14 Recruiters Suspected of Falsifying Documents

Fourteen Army recruiters working here and in Santa Maria have been suspended while investigators look into allegations that they falsified documents, Army officials said Friday.

No other other recruiting stations are involved, said Michael Shepherd, a civilian spokesman for the U.S. Army Recruiting Command at Ft. Knox, Ky.

Details were sketchy Friday about what kind of documents were at issue and over what time period.

“We won’t have much until the investigators get deeper into it,” Shepherd said.

The recruiting offices in Oxnard and Santa Maria are managed by the Los Angeles Recruiting Battalion, which covers a large area of Southern California, Shepherd said.

The recruiters under investigation have been temporarily placed in clerical jobs at other offices run by the battalion.

“We take this very seriously,” Shepherd said.

“The vast majority of our recruiters uphold Army values and work with integrity.”

Nationwide, the Army employs about 6,500 recruiters focused on signing up soldiers for the Army and an additional 1,750 focused on the Army Reserve.

Shepherd said he didn’t know the total number of recruiters working in Oxnard and Santa Maria but said he thought 14 might be “pretty close to the majority.”