Dishonorable Deceptions

An exclusive NewsChannel 5 investigation first exposed recruiters offering to sneak recruits with emotional problems into the United States Army.

That investigation began with the suicide of a local soldier and uncovered the Dishonorable Deceptions.

Now, another soldier from another part of the country is stepping forward to tell a similar story.

He tells our chief investigative reporter Phil Williams that his own story almost ended just as badly.

"These recruiters, they're getting everybody they can get their hands on," Parson says.

Looking back, Parsons says he was drawn to the U.S. Army, like so many other people, by the promise of a brighter future.

"I thought it could definitely pay for college."

But Keith wasn't like other people -- something that, he now suspects, his recruiter seized upon.

"He put it to me in a way that seemed very convincing to me," Keith remembers.

"Do you think he was taking advantage of you?" Williams asks.

Pausing, he answers, "Yeah, I think he definitely was."

Since his early teens, the New Jersey native had been hospitalized, on and off, for mental illness.

"I had been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, which is basically just a blending of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder," he says.

It was a history that Keith insists he didn't hold back from his recruiter.

"I told him everything. I told him that the fact that I also had addiction problems," Keith insists.

"And that didn't faze him?" Williams asks.

"No, it did not."

Instead, with the Army struggling to meet its recruiting goals, Keith says his recruiter had some advice of another kind.

Parsons: "He told me just to keep quiet, just not tell him."
Williams: "Just to keep quiet?"
Parsons: "Yes."
Williams: "Why?"
Parsons: "Because he said that would disqualify me from military service."

And soon, he was off to basic training.

But Keith says he quickly realized he was going under again.

"It was too much to handle. There was too much stress. I felt hopeless. I felt like there was no way out."

So he decided he to tell his drill sergeants everything: "I'm struggling. I recently stopped taking medication. My recruiter told me not to tell anybody about this."

And what happened?

"My drill sergeants they told me straight up, they said, 'We're not going to deal with this. We think you are full of (expletive).'"

Not feeling like he had a choice, Keith says he started looking for another way out.

"I had purchased medicine with intent to kill myself," he says.

"Did you try it?" Williams asks.

"Yes, and it didn't work. So I figured you know I'm just going to have to wait until I can try again."

Finally, when the recruits were allowed to go home for the holidays, Keith says he found his chance.

"I went to the store about bought seven boxes of Coricidin and I knew that at that dosage obviously that would do me in."

Instead, he ended up first in the emergency room, then a psychiatric hospital, before being sent back to boot camp.

"It took me overdosing to have them have me see a counselor, somebody that could actually have some say in me being discharged and who wouldn't just blow me off or turn a blind or turn a blind eye basically."

Soon, he was on his way back home -- but not before, he says, he told everyone who would listen about his recruiter's misconduct.

Parsons: "They basically pretended that they didn't hear it."
Williams: "But you told them?"
Parsons: "Yes, I told them. I told them that my recruiter had told me to lie."

Now, Keith says he believes his recruiter did not see him as a person so much as a mission that had to be accomplished.

"These recruiters, they just don't care."

Keith is now undergoing treatment here in the Nashville area.

Even though he had to be sent home because of his mental health issues -- and even though he says he told Army officials that his recruiter told him to lie -- Keith says no one ever contacted him from the Army to investigate the recruiter's conduct.

As for the Army, we contacted its Recruiting Command weeks ago about Keith's case.

They said they would investigate, but they haven't told us anything yet.

http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.a...nav=menu374_2_2

[SpiralDarkSeraphim]

Yeah, the recruiters don't care whether the people they sign up for duty are right for service. They just want to meet their quotas. A friend of a friend of mine, was also told to just stay quiet...regarding his homosexuality, when he divulged everything to his recruiter. Fortunately for him he didn't end up going.

[infinite]

No human beings...just bodies...fodder for the cannons.


Remember this qoute:

"When the rich wage war, it's the poor who die."

[vapor]

i agree that the recruiters will take anyone, and that they could care less about your well being, your just another drone.

however......

Not feeling like he had a choice, Keith says he started looking for another way out.

"I had purchased medicine with intent to kill myself," he says.

"Did you try it?" Williams asks.

"Yes, and it didn't work. So I figured you know I'm just going to have to wait until I can try again."

damn. stupid. not hard to kill yourself with most OTC meds. this is in no way to insult him, it just seems like hes full of shit.

Finally, when the recruits were allowed to go home for the holidays, Keith says he found his chance.

"I went to the store about bought seven boxes of Coricidin and I knew that at that dosage obviously that would do me in."

thats 3,360mg DXM, and 448mg CPM and he stands this day. if its true, just damn. but i smell bullshit.

that would be considered a likely to be fatal dose even for someone with a large tolerance to dxm, and thats dxm alone, im not even getting into the cpm...

seven boxes all at once?

[TheGreatDeceiver]

He probably ingested a box or two before he could finish the rest and vomited it up a few minutes later and thus didn't die but might've experienced toxicity, hence the hospital visit.

[FDR]

Keith was/is a member of the DV. This story was posted already under site news.

"For anyone that remembers Keith."

[Kaiserin]

Originally posted by Hamlet@Jul 27 2007, 05:21 PM
Keith was/is a member of the DV. This story was posted already under site news.

"For anyone that remembers Keith."

I was actually just about to ask.....