Army Recruitment of Autistic Teen Raises Questions

May 12, 2006 — -- The Army's recruitment of an autistic teen has once again put the spotlight on the pressures recruiters face in trying to get new volunteers in a time of war.

Earlier this week, 18-year-old Jared Guinther from Portland, Ore., was released from his four-year military committment after The Oregonian newspaper reported that he should not have been enlisted, given his medical condition. He was diagnosed with autism at age 3.

Guinther signed up to be a cavalry scout, one of the Army's more dangerous assignments.

The two Army recruiters involved in Guinther's enlistment are now being investigated for potential recruiting improprieties.

"We're all under pressure to perform. But even under that pressure we have to do the job on a daily basis with complete integriy and total professionalism," says Gary Stoffer, spokesman for the Army Recruiting Battalion based in Portland. "There's no pressure to bend the rules and there's no excuse for that."

Guinther's case first came to the attention of military officials after an Oregonian reporter contacted them with information that the recruiters refused to accept Guinther's medical records, after the family complained to them about his recruitment.

Despite being autistic, Guinther scored higher than the minimum needed for the Army's basic entrance exam and passed a physical with an Army doctor.

Gaylan Johnson, a spokesman for the Military Entrance Processing Station in Portland, says the doctors conducting the physicals depend on recruits' honest self-disclosure of any medical conditions.

Johnson compared it to a recruit with a heart murmur. "An individual may or may not be aware of his condition, but since they're intermittent and not on every heartbeat, when the stethoscope is on the chest the doctor doesn't know any different," he said.

Records provided by Army Recruiting Command show that last year the Army received 835 complaints of recruiting impropriety. Thirty-five percent of those complaints involved the concealment of medical information, but after subsequent investigation, only 10 percent of the allegations were substantiated.