Recruiter accused of showing topless photo - Military News | News From Afghanistan, Iraq And Around The World - Military Times

Recruiter accused of showing topless photo

CHARLESTOWN, Ind. — A Fort Knox soldier has been assigned a desk job while the Army investigates an allegation he showed the photograph of a topless woman to a high school student during a recruiting visit.

Donna King said her son, Nicholas Gardiner, 18, was shown the photo Monday morning at Charlestown High School.

"I don't want him stoned," King said of punishing the soldier. "I just want him to get counseling" so he knows what he did was inappropriate.

King said Nicholas called her Monday afternoon to tell her about the photo because "he was upset the soldier had shown disrespect to the (Army) uniform."

Her former husband was a military policeman, and for 10 years she and Nicholas went with him to military posts around the world, King said. She said they have great admiration for the Army.

Nicholas is a senior at Jeffersonville High School and in the morning goes to Charlestown High for automotive technology classes, King said. They live in Clarksville.

Brian Lepley, a civilian spokesman for the Army Accessions Command at Fort Knox, Ky., said the soldier accused of showing the photo has been reassigned to work in an office at the post while the incident is investigated.

Lepley declined to identify the soldier. He said he was not a full-time recruiter but was an "exhibitor" who drives a "tricked up" Humvee to show potential recruits. He has had training as a recruiter, Lepley said.

"We've got 7,500 recruiters around the country," Lepley said. "It seems to be an isolated incident."

The Army "is a values based organization" and the incident, if true, conflicts with those values, Lepley said.

Charlestown High School Principal Keith Hedges said he wasn't aware of the recruiting visit, which had been approved by a teacher at the school.

Hedges said his understanding, based on what King told him, is that Nicholas and other students saw an Army Humvee in the parking lot as they left their automotive technology classes Monday morning.

A soldier demonstrating the Humvee was showing students photos of other Army equipment on his iPhone when a topless young woman's photo popped up, Hedges said. He said only one student, who he would not identify, has acknowledged seeing the photo.

King said her son told her that when the photo appeared on the solder's iPhone, the soldier said "here's a bonus."

Hedges said he plans to modify military recruiting at the school next year.

Rather than allowing recruiters from different services to visit the school at different times during the year, he plans to have one recruiting day in the fall and one in the spring for all the military services.

He said he will require the recruiters to contact his office before they visit.