AP reports one very good reason the US is having difficulty with their recruitment efforts. Apparently your chances of being raped during an interview with a recruiting officer are slightly higher than during a back alley confrontation with Ted Bundy.

More than 100 young women who expressed interest in joining the military in the past year were preyed upon sexually by their recruiters. Women were raped on recruiting office couches, assaulted in government cars and groped en route to entrance exams.    

A six-month Associated Press investigation found that more than 80 military recruiters were disciplined last year for sexual misconduct with potential enlistees. The cases occurred across all branches of the military and in all regions of the country.     

“This should never be allowed to happen,” said one 18-year-old victim. “The recruiter had all the power. He had the uniform. He had my future. I trusted him.”     

At least 35 Army recruiters, 18 Marine Corps recruiters, 18 Navy recruiters and 12 Air Force recruiters were disciplined for sexual misconduct or other inappropriate behavior with potential enlistees in 2005, according to records obtained by the AP under dozens of Freedom of Information Act requests. That’s significantly more than the handful of cases disclosed in the past decade.

The AP also found:     _The Army, which accounts for almost half of the military, has had 722 recruiters accused of rape and sexual misconduct since 1996.    

 _Across all services, one out of 200 frontline recruiters – the ones who deal directly with young people – was disciplined for sexual misconduct last year.     

_Some cases of improper behavior involved romantic relationships, and sometimes those relationships were initiated by the women.     

_Most recruiters found guilty of sexual misconduct are disciplined administratively, facing a reduction in rank or forfeiture of pay; military and civilian prosecutions are rare.     

_The increase in sexual misconduct incidents is consistent with overall recruiter wrongdoing, which has increased from just over 400 cases in 2004 to 630 cases in 2005, according to a General Accounting Office report released this week…

Stories are available on the site, but here’s one that’s rather definitive:  

Ethan Walker, who spent eight years in the Marine Corps including a stint as a recruiter from 1998 to 2000, said he was warned.     

“They told us at recruiter school that girls, 15, 16, are going to come up to you, they’re going to flirt with you, they’re going to do everything in their power to get you in bed. But if you do it you’re breaking the law,” he said.     

Even so, he said he was initially taken aback when he set up a table at a high school and had girls telling him he looked sexy and handing him their telephone numbers.     

“All that is, you have to remind yourself, is that there’s jail bait, a quick way to get in trouble, a quick way to dishonor the service,” he said.     

All of the recruiters the AP spoke with, including Walker, said they were routinely alone in their offices and cars with girls. Walker said he heard about sleepovers at other recruiting stations, and there was no rule against it. There didn’t need to be a rule, he said. The lines were clear: Recruiters do not sleep with enlistees.     

“Any recruiter that would try to claim that, ‘Oh, it’s consensual,’ they are lying, they are lying through their teeth,” he said. “The recruiter has all the power in these situations.”

But seriously, it’s not as if the military isn’t taking these issues seriously. Not only are they giving these men reassignments off the frontlines of recruiting, but they’re replacing them with simulated humans, so that no delicate teen will be put off by the inept sexual advances of Officer Inappropriately Friendly, at least not prior to signing up.

Army sergeants usually inspire fear. Not Sergeant Star. He’s soft-spoken, approachable and, well, kinda cute. Oh, and he’s not human. Star is the U.S. Army‘s newest recruiter–a camo-wearing avatar at GoArmy.com who answers questions IM-style. He’s straightforward: Ask “Will I go to Iraq?” and he’ll say it’s “likely.” If he’s stumped, Star will direct you to a live recruiter, who is waiting to chat. [haven’t we all heard about those?]

Star‘s debut on Aug. 2 was the Army‘s first step toward the planned October unveiling of its new interactive Web portal. Thousands have chatted with Star, typically staying on-site for 15 minutes–three times as long as the average visit before he went live.

Major Brad Van Poppel, who works on the Web-outreach program, credits Star‘s “cool factor” and says he’s fulfilling his mission: “When 85% of teenagers are online every day, the Army wants to be there.”