Teens claim they were duped into Navy - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Teens claim they were duped into Navy

HONOLULU — Two Hawaii 18-year-olds claim a Navy recruiting officer promised them they would be able to get a free, four-year college education before going off to sea. But Cory Miyasato and Joseph Mauga Jr. soon found out they would be going off to boot camp and then full-time active duty, scrubbing and painting ships.

“The full-ride scholarship really interested me,” said Miyasato, an honor student. “I am a very trusting person. I thought the U.S. government would be truthful to me.”

They didn’t find out the truth until they had already enlisted in the Navy’s Delayed Entry Program on May 29.

The military is under pressure to keep producing fresh troops, and Hawaii recruiters are expected to produce 30 new enlistees for the Navy this month, said Petty Officer 1st Class David McKee, a spokesman for the Navy Recruiting Station Los Angeles, which includes Hawaii.

The recruiter, Petty Officer 1st Class Jimmy Pecadeso, will be investigated, McKee said.

“Nobody should be railroaded into buying a car, a house or joining the military under false pretenses by being misled,” McKee said. “When it comes out that a recruiter has misled an applicant, it reflects poorly on all recruiters and the Navy and the military. The military does take this seriously.”

Both Miyasato and Mauga can opt out of enlistment with no penalty before going to basic training, McKee said. Their families are seeking immediate discharges and written assurances that the boys’ careers won’t be affected.

They were about to graduate and had already enrolled at local colleges when Pecadeso signed them up.

Miyasato’s mother, Jayne Arasaki, was skeptical of Pecadeso’s pledges, so she met with him at the recruiting station.

“He did lie to me,” she said. “He said the Navy would pay for four years of college, and then Cory would be obligated to serve four years.”

The day after she met Pecadeso, he picked up both boys and paid for them to spend the night at an airport hotel, saying they needed to get an early start on medical testing and security clearance at Pearl Harbor.

He promised to have them back by noon, but they weren’t returned until nearly 24 hours later, late for graduation practice. Both of their mothers tried to reach them by phone, but their cell phones were confiscated on base as a security measure.

“They were just going to see what they had to offer,” said Gloria Mauga. “I did not know my child was going to come back enlisted. They couldn’t even call to ask us advice. It’s like they kidnapped our sons.”

There were 2,456 claims of recruiter “irregularities” among 22,000 recruiters and nearly 318,000 new enlistees in 2006, according to the U.S. State Department. Most problems involved “concealment, falsification or undue influence.” About one in five claims was substantiated.