Frontlines: The Latest from OutServe-SLDN

A Recruiter’s Offensive Emails

Just days after General Peter Pace made his offensive comments about gays and lesbians, SLDN received a call from Jersey City resident Corey Andrew. Corey, who is openly gay, recently posted his resume at CareerBuilder.com. One of the respondents was Sergeant Marcia Ramode, an Army recruiter based out of Fort Knox. At first, Sergeant Ramode was very interested in Corey's resume, but after she learned that he is gay, her tone soon changed. "You are considered unqualified," she wrote after Corey told her about his sexual orientation. And it all went down-hill from there. In subsequent emails, Sergeant Ramode told Corey, who is African American, that he "should leave the United States," and that "You must be a total idiot and so stupid to presume that you do not know what gender you are." Ramode also told Corey to "go back to Africa and do your gay voodoo limbo tango and wango dance and jump around and prance and run all over the place half naked there." Needless to say, Corey was outraged. He contacted SLDN, and we contacted Sergeant Douglas Smith, at the recruiting command's public affairs office. Smith, after receiving and reviewing the emails, told SLDN that "The matter has been referred through the U.S. Army Recruiting Command's Staff Judge Advocate to the appropriate commander for review, investigation and appropriate action. The Command expects its Recruiters to conduct themselves in a professional manner in all dealings with potential applicants and members of the public. We are ambassadors for America's Army. I cannot comment further on this series of e-mail messages at this time as it may interfere with the commander's investigation." 'Appropriate action' in this case should be nothing less than Sergeant Ramode's dismissal from the U.S. Army. Her comments were racist, homophobic and offensive in every conceivable way. This morning's Jersey Journal has more information on the email exchange. SLDN will continue to monitor the command's response, and to press for accountability for Sergeant Ramode. The Army, and its potential recruits, deserve better. - Steve Ralls

Labels: recruiting

03-26-07