new analysis comes as the United States has more wounded troops than at any time since the Vietnam War, with thousands suffering serious injury in Iraq or Afghanistan.

"This is a financial friendly fire," charged Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform, which has been looking into the issue. "It's awful." Davis called the failure systemic and said military "pay problems have been an embarrassment all the way through" the war.

Army officials said they are in the process of forgiving debts for 99 of the 331 wounded soldiers, all now out of the military. The other cases have not been resolved, said G. Eric Reid, director of the U.S. Army Finance Command. Complex laws and regulations govern the cancellation of debts once soldiers leave the service, he said.

Part of the problem is that the government's computerized pay system is designed to "maximize debt collection" and has operated without a way to keep bills from going to the wounded, Reid said. In the past seven months, a database of injured troops has been created to help prevent that. Now, he said, the goal is to make "a conscious decision . . . on the validity of that debt" in every case.

Early this year, the Army reported that, in looking at a two-month period, it had identified 129 wounded soldiers -- still active in the military -- who had debts. Those were resolved. But the Army cannot pinpoint the full number of wounded active-duty troops with debts.

The House Government Reform Committee has for several years been looking at pay problems among service members. Last spring, the committee asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate debt among the war's wounded and whether troops were being reported to collection and credit agencies. The findings are due early next year.

Although efforts are being made to correct such problems, Rep. Todd R. Platts (R-Pa.) said that for some troops, "we've so mismanaged their pay that . . . we've sent debt notices while they're still in combat, in harm's way." Hounding wounded troops is unfathomable, he said. "For even a single soldier, this is unacceptable," he said.

At the root of the problem is an outdated Defense Department computer system, which does not automatically link pay and personnel records. This creates numerous pay errors -- and overpayments become debts, said Gregory D. Kutz, the GAO's managing director for forensic audits and special investigations. "They've been trying to modernize it since the mid-1990s," he said. "They have been unsuccessful."

No one can say how many troops have pay problems across the military, Kutz said, but the GAO has found that, in certain Army National Guard and Reserve units, more than 90 percent of soldiers have had at least one overpayment or underpayment during deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan. Steps have since been taken to improve the system, but the problem will not be eliminated, Kutz said, until the larger computer system is reengineered.

Typically, troops get a boost in pay while in combat. When they come home, the system can take extra weeks to catch up with the change, and some people are overpaid. For wounded troops -- still adjusting to their injuries and changed futures -- a debt notice can be another bitter discovery.

"It was like I was being abandoned. I was no good to the military anymore," recalled Loria, who served more than five years. "They figured the pay glitch was my fault and I was going to pay for it."

Loria was a combat engineer in Iraq in February 2004 when he rushed out with other soldiers to rescue a comrade wounded by a roadside bomb near Baqubah. After helping load the soldier onto his Humvee, Loria started to drive away. A second bomb exploded.

"My whole body hurt," he said, "and I felt like I was on fire." He noticed that his hand and lower arm seemed to be hanging off to the side.

A week later, Loria awoke in a hospital bed at Walter Reed, his wife watching over him. He had to learn to walk again, and, worse, he had to accept that "I was never going to do something that required two hands." Still, he said, he tried to remember that others died in Iraq and that "so many people in Walter Reed were 10 times worse off than myself."

After he left the hospital, his financial trouble started. First, his wages were garnished. "I was missing car payments and phone bill payments and everything else," he said. Then, when he was leaving the military, shortly before Christmas, his debts were laid out: $2,200 in travel related to follow-up hospital treatment, $2,400 for combat-related pay he should not have collected and several hundred dollars more for military gear that went missing after his injury.

The full force of his debt hit as he was trying to get to his family in New York for the holidays. "I had a quarter-tank of gas, three cats in my vehicle and no money whatsoever," he said.

His outraged wife, Christine Loria, called the local newspaper in Middletown, N.Y., which published an article, and New York lawmakers became involved: Democratic Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles E. Schumer and Rep. Maurice D. Hinchey (D). Within a matter of days, the debts were cleared, and Yankees owner George Steinbrenner donated $25,000 to Loria.

Months later, home with his wife and stepson, Loria was stunned to receive a call from a collection agency. He owed $646 for housing: nine days of rent, damaged window blinds, a broken refrigerator tray.

"They call and they call and they call," he said. "They're nasty to me." Sometimes, he said, he feels outraged. "I don't know how much you want from me. I already gave you one arm and a part of a leg."

As Loria battled with bill collectors, Ryan Kelly, 25, took his problems to the GAO. He did this at the suggestion of a friend and fellow volunteer at the Wounded Warrior Project, a nonprofit program in Roanoke for injured troops.

Kelly had been wounded in Iraq in July 2003, when his Humvee was blasted by a roadside bomb. "It blew my leg pretty much clean off," he said.

Like Loria, Kelly spent months at Walter Reed, recovering and learning to walk again without his lower leg and foot. The Army staff sergeant struggled with questions about his future. Because he had been injured as a reservist, he was told, there was no guarantee he could deploy to Iraq again. "I didn't want to stay in the Army if I was just going to be a warm body, filling a slot," he said.

When Kelly left the military last year, he recalled, "it was an intense, emotional time." He thought little of the final two checks totaling $2,700 because he was owed vacation and travel pay, he said. Later, he was bewildered as pay stubs continued to come in the mail, each blank except for a notation of a $2,230 debt.

Frustrated, Kelly called the Disabled Soldier Support System, a unit where a counselor told him the Army had mistakenly paid him for an extra 22 days. But Kelly said he was told it would all work out well because the military owed him for his leave and travel. A few weeks later, he said, "I got a check, and I thought, 'Oh, that's nice.' "

But after he and his wife moved to Arizona, he received a bill for $2,230 -- with the threat of a referral to a collection agency. "I was pretty speechless," he said.

When Kelly called the GAO, he learned that the debt was already listed on his credit history.

"What benefit is the Army getting, aggressively going after disabled service members for $500 or $1,000 or whatever? Why not give injured service members a little leeway?"

That sentiment is common.

Tyson Johnson, 24, of Prichard, Ala., was stunned after being struck by a mortar round in Iraq to find a bill waiting for him when he came home from the hospital. It was for $2,700, the bonus he had been given when he enlisted.

"I definitely felt betrayed, because I went over there and almost lost my life," said Johnson, a corporal when he was injured. His debt was resolved after his story made news. "I really didn't need more stress."

Sgt. Gary Dowd, 28, was caught in an ambush 30 miles north of Tikrit, Iraq, in 2003 and suffered multiple injuries, losing his left hand and forearm.

After 13 months of treatment, he retired from the Army early this year. Shortly afterward, he received a letter at his home in Tampa asking him to repay $600 for a survivor-benefit insurance plan he had opted out of when he signed his deployment papers.

There was no number on the bill to call -- no way to protest. "I was pretty irked that they thought I owed them something," he said. "I feel like I've given them enough."

Although Dowd feels there is no ill intent, he said, "I do wish that once they realized they had an injured service member, they would flag them and say: 'This guy has been in the hospital. He's going through enough already.' "

© 2005 The Washington Post Company

====================================

Fucking over and harassing the combat amputees and fucked-up troops for their "debts" and "lost equipment" but dubya/Repubs just gotta make them 100's of $Bs of tax cuts for the rich and corps eternal. Gotta love them dog-and-pony shows. Why weren't there any amputees on shrub's charade?

"Support the troops?" GMAFB

MB, you still wanna "take a bullet" for dubya?

[exstatic]

"I don't know how much you want from me. I already gave you one arm and a part of a leg."

I think that pretty much sums it up.

[boutons]

http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ta/2005/ta051016.gif

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

He admitted he erred by not reading the fine print

Why is this whole thing even a discussion?

RTFM.

[hussker]

well, i have known a guy who was in rotc for like 3 years, then started fucking up and was going to drop out of colllege the military told him pay us back or join as enlisted.. he enlisted! haha...

When I worked at the clinic at Randolph, one of my pts was a guy who was caught cheating at the USAFA and was booted in his Sr yr. He was a starting football player and he was forced to pay back by serving enlisted.

[Clandestino]

Fucking over and harassing the combat amputees and fucked-up troops for their "debts" and "lost equipment" but dubya/Repubs just gotta make them 100's of $Bs of tax cuts for the rich and corps eternal. Gotta love them dog-and-pony shows. Why weren't there any amputees on shrub's charade?

"Support the troops?" GMAFB

MB, you still wanna "take a bullet" for dubya?

finance makes mistakes. it is simple. shit like that happens all the time. it got fixed didn't it?