Was Military Recruiter Set Up?

Research into a story of a military recruiter under fire for allegedly insulting a gay male through email suggests the gay man in question may have a history of creating confrontations with establishment authority figures. While nothing excuses an inappropriate use of email by a military recruiter, some context appears to be lacking in this story.

Using a military email address, U.S. Army recruiter Sgt. Marcia Ramode fired off an email in capital letters that " IF YOU ARE GAY WE DON'T TAKE YOU. YOU ARE CONSIDERED UNQUALIFIED."

After more prodding from Andrew on the Army's recruitment policy, the messages escalated into a bigoted tirade. For example, Ramode told Andrew that "being gay is disgusting and immoral."

Prodding? Here is how the gay man actually responded: full exchange in pdf:

Wow! Unqualified to serve my country just because I'm gay? It's because they think I might all of a sudden desire one last kiss from my fellow male soldier if ever facing death at the hands of the enemy in a fox hole? Yup, that's it.

Funny, the US Government doesn't mind taking my "gay" dollars every tax season or out of my paycheck every two weeks. I'm stunned that the US Army could afford to be so choosey when I see sergeants on my school campus and in the local shopping Mall like pedofilic predators everyday begging teenagers to enlist. Then if I factor in the ten solicitations I've gotten just in one day through Career Builder dot Com in which even YOU stated the ABUNDANCE of positions and vacancies waiting to be filled in the Army, I would say the military's recruiting tactics are self-defeating, wouldn't you? By the looks of it, especially with Iraq, looks like you kids can use all the help you can get. By the way, you might want to avoid emailing in all caps, because it represents shouting and hostility, unless of course in this case, as I suspect, you are homophobic. Then it's all relative.

Funny he doesn't appear to be using his real name in the story either. Corey Andrew appears to be Corey Andrew Powell. And here's a little history on him:

Corey Andrew Powell, a sales associate, told PAGE SIX: "I, as part of the sales staff, being festive, and always in creative mode, wrapped my dreadlocks up to make two goat horns in honor of the event. Everyone including VIPs ... loved it. I was dressed fierce, in a fab Prada suit and the goat horns on my head turned it out as the perfect statement! That is until human resources and a team of security guards basically told me my hair was inappropriate. As if! Of course I disagreed. ... In case you hear about an incident where security had to escort someone from the gala in a frenzy of yelling and shouting (basically me telling a bunch of stiff corporate suits that they wouldn't know fashion if it bit them in the ass), it was me: Corey Andrew, possibly a former Saks employee."

Read the whole email exchange via the pdf, you'll see that Powell aka Andrew was being inappropriate and looking for a fight from the start - bragging about how he and his gay male, pierced-nippled friends would do a better job than the current soldiers. In typical feckless Liberal fashion, he started a silly flame war and now he wants to turn it around and be some whinny victim hounded by gay oppression. Gay, or not, it's pretty clear he has nothing to offer the military. He'd be crying for a lawyer if he ever really came under attack.

Comments

[Zifnab]

IT'S A TARP!

[Anon]

Funny, I thought that conservatives were all about personal responsibility.

[lieinveigleobfuscate]

My Gawd, those fing libtards! How could a recruiter have known not to use US Gov't information systems to make racist and homophobic comments? That would require, I dunno, nearly a third-grade sense of propriety or perhaps the manners one acquires in a Las Vegas bar!

Com'on Riehl, this is an example of what a failure "Don't Ask" is. It's not making our military better, it's making our public discourse worse.

[yo]

The poster above says that it would require a third grade education to know not to do this. It shouldn't require any education to know that a mans genitals don't belong up another man's rear end.

[yoplait]

Or in a woman's mouth, or in a woman's rear end, or between a woman's tits, or in her hand, or in your own hand for that matter...So many places men's genitals get to these days!

[Zifnab]

They're still allowed in your pants, right? Cause if I can't keep my genitals in my pants, I'm honestly not sure where to keep them.

Perhaps the US Army can demand its soldiers maintain vaginal penatration at all times during their tours of duty, just to be sure. I'm confident that would increase enlistment, since soldiers could be confident they wouldn't have to put up with any fags anymore.

[Hard Right]

It's sad the soldier allowed the moonbat to draw him into his little game. He'll have to own up to his mistake. It was also sleazy of the activist to do what he did. However, we should expect such behavior from the left.

[Dan Riehl]

Honestly, I don't understand why more libs don't move to Britain given how you all go out of your way to defend the queen. ; )

I said there was no excusing misuse of the email account. You morally defective libs can't acknowledge that yer boy was playing, too.

[Seven]

There is no doubt the recruiter was set up. Its so clear anyone can see it. First a gay person like this Corey fellow posts a resume on a job site because they claim they are looking for a job. But what they are really doing is setting a trap, and Sgt. Marcia Ramode fell for it hook line and sinker. Its now clear that Corey just posted the resume so to snare some God fearing good American. Ramode never would have contacted Corey were it not for the fact that Corey posted their resume on line looking for work. If gay people don’t want this sort of thing to happen, they should just not look for work. Period.

[Raging_Dave]

The thing is, this recruiter is most likely going to lose her job. Honestly that's as it should be. If you can't deal well with pressure, you shouldn't be a recruiter, much less in the Army. But at the same time, what is going to happen to the baiting little twit who was never interested at all in serving in the military?

Nada. He gets some free press. Yay.

I agree with Dan - there's no excusing the recruiter's actions. But there's no excusing the asshole who was baiting the recruiter either. They're both wrong. The sad fact is that only one of them will pay for their actions.

[Phoenix]

I wish I had a penis.

I want to 'identify' with this guy's feelings.

[Phoenix]

Dan. Can I borrow yours?

I would ask Hard Right, but I'm afraid I might get the urge to show it to a church lady.

I would take real good care of it. Honest.

[Phoenix]

You can have my vagina.

[Hard Right]

Seven, is that your IQ? Is your age? I would believe both after that cluless post of yours.

[Hard Right]

Phoenix, church ladies are no fun anymore. I'm waitimg for girlscout season. (yes I'm kidding)

[Seven]

You want proof the recruiter was set up? Just look at the rude and snide remarks this Corey wrote. Honestly after reading these, I dont how Ramode didnt go balistic:

"...I respect the millions of soldiers fighting to protect my rights every day"
"I applaud servicemen and women everyday for their role in our country's protection..."
" there are highly intellectual people in the military.."

Corey then goes on to make fun of the recruiters poor spelling and grammar. Just like a homo, always got to be letter perfect in everyway, showing off all that sissy book learning they got.

[Hard Right]

Yeah, he so was being respectful (roll eyes). Too bad I saw the rest. Nice try, loon.

[Michael Langer]

Er, hard right, I'm pretty sure Seven's post was a bit...hm... sarcastic? Perhaps?

Additionally, all these people saying, "This man won't pay!"... uhm.. why should he? He wasn't acting in any 'official' capacity after all. Even if he did bait someone, the point is to rise above it, because, hey, it's your JOB. A professional would have done so.

[Seven]

Hard Right Im on your side. If this guy had not posted his resume then Ramode would not have responded and then this whole thing would never had happened. Plain and simple. Corey should never had posted their resume, they should know that there is a chance someone from the military would have answered it. I dont blame the military or Ramode at all. They never would have known that Corey would then share these emails with the press. Thats what these people do. They are under this strange delusion that the military is our servants and that because the computers they use are paid for by us, that they are not the private property of military personal.

[Zifnab]

Don't mind, Hard Right, Seven. He's the local board one-liner.

That said, I think it's clear that this recruiter was simply one bad apple in a pristine and immaculate military environment, but that all liberals hate our troops enough to get a recruiter fired. In a way, by depriving the military of one of its best and brightest, Corey Andrews is attacking the military's ability to recruit and depriving our nation of bright, skilled, morally healthy young straight men to combat Al Qaida with. In more ways than one, he has given aid and comfort to the enemy - the enemy being the flood of butt-hole pirate Muslims who want to rape our baby boys with their sodomistic religion.

Corey Andrews is a traitor to our nation. I only hope that President Bush has the courage to see him arrested, tried, and executed by next week.

[Michael Langer]

Being in the military myself, I can sincerely say that not all troops are sterling examples of everything that is right within the world. There are bad apples here too.

And I personally feel it is much better to get someone like Ramode OUT of the service. If I can't trust them to respond correctly to an email, how am I supposed to trust them to cover me in the line of fire?

[Hard Right]

I am aware of the sarcasm, however he is basically accusing Conservatives of hating homosexuals and implying I also hate them.

Provoking a flame war then whining about it is crappy no matter how you cut it. As I said, the soldier made a mistake and will have to deal with it.

[Dan Riehl]

I wonder if teh gay ends up jealous cuz da soldier's gonna get it in the butt this time?

[Michael Langer]

Hard Right, I understand that. There are many conservatives in the military, and there are also a good amount of gay people in the military. I've known both. And I've never seen a huge fight between the two. If anything, the most I've seen tends to be mutual disagreement about what is 'proper' or not. As far as arguments go, they tend to be on the same level of whether or not Coke is better than Pepsi.

Why is that? My guess is that when it comes down to things, it doesn't really matter whether the person next to you likes guys or girls...what matters is that they have your back, and you'd trust your life with them. Camaraderie (sp?) is more important than most issues in those situations.

[Matt]

Seven
In other words, a stupid, racist, homophobic recruiter with no restraint [or intelligence] whatsoever gets a free pass because they were baited?
Come on. If a recruiter is so stupid as to go off like this [from a work email no less] then they should not be a recruiter period. If you receive hate mail it does not entitle you to be hateful and stupid in return from your work email. You want to be stupis? Do it on your own time.
The US Military - believe it or not - is representative of the Armed forces who are there to protect and serve. This person is doing neither. They should understand that every single line they write in an email - especially with the US Armed forces in the 'from' line - is up for scrutiny. And all work emails should be written with this understanding. Anyone with half a brain knows that.

[Seven]

Hard Right I cant understand how you can be so hard on this recruiter. First, do you know how hard it is to do that job? Do you know how far standards have been lowered in order to find people to go over to Iraq and stop the 9-11? The liberal press, which never lets a day go by where they dont reminde us that WMD were never in Iraq and Al Queda didnt show up there till after the invasion, have made this war very unpopular. If that is not bad enough, they then have to go on and on about Walter Reed. Enough already. As a result, because of liberal media ignoring the fresh coat of paint on Iraqi schools, recruiters like Ramode have to make every effort they can. And because of these reasons, thats how the recruiters are so easy to set up. It was Ramode's job to respond to Corey's resume. What was Corey's job? Hell, they dont even have a job!

[Armyboy]

HR: "I'm waitimg for girlscout season."

Cool, a pedophile joke. How very Republican of you.

[Seven]

Matt
Did you know gullible is not in the dictionary?

[Seven]

This is just like the set up that they did on Mark Foley and Dick Nixon. It has liberal dirty trick all over it

[Hard Right]

Mike, we are in agreement. Hating someone because of their sexual orientation never made sense to me.

[Hard Right]

"Cool, a pedophile joke. How very Republican of you."

Suggesting Republicans are pedophiles-how leftist of you. Besides, we know pedophiles are usualy libs and are usually defended by them too.

[Seven]

Hard Right if you need a reason to hate gay people just read your Bible. Its all there in black and white

[Seven]

yea all them catholic preists were pedophiles and liberal

mark foley was a really a liberal. why else was he looking for sex with teen boys?

[Matt]

Seven
Okay, I get it.
You're pretending to be a right wing nutcase.
I fell for it.
Nice.

[Hard Right]

Oh yeah, Nambla is a Conservative group. Teachers are usually Conservative too, huh? Barney Franks incident? Studds? The ACLU guy who got busted....

[Hard Right]

To be honest, I liked Gerry Studds better when he was boofing interns than when he was legislating, so maybe NABLA does have a place in US Politics.

[Hard Right]

I see I'm being impersonated again. Typical fascist debate tactic. If you can't win just attack.

[seekeronos]

The recruiter was wrong. Period. She did not need to go off on a tagent on the baiter, simply quoting title and section or the appropriate article from the UCMJ, and a statement to the effect of "I'm sorry, but your lifestyle choices are imcompatible with service in the US Military at this time" would have been appropriate.

And then add the gay baiter to the spam blocker, minus the drama that followed it.

Anything beyond that really exceeds her duties as a recruiter.

[Tom]

Corey Andrews is attacking the military's ability to recruit and depriving our nation of bright, skilled, morally healthy young straight men to combat Al Qaida with. In more ways than one, he has given aid and comfort to the enemy - the enemy being the flood of butt-hole pirate Muslims who want to rape our baby boys with their sodomistic religion.

Corey Andrews is a traitor to our nation. I only hope that President Bush has the courage to see him arrested, tried, and executed by next week.

Posted by: Zifnab

I almost threw up my donut when I read this crap. Sir, an employee of yours disrespected and dishonored an American citizen. Whether or not that American citizen was looking for a fight or not. That employee should be fired and sued for discrimination. Is your hatred for America and it's citizens so much that you feel you must defend the indefensible? You know, you are allowed to disagree with what your idiot president and his administration is doing. You may not know this after so many years of kool-aid, but you do have a mind. I would kindly suggest you begin to use it.

[Zifnab]

Seeker, she went hunting for him. She'd add his name to a spam blocker right after viagra takes Bob Dole off its lists.

That's the big joke in all of this. She tries to recruit him. He gets pissy about being recruited by an organization that he can't legally obtain employment from, and shit rolls downhill from there. It would be like "Hooters" recruiting a member of Itty Bitty Titty Commity, then - upon seeing the girl's bust size - telling her to fuck off. This Corey Andrews guy had every reason to be pissed off.

The "Don't Ask..." policy was asking for trouble when it started. A shame Clinton didn't have the balls to stare his Generals in the eye and tell them to grow a pair and deal with it. Now we're 14 years into a quagmire policy with recruitment shortages and a recruiter infrastructure that spends my tax money bitching out potential cadets. The word "dumb" does not begin to describe...

[Hard Right]

Tom, he was being sarcastic.

Want to be offended? Try asking him if he thinks America is raping Iraq daily?

[Hard Right]

Recruitment shortages? Now you are smoking crack, Zif.

[Dan]

Seven -

Check the story before you criticize the guy for "posting" his resume. He posted it to generic sites like careerbuilder and monster, which is where this illiterate nutcase Ramonde originally got her lead. He never sought out the military by publishing his resume.

Ramonde is an embarrassment to our fine military and should be discharged immediately.

[Dan Riehl]

before you criticize

Read the post before you criticize me, moron. I criticized his email response, not the posting of his resume. And another not so bright liberal just happens by. SSDD

[Hard Right]

It seems we will need to post (sarcasm) for the less intelligent lefties here.

[John]

It's the right wing's turn to sound completely insane for a while.

[jerk]

you people are seriously amazing. a set-up? this argument reminds me of the lawsuit those frat boys are bringing against Borat. does not pass the smell test.

[templar knight]

Dan, this is better than a global warming post featuring AlGore and a polar bear. If you want to bring out the trolls and Lefty's all you need do is mention teh gay. And all these new people just show up here. I wonder why.

[Newsoula]

I just love how conservatives can dish racial/gender punishment but when someone of color or another minority dishes it back it's called racism. I call it getting even, Where I grew it was 'Don't start any Shit, there won't be any thrown back. White Conservatives and minority allies seem to missed the memo and can't take as good as they give, I hope that skank loses her job and gets dishonorably discharged while Andrew sues for the government for racial harassment.

[Hard Right]

Newsoula, do you live with Seven? You sound about as demented.