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High Schooler Traps Military Recruiters

Posted on July 28, 2005

Have you seen the film All That I Can Be? Youth producers from the Educational Video Center made this film after seeing some of their friends choosing to enlist in the army. A high-schooler in Arvada, CO also decided to test military recruiters he was spotting aroung town and his investigative work resulted in national press coverage.

David McSwane, 17, wanted to test how far recruiters would go to enlist him in the army. The honor student approached recruiters with two seemingly hindering characteristics, pretending to be a high school drop-out and having a drug habit he couldn't kick. Not only did the army office claim to have helped two previous recruits pass drug tests, but the recruiter agreed to help him make a detox formula.

As for the no high school diploma- no problem. The recruiters told him about website where anyone can order a diploma from a school they make up.

McSwane taped his conversations and a Denver TV station picked up the story and aired it on April 28. Within a few days the boy's sting had made national headlines, and the U.S. Army froze recruiting operations nationwide for a day. (His two would-be recruiters were suspended.)

Read more about McSwane's undercover research from the Wiretap article, "High School Pentagon Sting."

Related Films: All That I Can Be