The Army quickly pulled one of its ads Monday after realizing that a soldier featured in the recruiting video is a convicted rapist.
A leaked document obtained by Business Insider on the 15-second ad entitled “Honor” shows that the ad aired on May 8 and was removed by May 15, although by that time, it had already played 245 times.
The Army discovered that one of the images in the ad showed a soldier who had been convicted of rape.
This soldier has been identified former Army Spc. Nicholas Marcum, who raped a 15-year-old girl and was sentenced to 20 years in prison starting July 14, 2014. He was a friend of the girl’s family and reportedly gave alcohol to the girl.
Marcum, 28, was formerly stationed at Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks, Alaska.
He’s currently serving out his sentence in Fort Leavenworth, Kan. At the end of his sentence, Marcum will be dishonorably discharged from the Army.
“All soldiers, civilians, and family members are vetted prior to filming in any national or local advertising effort. However, participants are not usually vetted a second time if images are later used,” Army Maj. Avon Cornelius wrote in the document about the incident.
“We have put in place measures to ensure secondary vetting of images in all future productions to minimize any similar circumstance occurring again,” Cornelius added.
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