New Year Changes

Well, last week I saw the end of FY06 and the beginning of FY07.

Some important lessons were learned and milestones were set in FY06:
#1. I completed mission for the 2nd year in a row - something the previous 4 recruiters were unable to accomplish for even one year.

#2. I somehow managed to enlist 27 non-prior-service applicants. At the same time I managed to not enlist 1 prior service applicant. The top recruiter in our state enlisted like 12 PS.

#3. I learned that if I stay above mission my NCOIC will finally stay off my back and bother the other team members who are behind mission - Something that he did not do last year.

#4. Out of all my 27 enlistments, 3 were temporarily disqualified at MEPS and enlisted a week later. I did not have one applicant permanently disqualified at MEPS in FY06 - Please call the Guinness Book of World Records.

#5. I watched my brother's old office partner enlist 52 people in less than one year making him the top recruiter in the state.

#6. My recruiting team somehow managed to be the top recruiting team in the entire state of Minnesota - how this happened I'll never know. Honestly, I think it kind of fell in our laps - through a lot of hard work. We are now going to a "training" conference in Hawaii

#7. I learned that GED babies that the other services can't enlist can be my best friend. I would like to thank the Marines for 2 enlistments, and the Army and Navy for 1 each.

#8. I learned that the Guard Recruiting Assistance Program (G-Rap) isn't God's gift to recruiting problems like it was made out to be. It does, however, make my job much easier.

#9. I learned that the Rookie of the Year earns an Army NCO Sword while the top recruiter, who beat him by 22 enlistments, only earns himself a hunting knife.

#10. I learned that there are no limits on how stupid people can be. I never thought I'd see a guy pretest a 4 - but after giving him two other pretests he only proved to be the dumbest man I'll ever meet. After randomly guessing on the computer pretest and scoring a 21 myself, I used to think you had to be smart to get a 4 - i.e. knowing the correct answer and picking the wrong one on purpose - but this kid proved me wrong.

#11. I learned that hitting a raccoon at 70mph will totally shatter your front bumper.

#12. I learned that I'd rather keep my '04 Stratus than take a brand new POS Malibu after driving it for 3 hours - sorry to rub it in SFC B.

#13. For some weird reason, the school I got the most enlistments out of never let me in the classroom once.

#14. For an equally weird reason, the school that lets me in the classroom as if I'm a substitute teacher didn't pan out any enlistments.

#15. Finally, I learned that paperless packets aren't really paperless - especially when it comes to prior service.

So the new recruiting year has now begun. What's nice is that technically FY06 doesn't end till 9/30, but everything I get now, counts towards FY07. So October is kind of like a 6 week month for me.

FY07 brings about some changes, but before I get to that let me tell you how things used to be and why the other services hate me so much.

Recruiting for the National Guard is a lot easier than it is for the other services. An enlistment is an enlistment either way - Non-prior-service, prior-service, Glossary-non-prior-service, it doesn't matter. If I wanted to enlist 24 PS in a year, that'd be OK. So the other services hate me since it doesn't matter who I enlist. I don't have a quota of 20 NPS and 4 PS or anything weird like that - I just enlist 'em as they come.

I also don't have to worry about education like they do. I can enlist HS Juniors, the only other service that can say that is the Army Reserve - but I believe that the applicant must score a 50 or higher on the ASVAB. For me I only care that they score a 31 or higher. I can enlist as many homeschoolers and GED babies as I want - and it doesn't matter what their AFQT is. Sure they have to take the AIMS test, but I've never seen anybody fail that - if you can even fail it.

I also don't have to worry about a DEP program - my unit takes care of that through the Recruit Sustainment Program (RSP). If a kid gets ants in his pants and doesn't ship - no worries on my end! I don't lose credit.

My state also blows every other service out of the water when it comes to educational benefits. I have Federal Tuition Assistance paying 50% of tuition. On top of that I have State Tuition Reimbursement paying 100% of total tuition COST, not what the soldier paid - for a total of 150% of your tuition paid for while in college. ON TOP OF THAT, I have the Reserve Component Montgomery G.I. Bil at $297 per month, tax free. If an applicant scores a 50 or higher on the ASVAB I can give them another $200 a month on top of the G.I. Bill. If an applicant is a senior or grad I can give them $350 a month instead of $200 on top of the G.I. Bill AND guarantee them they won't deploy for 2 years AFTER they complete training - the "College First" program. I can offer them free ACT, SAT, GED, and CLEP testing.

If the above paragraph weren't enough, I can give them $2000 for enlisting a friend and give them rank, AND free health care for a year. If they don't want to enlist a friend for health care, I can give them TriCare Reserve Select - full TriCare for a decently low monthly price.

Can you see why SFC B and Station Commando hate my kind?

The only thing to change this year is, unfortunately, training-pipeline-losses - what SFC B and SC call a "DEP Loss". If an enlistment of mine doesn't ship to BCT I do lose credit - maybe. Our state is one of the first states to start doing this for the National Guard and the way their doing it is kind of nice. If I do everything in my power, everything I'm supposed to do to ensure a kid ships, but still doesn't ship - not my fault, I keep credit. Even if a girl gets pregnant, or a kid gets in legal trouble - not my fault, I keep credit.

I'm not really worried about it, my ship rate was 90% and the 2 kids that didn't ship were out of my control.....

FY07 has been off to a weird start for me. I interviewed a kid the other day and when I was there I realized he might not be the brightest bulb on the branch. I sent him off to take the pretest and his father and I talked. Turns out he has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome! When I talked to the kid I asked him if he has ANY medical problems, he said "no." I talked to both mom and dad and neither of them mentioned that he has FAS! The even crazier part, his dad is PS and ADMITTED to me that he knows his son can't enlist! WHY DID YOU WASTE MY TIME?! To top it off - his son is already on SSI.......

Another weird, but very funny thing happened on Sunday at the local VFW. I was sitting with my normal group of "friends" and thought somebody brought their grandmother. "Judy" was sitting at our table and it turned out she was the sister of one of my older friends - she was 73-years-young. I don't know how the subject got brought up but Judy started talking about her son who is friends with an Army recruiter. She looked at me and said, "I asked my son, aren't you ashamed to be friends with him?" "huh?!" "I said to him, aren't you ashamed to be friends with somebody like that, some vulture out to prey on kids to send them to die for the antichrist and his cronies?!" Needless to say I was speechless - so I let her go on her tantrum. After a while she looked at me and asked, "What do you do for a living anyway?" I smiled deep inside as I replied, "Well, funny you should ask, I'm a recruiter for the Army National Guard."

"OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! AREN'T YOU ASHAMED AT WHAT YOU DO FOR A LIVING?!"

The look on her face was priceless!

One of my favorite past times is debating anti-war folk so I decided to take this little old lady on. It sounds sick, I know, but she was asking for it. Remember that we're in the friggin' VFW! I tried to debate her, I really did try. But I couldn't get a word in. Every time I tried to counter her argument or present mine she would reply, "Oh shut up little boy, you've been brainwashed by the antichrist!" (Evidentally both Bush and Cheney are the antichrist - I thought the bible said it was only one man but maybe I'm wrong) I even told her I'm a college educated man, that I couldn't be brainwashed, but she wouldn't have none of it. Eventually she got really mean.

It was karaoke night at the V - OK, I'll admit it, I like to sing karaoke and am apparently a good singer - and when I went up to sing after our "conversation" she waited till I got on stage to stand and yell - "BUSH LOVER GET OFF THE STAGE!" What was even more funny is that I was singing American by God's Amazing Grace by Luke Stricklin and when I was done I got a standing ovation and a huge round of high fives which completely drowned out the next singer (she wasn't very good anyway). Several rounds of beer were offered by other patrons, but I don't drink so I had to respectfully decline.

Wow, this post has been going on for a long time now. I guess my muse is working good tonight!

Before I go, I have to thank the person who nominated my video on Digg.com - my traffic rose 5x since you did that! I went from 4 readers, to about 20 readers! But I suppose those 16 people will become bored with my blog and leave me forever, but who knows, maybe I'll attract a few new readers!

-Guardsman

For Your Viewing Pleasure

sgWell ladies and gentlemen, a huge part of what I've been working on is FINALLY finished. I suppose I should give you an idea of what you're about to view....... Well, you've all heard the song American Soldier by Toby Keith and I hope you have all heard the inspiring speech from LTC R. White. I've taken the two and combined them with clips from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Without further adieu:

There is one part of the video that I was actually present for - can you tell me which part it was?

Share as you'd like via traffic only. Please do not link to this video as I pay for my bandwidth. I will post to Military.com and other sites soon enough.

-Guardsman

UPDATE: I noticed an error in the compiling of the video - will have it fixed soon.

UPDATE: 9/22 - Video fixed. Video uploaded to YouTube. Watch for a higher quality version uploaded to Google Video soon. Video submitted to Military.com "Shock & Awe". If you have other suggestions of places to submit the video please email or say so in comments.

UPDATE: 9/22 - Video uploaded to Google Video

9/11 and Mission Complete

I wasn't able to do a post on 9/11 as I had planned to because I was at MEPS. Now that it's 3 days later I feel almost foolish and silly talking about it - but better late than never.

There isn't much I can't say about 9/11 that somebody hasn't already said, probably much better than I could. But like everybody else I remember 9/11 like it was yesterday....

I had been in the Guards since 1999, my senior year in High School (I just made a lot of people feel old didn't I?) and was getting ready for my first State Active Duty Mission. I had missed last floods in Fargo/Moorehead because I was still at training. I received my orders to report to Camp Ripley at 1800hrs on 9/11/01 for pre-deployment training. I was in college at the time and decided to skip all my classes that day so I didn't have to worry about getting to post late - so I was sleeping in. While I was sleeping I heard my cell phone ring - I ignored it wanting to get some much needed sleep. Suddenly it rang again - this time I sent them straight to voice mail; I figured if they really wanted to talk to me they'd leave a message. Not 10 seconds later my cell phone rings again, this time I figured it must be important. Groggily I answer the phone hearing my mom on the other end telling me to turn on Fox News (she knows I watch nothing else). I'm still pretty sleepy at this point so I have no idea what she's talking about. She tells me to turn on the TV and I ask her why. "Because we're getting attacked at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon! That's why!" I turn it on and tell her what the TV is saying. She tells me to watch it and she'll call me back in a little bit for more details because they don't get much information at work. I'm watching the TV trying to figure out what the hell is going on, not knowing that America knew just about as much as I did at the time. As I'm watching, I see the camera zoom in on a plane flying fast over the NYC skyline - then the terrible happens. I watch the plane crash into the 2nd tower.......

Anybody who knows me will know that the first words out of my mouth were "What the FUCK?!"

Right away I knew something was wrong - America was under attach and now we're at WAR. I picked up the phone and called the Armory to find tell them I'm there in 18 min if the call comes. Some may think this is a weird reaction, but it was the only one I had at the time. The way my mind saw it, I joined the Army National Guard to serve my Community, State, and Country - all 3 were under attack in my eyes and I was ready to go.

Unfortunately that call never came - the only call that came was my unit telling me that the pre-deployment training was still on.

I watched the news as much as possible, but then eventually it came time for me to finish packing and leave. I put on my uniform and stepped out the door only to be hounded by every neighbor on my block. I don't blame them, they're watching America get attacked on live TV, then they see a guy in BDUs throw duffel bags in his car. I could see the desperation in their eyes. They needed answers, and they needed them now. Some had family in NYC, some just felt insecure. I didn't have an answer for them, so I politely explained that I know as much as they did and that I have to go.

The next few days were a whirl-wind of training and watching the news - at every meal the chow-hall was dead silent as everyone stared at the TV. All I knew is that I had to go fight whoever did this. I knew that it was my duty to go over and avenge this horrid attack. Unfortunately that chance never came up either because it wasn't much after that, that I had a hernia and was un-deployable.

I know I was young back then - 19-years-old to be exact - but I was mature enough to see how much America had changed because of that fateful day. I saw an America that I had not seen in my life. I saw a united America - an America PROUD to be American! I saw the America that Ronald Regan had built but I had only read about in history books.

Looking back on that time 5 years ago I am saddened to see that the America that emerged after 9/11/01 is no longer here. It has been buried by partisan politics and a hateful media. America is once again a divided America. This division, in my point of view, is what is causing America to be less safe - not Operation Iraqi Freedom. While we're busy fighting and bickering amongst ourselves about things that don't really matter, the terrorists are still plotting how to hit us once again. And while we all look at the left and look at the right, most Americans aren't realizing that the enemy is sneaking up behind us about to slit our throat.

In the end, it doesn't matter if you're a liberal or conservative, democrat or republican, rich or poor - the terrorists want us all dead. If people only paid attention they would realize that the message the terrorists are sending is, "Convert or die". If the media only reported it people would know that there is no easy way to deal with this and that if we let our guard down for just one minute, they will attack again without regard to your political affiliation.

We must not ever forget that day 5 years ago. It was a day that so many innocents needlessly lost their lives. It was a day that brought to head a war that had been waged under most people's radar for years. It was a day that brought America together to appreciate how great America really is. It was a day people realized that freedom isn't free. As we remember that day, lets not forget the lessons that came alone with it or the brave men and women who lost their lives that day.

---

So 9/11/06 was a little different for me - I spent most of it in the car driving here and there for my schools and getting source documents for my applicant, then finally driving to the cities for MEPS. Luckily I have XM radio in the car and was able to listen to much of the coverage of the day. After I got to the hotel I had really had too much of it - I needed to turn it off and let my brain settle down from all the emotional and informational overload it had suffered throughout the day. I ended up hanging out with my NCOIC the whole night and we never even brought it up - I think we both realized that as much as we need to remember that day, we also need to move forward.

The next day my guy enlisted making 24 contracts for the year in my database - 27 contracts actually written but because of some drug deals that were made in years past I only get credit for 24. I have finished my yearly mission (finally). Our fiscal year doesn't technically end till 30 Sept but our command has it ending on the 18th for various reasons. I'm kind of happy because anything after the 18th counts towards next FY. I am now trying to find 1 or 2 people to go down Sunday for Monday because I want to be +1 for the year, but I'm doubting it'll happen.

Anyway, yay for me, I finished my yearly mission. Only one more year left..... "Too easy!"

-Guardsman

Guardsman is Victorious!

MEPS just could not keep me down!

So my guy last Tuesday got and open in the eyes for refraction - MEPS wanted to schedule his consult for September 14th! I had other plans. I talked to my Senior MEPS GC and got the right paperwork to send to his eye doctor. Submitted said paperwork to MEPS on this Tuesday waiting for the Doc to DQ him, also figuring I wouldn't get an answer till next week. Well apparently the doctor likes me now because he read the consult on Wednesday and cleared him for processing enlist only!

SWEET!

So I called my guy on Wednesday and got him ready to process on Thursday - life just couldn't get any better, could it?

Yes it could!

I had a guy that I needed to do some records checks on - they came back clean and told him to come to my office. He comes in, signs the pre-screen and 680 and says he wants to go to MEPS ASAP. "How's about Thursday for Friday?" He tells me he couldn't leave till 6pm on Thursday, thus making it impossible for him to night test.... So I call MEPS and see if there is an SDP (Same day processor for you readers that somehow found my blog other than my 5 actual readers) and turns out nobody had reserved the SDP for Friday! Could this get any better?!

Thursday I wake up knowing it's going to be a good day - the sun is shining, my brother called to tell me I'm going to be an uncle again, all my split-option trainers are back to school getting me leads, and I've got 2 guys going to MEPS to finish my yearly mission.

Life was good.....

So the SDP kid is supposed to call me when he gets in town to meet me to go to MEPS. He's supposed to call no later than 6pm. Cool, I can putz around for a while.....

Then, to quote SFC B, the recruiting Gods decided to punish me......

6pm comes and goes, no word from him. At 6:30 I call his house and get an answering machine, I leave a message.

7pm, answering machine again.....

7:30pm, Mom answers! Mom has no idea where he is, but is glad I called because she's got a few questions. I answer them and she says it sounds like a good idea.

8pm, Dad answers, no idea where he is.

8:30pm, Dad answers again and says he's in the bathroom - Dad assures me he'll have him call me as soon as he gets out of the bathroom....

8:35pm, I call and cancel his hotel reservation

9pm, brother answers and he's apparently gone to the gas station for a min (so much for calling me when he's done taking a shit huh?) Knowing all is lost I just go home. My only hope is that something came up and we leave at 1am.

10pm, kid calls me! Now we're getting some where.... or not.
Me: Hey man! Did you forget about me today?
Him: No.... um... I couldn't call because the phone was unavailable till about 10 min ago
Me: Really, that's weird, I talked to your Mom at 7:30, she said you weren't home.
Him: Well... um.... ah....
Me: Dude, seriously, do you wanna do this or what?
Him: Please don't be mad....
Me: Honestly, I won't be mad if you're not going to join, I'll find somebody else; I'm confidant of that. What I AM mad about is that you told me you'd call me or come to the Armory at 6 and you didn't call or anything. At least give me the common courtisy of a phone call - at least respect me enough and be man enough to call me and tell me you're not going to do it.
Him: Well.... ah....
Me: I mean I know I don't have the most active social life in the world, but I DO have a life. I have better things to do than sit at the Armory waiting for you to not show up.
Him: Well I told you, the phone wasn't available....
Me: Man, at least have enough respect for me to NOT lie to me.
Him: I'm not lying!
Me: Yes you are, you were at the skate park(I'm bluffing)
Him: How'd you know that?!
Me: I told you, I own this town. Nothing goes down without me knowing about it. (Pretty much true, I'm really good at making relationships in the community so I do find out about everything)
Him: Oh..... well, yeah, I, um....... decided that...... I'm not going to do it.
Me: Was that hard?
Him: No
Me: So what's going on? What changed your mind from yesterday?
Him: Nothing.
Me: Huh?!
Him: I was just rushing into the decision.
Me: So you want to think about it and then call me back in day or two?
Him: I'm just not interested.
Me: Alright man. That's all you had to say. Got any friends that might be interested?
Him: No.
Me: OK, take it easy then......
Him: Later [Click]

NNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well now I have to wake up at 3am to pick up my other guy so I go to bed

3am comes and I'm in the shower, getting ready to enlist ONE person. On the way to his house, 2 and a half hours down the road from me, he texts me. The conversation goes like this:

Him: Will they do a breathalizer on me when we get down there?
Me: Why?
Him: Because I don't think I'll pass one
Me: Are you totally blitzed or just over the legal limit?
Him: You'll probably get drunk being around me?
Me in the car: SHIT! + lots of other swear words
Me in text: Are you serious?
Him: No
Me: What?!
Him: I love fucking with you
Me: I hate you, be at your house in 10 min.

I pick him up, drop him off at MEPS at 10 to 8 and the GCs say he's good to go - don't worry about it. I've heard that before, but they tell me to go run the numerious errands I always have when I'm down there. I have to go to clothing and sales so I leave MEPS. My phone rings, it's my NCOIC. He tells me I have to go to the ROC (Recruiting Operations Center, our HQ) for a conference call. These are usually not fun. This one, was actually pretty good - I didn't even get yelled at for losing SDP kid. All my SGM said was "Shit happens.... find another one".

Anyway, my guy enlisted, so now I've only got 1 left to complete mission. I've got 1 guy who I'm getting parental concent (PC) signed on Sunday and another one in the funnel.

It's drill weekend, and I've got to get up early so I'm going to try to end this soon....... but it was a kind of productive last 2 days, but extremely stressful! Thank god I have a wedding to go to this weekend - I don't care about the wedding, I just want to party it up at the reception!

If you didn't notice, SGT Lori is shutting down her blog so make sure you swing by and give her a fond farewell.

-Guardsman

Fallen Soldier

Today I found out a Minnesota Army National Guard soldier, SSG Josh Hanson, died on Wednesday in Iraq. I already did a post about it on my brother's blog, you can find that here: JusticeSoldier.com - Honoring the Fallen

-Guardsman