Green card Soldiers

Couple of nice tidbits I realized recently. I interviewed a gentleman a couple years ago who immigrated here to the US when he was 11 yrs old. I did not understand his status because he was working but did not have a green card as of yet. He was 31 and wanted to serve in the military since he had been here for 20 years and wanted to "give something back". I was not able to work with him because he lacked a green card, plus I was also thinking he thought he could get his green card if he joined. He was working legally due to his status somehow, I don't understand all the alien statuses, maybe I should work on that.

Anyways, two years had passed since I met with him and I get a phone call from him. He told me that he now has his green card and he would now like to join. Awesome! So I started processing him to be a mechanic. H e has had a medical stopper that needs to be cleared, but soon he will be a soldier.

What I learned from this is never assume some one's motivations. While I am a staunch supporter of immigration reform to include securing our borders, there are many people that come here in some sort of legal status and most will contribute positively to our society.

Which brings me to my next recruit, Charles. Charles immigrated legally to the US 5 yrs ago from Kenya. he learned English there and graduated high school there. He went through a 5 year process to immigrate here legally with his wife. When he got here he got a GED so he was able to show employers his understanding of the English language. He is 40 yrs old, has 2 young children and now wants to join the military. When I met with him, he said he came across our web site from a search engine as he was researching military information, he did not know the difference between Guard and active, so I told him about both. He has always had an interest in the military and his wife supports him fully. One thing he told me was the isolation he and his African friends felt. They feel they don't get the same information, but granted, its out there, you just need to know how to look. So, like any good recruiter, I asked him if any of his friends would like to look into this, he said off hand he knew of four to five that would probably like this. Immigrant communities are tight knit and usually do not let outsiders in to their peer group, but once you get in and gain their trust, you can reap the benefits (marketing 101) So Charles is testing today and if all goes well, he will be in boots by end of the month, being 40 yrs old, he has extra medical stuff to go through, so it will not be a quick one. MEPS is really slow in that area.

So remember, we do have a number of green card holders in the military that serve honorably to protect our freedoms we are spoiled on and protect their new found freedoms, even though by joining the military, you give up alot of freedoms sort to speak. I even knew a Iranian who actually served in the Iranian military before immigrating to the US legally, I served with him on a mission for a year. Great guy.

So, whenever one deals with an immigrant alien, I stress look past stereotypes and put them in boots. If you them right, they may help you make mission the next couple months without working hard to find them.

Please share any thoughts!!

Recruit the recruiter

That's exactly what I ended up doing. We had one of the recruiters in my office quit in October, yes you can do that in the Guard. Anyways, I met this teacher at one of my high schools who is a substitute for the JROTC. Nice guy, did 9 years in the Corps, is 40 and still in good shape. His senior instructor was joking one day while I was there that he should get a gig like mine. The comment was made that those opportunities do not arise often. Well, I stepped in, talked to him a bit, pulled his scores and he was qualified. So I made my move. Two weeks later, I had him his physical and enlisted. He starts tomorrow. He is so pumped that he is not waiting for his uniforms to come in, he came with me to the PX and spent $200 to get a complete set of ACU's. Motivation, I love it.

I look forward to working with him, his personality will blend in nicely with the four of us already here, he has no apparent baggage that will wear him down like the last guy who left. The last guy has marriage issues, ex wife, baby's momma he was still in love with etc etc.

This also brings to light a trend that I see in the recruiting world, at least in my world, "older" citizens, particularly men, want to serve. I get alot of prior service people as old as 50 want to serve again. Some of the older guys don't cut it medically, but our office has succeeded in putting a couple nearly 50 guys. Granted, they are not combat troops, but the desire to serve, even part time is there.

I am also speaking to alot more 30 somethings about military service. they call me and some end of joining. The oldest person I have enlisted who never served was 38 and went to be a medic. I am excited about this trend, I do tell them about having much younger guys as their NCO's and they are not phased. They come from all walks of life, family guys, single, divorced, laborers and professionals. Their reason for joining usually is service to country or they want a change of career field and look to the military for the training.

The area I see the most lacking is the 23-29 age frame. Most of these young men think they are above military service and I have met some pompous asses for sure. I do find good one in the mix though.

Be assured readers, that as long as I am recruiting, there will be qualified good people who will enlist to protect our freedoms for years to come. They know what they are getting into and no one has ever accused me of lying or hiding something from them.

Till I blog again( I promise it wont be so long)

Loss of a Hero

Received some bad news on Friday. One of our Guard soldiers was killed in Baghdad on Oct 25, from a "penetrating IED". Four others in the hummer where critically injured. I did not know him, but he was about my age and assigned to a the Engineering Battalion that I recruit for. This is the third Virginia Guardsman killed this year. The two others were killed when their Blackhawk was shot down, killing all aboard. I knew one of them by acquaintance. Our state went two years without a deployment death in 2005 and 2006. Seven Virginia Guardsman have died since 2002, two in Afghanistan and five in Iraq. Two were killed in that Christmas time mess tent explosion 2005.

The shaped charge screams Iran made all over it. I believe we will have to deal with that in the near future as well.

I bring these up because it brings back to light the issue every recruiter deals with. Fear of deployment and the thought of getting killed or injured. While I do not downplay the fear, I try not to making it a focus of joining the military. I do address directly. That is the chance we take choosing to serve. We do not have a safe job by any means. yes its great to join the Guard and get all these great benefits, but I never let them forget why we are around. I don't want to scare a young to be warrior, but it is something they will have to deal with and think about if they choose to join our team. Many continue to join, there are no short supply of recruits. Most of my recruits find me before I find them. That's the way it should be, men and women wanting to serve, not me chasing them down asking if they want to join.

October is on track to be the lowest death rate in Iraq yet this year. That would be continued decline since summer over all. Hopefully the surge is working, which it seems to be, and we are taking their will to fight out of them. I do long for the day our troops will all come home, but I hope we do when the job is done and not a day before.

Pray for our troops, pray for the families of the ones we lost so that they may have the strength to continue on.

FY07... the forgotten.

Well, FY07 is behind me. I finished the year above mission and looked like a hero. But now that the new recruiting year has started, I am back to zero. What I did last year does not matter.

As I look back at my enlistments, some were hard, some were easy, but one thing is for sure, I am very proud to enlist all of them but one. The one I am not proud of is a dirt bag, he was joining for the wrong reasons, but whom am I to deny him, if I didn't enlist him someone else would have. He wasn't a criminal or anything, just a dirt bag in general, he had served before, I knew him when he was in before so I judged him appropriately. But he was a number and that's how I treated him.

Alot of my enlistments were to help pay for their college. Some joined to serve their country. And some joined to get some good training, usually mechanics. All of them understood the risks of possible deployments overseas, and they accepted the risks. I hope they are still willing when the call comes for their turn in a combat zone. None yet have come to me asking me how to get out of going to boot camp or anything, they have stayed pretty motivated and the ones that have come back from training have all had positive things to say about their experience. One thing they tell me is that it is exactly as I told them it would be, from the good, bad and ugly.

Not only did I exceed mission, two of my office mates exceeded as well and one just made mission on the last day of the year. Our fifth is new and fell short a couple, but he should do fine. So it was a great year for our team.

I look forward to another year in recruiting, I am already about to roll my first for the year, and should hit three enlistments this month.

We have our awards banquet in a couple weeks, we shall see how I fare. I don't expect much, just a overproduction award for the quarter and year. I do not wish to win the big stuff, then they come to expect it all the time, and I do have a family to hang out with, so recruiting does not consume all my time. This is not USAREC!! Thank-god.

Dale Jr is our boy!

Great news came out yesterday, Dale Jr, will drive the number 88 car sponsored by the National Guard and Amped energy drink. The most recignized name will be associated with our great organization! I don't know what this will do to recruiting, but it will sure bring the Guard to the lime light with him on our team!!

Can't wait until next year when the race comes thru town and I get to take around the Jr car. I like the last two cars design better, more patriotic, but the publicity and excitement he generates is is more than I can do by myself. Marketing just got a bit easier for me.

New view of California.

Last week I took some well deserved vacation. I already achieved mission for recruiting, so my wife and I ventured out to Northern California where my mother now lives. She lives in a suburb of San Francisco, the armpit of liberalism, which I despise. I saw things like medical marijuana clinic ads, lots of advertisements for houses of sin, etc, etc. However, the country side is beautiful! I went to redwood forests, wine country, the northern coastline, isolated lighthouses and even went to Santa Cruz to check out the coveted Mystery Spot. So I decided I would stop campaigning for California to form their own country and secede from the Union. L.A. can do so.

Now one thing I did see was a lot of protests to stop the war, wasn’t surprised there, but I did see a protest hat shocked the hell out of me. I saw protesters with signs to secure our borders!! In California!! There is hope for that state yet. There are people who understand what’s going on and they live there. Yeah for conservatives in California!!

With that said, if you have never visited California, do so, but make it northern California though. Go see the coast, the Golden Gate Bridge and other out of the way places like Point Arena. You will not be sorry.

PS: the above picture won me 2nd place in the state Fair photo contest for "scenec". I got some skillz, woo hoo

Boy, Is USAREC gonna hate me...

So I am sure of all those in the recruiting world have heard that the Guard is going to start recruiting for the active duty as well under a "Active First" program. From the looks of it, a recruit can join the Guard, go active from 30-48 months then go back to the Guard or stay active. I think this is great. We know we will have another Guard member in the future and we fill a need in the active side. The Guard is better at recruiting than active, no fault of their own, most Active army recruiters are forced to recruiting, while Guard is ALL volunteer. In my office we have five recruiters, while the active has 12 to cover the same area. And we out perform them most months. The Army is really good at retaining folks though, we have issues sometimes because of limits in Senior NCO's, it makes keeping people in an issue sometimes.

Anyways... So now I will directly compete with USAREC, and I will win. Why?? Not because I am a better recruiter, because I can guarantee an MOS unlike active, they can sorta but not like we can. Now granted, I wont do that until they pass the ASVAB test, but I can do better than an active recruiter.

I do foresee a reduction in Army recruiters if this works as well for the Guard as I see it, and we will see better Army recruiters in the end, more that want to be there than don't.

Don't hate me USAREC, I didn't make the deal, your bosses did.

PS: is this taunting, don't want it to be.

Just slipped thru my fingers

What a nice start to the month. Not really. I spent the last two weeks prepping this yuong lady to go to MEPS. her husband is in the Guard and she wanted to join also, she liked the idea and really liked the student loan payoff and the tuition assistance. She went to test on Friday night and cut a 59. Good deal, she gets the incentives she wanted with that score. Woke up at 445 am on a SATURDAY, so unlike me, and took her to physical. saturdays are good processing days because they are usually done by noon. So at 1045 I get a call, she is disqualified pending a opto (eye) consult. Darn, but I can live with that. She has a stigmatism, no big deal. So I call her husband who is on his way to watch her swear in from drill and he said he will take her home, his commander gave him the rest of the off since she was joining. So I call back to MEPS to let them know. Then the bomb dropped on me. She will not be doing the opto consult because she is pregnant!! She had no idea. being pregnant makes you ineligible to join. Now I can't be mad at a girl not joining because she's pregnant. So I called her later afetr she told her husbabnd and congratulated them both. I am not discouraged, I got one pending a medical waiver and a high school kid looks as he may join up this next week as well. wanted 3 this month though, but as always in recruiting, I will survive.

Side note, I just extended for six years!! that will take to me 22 yrs for pay and 15 yrs for full time retirement. If I didnt love it I wouldn't have done it. I dont plan on spending it all in recruiting, at least not on the street.

Homestretch

July was a good month for me, like I said before, I am no superstar recruiter, but I do like to overproduce every once in a while. I was able to enlist three new recruits last month and I already got two lined up for next week.

I got one young lady in the GED plus program, I put her in a medical unit as a NBC specialist right in her hometown, and I got a high school senior in the job with her. Then I enlisted a young man who goes to college in the Infantry. I love putting soldiers in combat jobs. Especially when thetas what they want to do and I don't have to push it myself onto them. I never push a job on anyone unless they want to do something they are not qualified to do. I usually re direct their attention to a job most similar to the other and that usually works. the problem we are running into in my state is actually finding vacant jobs that need to be filled. We as a state have already made our end strength for the year and working on next years. Because we are doing so well, they cut bonuses to certain jobs and tightened the restrictions on who can get a bonus. Only 30 jobs get a bonus and whats available to women is slim unless they don't mind being in the mechanic field.

Now granted, there are many other benefits to joining besides bonus money, buts its nice to get it. I just extended my contract for 6 years and I get not one penny of bonus, in fact been in for 13 years and have received $1250 in bonus. But I didn't join for bonus either. Alot of applicants don't ask about a bonus, and when I tell them they are getting 15k or 20k, they are happy about it and think that I hooked them up. I assure them that they qualified for it and that's why they got it, not because I liked them.

I only need 2 enlistments to close out the fiscal year. Two in two months is easy. I will put in three just so I can say I exceeded mission this year. Gives me bonus that a boy points which I may need to cash in later.

Back to beat the street, work this month, relax next, take some leave to Cali to see my mom and go the see some redwoods.

One Foot...

...equals 12 inches, right? I thought this was basic 2nd grade measurements. However, I guess in our great city schools, they must have taken this out of the curriculum. One of my office partners was helping out an applicant who had scored a 30 on the ASVAB, being one point shy, he wanted to see where he was weak at. During the course of going through the four main sections, it was found that he was hurting in word problems. So the recruiter gave him a sample problem that dealt with measurements. He asked the applicant, "How many inches in a foot?" The applicant said he did not know, nor how many feet where in a yard, but knew how many yards were in a football field. Now, keep in mind, this is a high school GRADUATE, that does not know simple measurements. I don't think this kid would get one answer right on the show Are you smarter than a fifth grader? He clearly is not. I wish we did not have to enlist people who are idiots. It does not mean they will not make good soldiers, but they obviously wont make great soldiers.

One more quick story...

I have a kid crying at the airport because he is stressed about his girl while he goes away for 7 weeks to AIT. he already did Basic last summer and did fine. Now he is talking about going AWOL because he is stressed. Stressed??? Some kids are such pansies, I told him I didn't think he would make a good CAV Scout anyways, they want MEN, not boys whop cry about their 16 yr old girlfriend. Did I mention he was 19? God give me strength and find real Americans to help our country and community. He did great in basic and was real motivated. Problem is, if he quits, there is no real recourse. They just discharge him, of course he gives up 44k in college money and 15k bonus and lots of GI bill money 309+200 X 36=$$$$$$. Lots. But if hes weak, then I don't want him in the Guard. Is that bad of me?

Third quarter is a bust

In recruiting its easy to go from hero to zero, and this time I am a zero. Second quarter I was 140% of mission for the quarter and over 100% for the year so far. As of yesterday I am 50% for third quarter (which just ended) and down one for the year. Go figure that one. I had such a bust rate at MEPS this quarter, people fessing up for stuff they didn't bother to tell me, even after scrutiny by office partners.

I am also still waiting on a waiver I submitted June 12, and for some reason still hasn't made it way to NGB. When I ask why, I get a bunch of excuses. But according to my NCOIC, its my fault for not making sure it got there. "Squeaky wheel gets the grease" he says. Well, I guess they must be out of grease, cuz I wasn't squeaking, it was more of a roar.

So anyways, my NCOIC are going to have a conversation about my production. Mind you, they took away 2 of my producing schools and my best zip code to recruit out of to give it to another NCOIC's area for a zip code that has a crappy school, 20% can pass the ASVAB, in a deal that we definitely got a short end of the stick, especially me. So I have 1/2 the area that I get auto leads from and only one school worth anything. I have 2 schools, one is a silver mine, not quite gold, and the other is an inner city school, where we tested 30 kids, and one passed, and she was 300 lbs with asthma and one leg. Now granted, I can achieve my mission, I plan on making 150% this quarter. I will have one this week, if this applicant would have enlisted last week I would not be in a hot seat. But she had drama at home. No drama this week, that makes one down, and 2 to go for July. One lined up as soon as he clears meps with his over 40 yr old stuff and a few more on on the fringe. I will once again be a hero soon enough. Hero means more time for golf in the morning and my NCOIC never visits me.

Wish me luck and good hunting.

The shame...

I know I havent blogged in a while, I will catch up soon.

But this is just down right pathetic. More Guard soldiers screwing up.

Slow start..

...to the month. Not one enlistment yet, but got one on the floor Tuesday, a high school junior who is going Infantry, hooah. he is going to do boot this summer and then AIT after he graduates. Great thing about the Guard and reserves is split option. Then he will help me identify his friends that will go in the guard during his senior year. Him being in JROTC is a big help. Got two more to go this month for sure, two JROTC cadets from the same school as the other. that will make five cadets this year from the same school. Trying to get one more so I can have a rockin month since I am takin time off for leave in June.

Recognized!!

Ok, we had this big event going on in town over the last few days, and being the marketing guy for my station, I organized alot of stuff, many displays, manned them, school visits, helped with the national MET team (our mobile event team)and helped with VIP's and such. Big to do around these parts. With exception of the weather it went off without a hitch.

Anyways, one of the MSG's that works for the National marketing praised me to the NGB SGM of R&R (recruiting and retention). Well, he tracked me down and presented me with a very cool coin.



Anyways, I was very pumped about it, I actually earned this coin, wasn't given tome because I was at the right place right time, etc. I like this coin better than my CNGB 3 star coin or my other 3 star coin from a NGB big wig.

Just thought I would gloat for a bit. Now I need to put some soldiers in boots. haven't enlisted anyone since April 10, but I am still ahead of mission, (woohoo). But will probably have 4 in by months end, 3 non prior service and one prior service. That will keep me well ahead so I can enjoy some leave in June.

Hooah!!

Office partner #1

I work with four other NCO's. Like any good office, we all have distinct personalities. This time I will let you all know about my fellow SFC. He is a former marine who converted to the Guard for recruiting. If you have ever seen "Bob" from the Enzyte male enhancement commercials, you have met my partner in crime, "The Gman". He is always smiling, and at first seems fake with his always positive attitude and such, but believe me it is real. He is also the only guy I know who wears the Army issue foliage green underwear. He will not wear any other color in uniform. He is OCD to the max, and it is too funny. When we first combined offices, (they closed his and moved him to mine) he would work every night until no earlier than 7 pm. Big deal right, Usarec usually works more. But if he had nothing to do, had made mission by the 15th, he would still be there. I did break him of that habit, and he is there past 1730 without and appointment coming in, I give him a hard time. I am sure his family appreciates it.

Gman is also the only recruiter I know who can never leave his desk, which he rarely does, never make a cold call, never have his coffee cup less than half full, and still make mission plus every month. Hows he do it? Referrals from inside and outside of the Guard. He used to be in sales before recruiting, and this guy knows everyone! Gotta love him. I can only hope to get that way with COI's and recruit referrals. So in our office Gamn is the "Lead generator from hell" Heck, he's only been to his High school twice this school year, granted has not enlisted a HS kid yet, but he does specialize in the over 40 crowd, usually prior service. It got so "bad" that one unit gave him a walking cane with an label "presented tot he geriatric recruiter of the year! Too funny!!

Look for more in the future of my office mates.

Out like a Lamb, in Like a Lion

That is how I describe the change in recruiting from April to May. I only rolled one for the month of April when it ended Monday, but I am still ahead for the year. But I have 3 committed ready to roll next week. Do not foresee any issues, and I have been doing this long enough I, rarely lose anyone at MEPS anymore. My goal is for this month, which will have me set year to date up until July. Nice thing to be ahead in recruiting.
This week is race week in my town and that means busy busy busy. We do race week a little different than the Army, they have a multi million dollar interactive carnival at the track. They get a billion leads, or so they think. Now don't get me wrong, law of averages, they will get a few enlistments out of it, but the dollars spent per enlistment is huge, and they probably would have most of those anyways. We have our National show car, take it to high schools, show it off and get some leads that way. Like the Army, kids will fill out a lead card just to get free stuff, them Mom yells at us when we call, fun fun. Then we will be by the Army for a display at the race track on race days. Hmm, people will be confused, two Army displays? So I have to come up with a way to set us apart, since we wear the same uniform and all.

Race week overall is fun, lots of leads to filter through and hopefully get that 1% enlistment rate. Plus other benefits are good, pit passes, hopefully tickets to the Busch race, I give Nextel tickets to COI's, pays back big time. Lots of nice looking country girls who love Nascar and soldiers want to show their appreciation, who am I to Say no?

All this and a paycheck, who can complain! Hooah

God Bless America

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Ted Nugent.

My first blog

Ok, this is my first blog outside of myspace, I was inspired by other recruiters out there such as SGT Lori and Station Commando. I will post about my days in recruiting as I go thru the rollercoaster of emotions this job has.

Guard recruiting is a job I hate some weeks and love the next. It is by far the most challenging job I have ever had. Like most if not all Guard recruiters, I volunteered for this job, there was a need and I filled it. I did it after a 18 month "deployment" to FT Meade, MD for Noble eagle duty. Volunteering for recruiting is not for everyone, I do not recommend to everyone either, it can have long days, weeks, and nights. I have been down as much as four, and up as much as four. Right now this is my best year, I am up 3 right now for mssion year to date and soon to be up 4. Good thing about Guard recruiting is that we have a yearly mission and if we over produce, it carries on to next month. Now that doesnt mean I get to slack the next month (much). I am still expected to get 2 a month, but if I don't, there is no negative counseling statement.

This FY, most of my enlistments are prior service applicants, some have been out as much as 15 years and want back in. Last year, it was all High school kids for me, I even got a High school recruiter award for the year.

Let me make one thing clear, If I worked as hard as I think I do, I would be a great recruiter. I am a decent recruiter, in my office of 5 I am the regulation guru, I need work at closing, after almost 3 years, I still am working on it. I am probably better than I think, but I think I have been really lucky this year. I have been getting people who just WANT to join the Guard. Great for me. Maybe I can use up some of my leave that is getting close to use or lose.

Please comment on my posting and Look forward to some humuorous time in Guard recruiting.

I promise to be nice to my competetion in the field, well, I'll try anyways.