Adventures of a Former Detailed Recruiter

6 April 69
1750

Dear Mom & Dad.
Tomorrow we fly to Danang and my 5 months starts. I probably won't be home till around Sept 12th at the latest no you won't have to worry about me after the first of the month.
I forgot my address book on the dresser so could you please send it in the first package or letter. I didn't mail my uniforms from here, I'll mail it from Nam.
I haven't taken my film yet but if I do I'll send you the stuff to be developed. There isn't much more to write about so I'll stop.

Love,
Chris

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Thursday, June 11, 2009

Nice try

A couple of towns in California passed city ordinances barring military recruiters from contacting minors. This is, of course, news to the Federal Government given that whole "supreme law of the land" and the "Constitutional right to raise an Army" so they're taking these two cities to court.

The other recruiting-related story I read recently (and yes, you'd think that the assassination of a recruiting assistant by an Islamic convert outside a recruiting station would generate more than one day of blurbs, but you'd be wrong) was an editorial from OhMyGov! discussing the Recruiter Incentive Pay program. Oh man, RIP... how I didn't get to use you as much as I wanted to. I shared my concerns about RIP back when it first came out. And while my greatest fear, reducing pay for non-performers, didn't come around, it's still a program that was probably not needed. That the GAO found the Army has done a poor job of tracking and justifying RIP doesn't shock me in the least.

posted by SFC B at 7:01 AM |

Monday, June 01, 2009

Twofer

I know, two posts in a month... on the same day. What the heck is wrong with me?

News about recruiting has been pretty light. There has been no repeat of the "Army enlisting Felons" stories of years past. Instead the DoD puts out the monthly press release saying that all the services have exceeded their missions and they are ignored.

The first bit of recruiting news covers something I don't think I'd seen discussed in the news at all. The reactions of the recruiter who enlisted a Soldier who is killed in combat. I've been fortunate that none of the Soldiers I've enlisted have died. The only Soldier I know from recruiting who has been killed in combat was SSG West. However a Soldier recruited in my station did die while at their duty station, and a station in my recruiting company was where SPC Lori Piestewa enlisted into the Army. They had a memorial to her in their old recruiting station. Not sure if it moved to the new one.

Two HRAPs being shot, and one being killed, is going to be overshadowed by the assassination of Dr. George Tiller in KS. Dr. Tiller was a lightening rod who was involved in one of the most controversial medical practices in our nation. His murder outside his church by some nutjob is a natural magnet for media attention. I had come to accept that violence against recruiters is perfectly acceptable though. After all, they're only recruiters. The murderer of this Soldier was motivated by the exact same hatred and close-mindedness that motivated Tiller's murderer. And while Tiller's death has elicited euologies from everyone who can get near a microphone, a Soldier being gunned down in his hometown drive-by style by a guy who just wanted to kill a Soldier will be unremarked upon by the same people ignoring the continued success of Army Recruiting.

posted by SFC B at 10:55 PM |

Teknalegee

I worked at a grocery store back in Sugar Land, TX the year before I went AGR. Thanks to this experience I consider myself qualified to use the self-checkout aisles at grocery stores. Based on this qualification I have some advice for anyone choosing to use these wonders of technology.

If you have a full cart, use the regular checkout lanes. I know that you think you'll be able to get through quicker, but you're going to fail. Normally I'm happy enough to let you fail on your own, but your failure has now reduced the number of available self-checkout machines, which is going to slow everyone else down.

Don't go through the self-checkout if you have bought more than two bags worth of loose fruits and or vegetables. They don't scan and you don't know the 4-digit number to input. It is going to take you five minutes to look through the "identify by picture" menu on the register to find it. And that's assuming that you can tell the difference between the three different green peppers they have.

They have two different types of registers. There are the ones with the rotating bagging area which can keep like six different bags on the scales. There are also the ones which can only hold three. Do no take a cart with a bunch of items into the three bag area. You will run out of room, take off a bag to make room, and cause the machine to stop because it doesn't know you're a moron who couldn't see that the three bags weren't going to be enough space for your mammoth purchases. It thinks you might be trying to steal and it's trying to stop you from doing that. Wait for one of the larger bagging area machines to open up. You're doing yourself a favor.

posted by SFC B at 10:43 PM |

Monday, May 04, 2009

Buttony sadness

Okay, in case anyone notices that "Donate" button on the right, that is not something which is going to me. As the handful of people reading this know I play Everquest 2. Sadly, one of the people whom I played with, Talons, passed away this past weekend. His wife and one of his nephews is also a member of the guild I'm in and are long-serving members. Talons' passing was unexpected and it has left many folks saddened and missing someone many of us have never met.

Talons was an animal lover with a soft spot for dogs, and his family had benefited from the good deeds of the Shriners Hospital. I had suggested the possibility of the guild pitching in and making a donation in his memory to one, or both, of those organizations. To facilitate that I volunteered my PayPal account.

It will only be up for a short while.

Back to your infrequent recruiting-related ramblings.

posted by SFC B at 5:48 PM |

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Mission Reduction

I'm not sure how credible how this is, but the author is usually dead on. The Army has reduced its enlistment mission from 78,000 to 65,000. Needless to say the only reference to this is a mention in About.com. I doubt I'll be seeing that "Army recruiting felons" story this year. I'm kind of sad really. Those always made for a good read.

As SSG K had mentioned a while ago, since things are rough in the civilian world, the military, and the Army specifically, is flourishing as a result. People who has considered the Army their "last option" are finding that the option is saying "Thanks, but no thanks. I've got plenty of people more qualified than you looking to enlist." I don't envy the recruiters currently working in this environment at all. More power to them. Enjoy the mission success. With this reduction and the influx of qualified people, I do hope that recruiters and USAREC are taking the opportunity to focus on pushing people into the commissioned officer side of the house. While the enlistment and retention numbers are rocking I know that the Army Reserve, at least, is still hurting for junior officers. I do hope that the recruiting companies are taking advantage of these tough times to push those college-educated folks with a clean background and a qualifying ASVAB to do an OCS packet.

posted by SFC B at 7:18 AM |