MCALLEN - The U.S. Marine Corps launched an investigation into the actions of McAllen recruiting officers. Emotional abuse and embarrassment of applicants are some of the allegations. Some of it was caught on tape.
The Marines are accused of harassing would-be recruits, drinking on the job, and behavior unbecoming a military officer. The allegations were brought to NEWSCHANNEL 5. After we started digging, we took what we learned to the Marine Corps.
Eighteen-year-old Rey Mercado is at the center of this investigation. He desperately wants to be a Marine and says what happened "shouldn't have happened, but it did."
The teen adds, "I didn't drink with them."
He also tells us he wants nothing more than to enlist in the Marine Corps.
"I want to be a Marine. My father was a Marine," says Mercado. "His stories were so touching."
When the teen stepped through the doors of the recruiting center on 23rd Street in McAllen, he expected to walk out a Marine.
Instead he found himself on the wrong end of a cruel joke.
He's seen on amateur video, holding up a bag of oranges, making up stories for the recruiters.
Mercado has a tattoo that would be seen above the collar of a Marine Corps uniform. He was told it might disqualify him from consideration. General recruiting practice is to take a picture of the tattoo and send it, along with with an application, for review.
But in Mercado's case, that's not what happened. Instead, the recruiters asked him to send a video apology to a Marines Corps commanding officer.
He says on that video, "I'm sorry for what I did. I know what I did was wrong. It won't happen again."
Video, taken inside the recruiting office, shows a recruiter put a beer bottle in front of Mercado, set up his camera, and zoomed in.
They gave Mercado the bag of oranges and told him to make up a story about picking oranges on the weekend. He was to lift the bag every time he mentioned it.
They had him repeat his apology and the story over and over again.
We showed Mercado the video and watched his reactions of shock and disbelief. He admitted to us that it was disappointing.
"It did hurt my feelings. I'm not gonna lie. But hey, look where I'm at now, a future soldier for the Army," he says.
Mercado enlisted in the U.S. Army.
We asked him what happened that day inside the McAllen recruiting office. He says, "Oh, yeah, they were drinking, I can't lie."
Mercado said he didn't drink with them. But the teen told us the recruiters knew how to have a good time.
After we started asking questions, a person we'll call "Jeff " surfaced. He is familiar with Marine recruiting practices.
We hid Jeff's identity; he's worried talking to the news media would make it impossible for him to continue in his job.
"They were having fun, as you see in the video. They're drinking on duty, which is against UCMJ, the Uniform Code of Military Justice," "Jeff" tells us.
"Jeff" lives his life by the values of the Marine Corps - Honor, Courage and Commitment. He says those values are now distorted and it's embarrassing.
"This is wrong. The Marines in that station forgot what it means to be a Marine," he says.
NEWSCHANNEL 5 took the video and confronted the recruiters at their office on 23rd Street.
The pleasantries didn't last. The recruiter asked our photographer to step outside.
"This is government property. You need to be outside," they said.
We asked again why there's beer bottles inside the recruiting office.
We contacted the commanding officer in charge of the recruiting office. Major Randy Walsh said the allegations are serious.
Walsh sent two Marine Corps officers from San Antonio to talk to NEWSCHANNEL 5. They watched our video and wrote down our questions. They refused to give us a comment on camera.
We later learned videotaping applicants for any reason is not standard practice. We also discovered the Marines don't assign video cameras to recruiting stations.
We told them about Rey Mercado and reminded them the teen wishes to say nothing against the Marines.
They told us off camera it was an "ongoing" investigation, and alcohol is not tolerated inside government recruiting offices. Unprofessional conduct is not acceptable either.
The officers asked us to hold our story until their investigation was complete. We declined.
But Rey Mercado still wants to be a Marine.
"I want to earn the chance to earn that title," he says.
But he adds he's happy with the direction his future is headed.
As for "Jeff", he hopes the government and the Marines will take this investigation seriously. But he's worried the problem will be swept under the rug.
Since we started asking questions, the Marine Corps sent another high-ranking officer to handle the investigation.
They also want to know if these recruiters are holding up the Marine Corps standard.
Other allegations are being investigated by the military and by us. We'll be telling you more about those as the details surface.
