(SNN Houston)In late April, Army Staff Sgt. Thomas Kelt left a voice mail on the cell phone of Christopher Monarch, telling him that if he did not show up at the recruiting office by 2 PM a warrant would be issued for his arrest. “I was scared," said Monarch. Despite the efforts of the recruiter, Monarch is still not interested in joining the military.

Despite the efforts of the recruiter, Monarch is still not interested in joining the military.

For several months now, recruiting both for the regular military and guard have gone down. For the first half of the fiscal year, the Army had signed up 35,926 active-duty soldiers to begin serving this year, about 15 percent short of the year-to-date goal of 42,585. As it becomes more and more difficult to recruit people for Iraq, this is just one of the exciting new and innovative ways that recruiters are getting young people to join the military.

But not everyone agrees with the marketing methods used by recruiters, “Recruiters are not permitted to threaten people with arrest. The soldier did something he should not have done,” said Bill Grimes, spokesman for the Army Recruiting Battalion Houston.

Not everyone agrees with the marketing methods used by recruiters.

Recruiting officials have said that while the monthly shortfalls have been troubling, the Army still felt a new marketing and advertising campaign to be rolled out this summer, along with an increase in the number of recruiters, would allow it to meet the yearly goal.

So hopefully, the army will be able to meet its goal using more ethical means, such as this bulk email.

DEAR SIR,

URGENT AND CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS PROPOSAL

I AM STAFF SGT LARRY NORTON, FORMER ASSISTANT TO GEN. TOMMY FRANKS. AFTER SERVING IN IRAQ, I WAS INFORMED BY OUR LAWYER, BELLO GAMBARI THAT, MY GENERAL WHO AT THAT TIME WAS THE DE FACTO LEADER OF IRAQ, CALLED HIM AND CONDUCTED HIM ROUND HIS APARTMENT AND SHOWED HIM FOUR METAL BOXES CONTAINING MONEY ALL IN FOREIGN EXCHANGE AND HE EQUALLY MADE HIM BELIEVE THAT THOSE BOXES ARE FOR ONWARD TRANSFER TO HIS OVERSEAS COUNTERPART FOR PERSONAL INVESTMENT.

I HAVE SUCCEEDED IN CARRYING THE FOUR METAL BOXES OUT OF THE COUNTRY, WITH THE AID OF SOME TOP GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL, WHO STILL SHOW SYMPATHY TO MY FAMILY, TO A NEIGHBOURING COUNTRY (KUWAIT) TO BE PRECISE. THEREFORE, I NEED AN URGENT HELP FROM YOU AS A MAN OF GOD TO HELP GET THIS MONEY IN TO YOUR COUNTRY. THIS MONEY, AFTER GETTING TO YOUR COUNTRY, WOULD BE SHARED ACCORDING TO THE PERCENTAGE AGREED BY BOTH OF US.PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS MATTER IS STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL AS THE GOVERNMENT WHICH MY LATE HUSBAND WAS PART OF IS STILL UNDER SURVAILLANCE TO PROBE US.

YOU CAN CONTACT ME BY COMING TO MY RECRUITING OFFICE ON TEL/FAX N0:xxx-x-xxxxxxx AS I HAVE A MANDATE TO HANDLE THIS TRANSACTION.

THANKS AND BEST REGARD

STAFF SGT LARRY NORTON

posted by NewsBlog 5000  # Thursday, May 12, 2005