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Army apologizes for sending soldiers ‘last-minute’ recruiting orders
Those who attend can receive accelerated promotions and cash bonuses.
By Davis Winkie
Throughout the week, noncommissioned officers across the Army have received notices through their branch managers and other officials that the service needs more recruiting NCOs — and it needs them fast.
According to requisition emails posted to social media channels like Army Reddit, the Army is seeking volunteers to attend recruiting school as soon as Nov. 6, and has waived a host of standing qualifications in order to boost attendance. But other users reported receiving notifications for involuntary orders directing them to attend the course at Fort Knox, Kentucky.
After public outcry about the move and instruction from Gen. Randy George, the service’s chief of staff, the Army’s top personnel officer, Lt. Gen. Doug Stitt, spoke with reporters Wednesday and apologized “to the soldiers and the families that received this last-minute notification” and told reporters “that mistake is mine.”
Apology noted, but I don’t see the orders being rescinded. Winners of the recruiter lotto may submit a hardship waiver and good luck with that. Stitt’s advisor SGM Christopher Stevens called them “volunteer Army-selected recruiters.” More like volun-told. Be all you can be, be a salesman.
Category: Big Army
Having more “salesmen” doesn’t always equate to getting more “customers” to buy your perceived tarnished product. Good luck Sergeants…y’all gonna need it.
Once upon a time; long, long ago; I received a set of TDY orders when I was assigned to the fort formerly known as Polk. To wit, carry my young punk 19E ass to fort Ben Harrison to attend ‘Bull $hit Artist’ (recruiter) school. Yep, 6 weeks later I are a ‘cruiter. Got my not so happy ass sent to Socal to report to the Redlands recruiting company and then further assigned to the Upland station. The good thing was I only lasted 6 months until the powers that be decided that I was not going to make mission box every month. so, I got to go back to the MTOE Army.
At least you managed to keep your stripes and sanity.
I was the Navy nuclear field recruiter for NRD Los Angeles many moons ago. I knew it was going to such, but 1–I knew I was getting out, 2–I knew I was staying in SoCal, 3–I had just gotten married, 4–I figured I could network for post-Navy career.
I should have stayed at sea. The shady shit I saw there blew my faith in the system. After about 6 months of hitting high schools, junior colleges, etc., trying to drag up kids to go nuke, it’s a wonder I didn’t just go playing dodgeball on the 405.
Can you put to rest something for me? Do Navy recruiters really get a fat bonus if they ship a kid on a Nuke Waste contract? Or is this just internet lies?
One or two, nope, but if you’re lucky enough to live in an area that produces a lot of them (think 8-10 per year) I’ve seen recruiters get command advancement to E-6 and in one case E-7, which for Navy is a HUGE deal. Usually if you get a couple in a month or something of that nature you might get a Navy Achievement Medal, but that’s about it.
Wait……wait……if there aren’t enough qualifying (millennials, overweight, weakling, criminal records, school dropouts, druggies) potential civilians to recruit, and having MOORE recruiters is going to help get them in the door and sign on the dotted line? W-T-Actual-F!?
They had me at “…waived a host of standing qualifications.”
I’m curious to find out what regulations were waived so I know what to expect in terms of negative publicity. What could possibly go wrong?
No biggie, just being overweight and or a PT failure.
And in a way it makes sense. If we’re trying to recruit out of shape fat kids to join, this guy is going to know where to look.
…
Probably any field grade Art 15s. I had a friend get orders as an E5 and he was pumped for it. Actually WANTED it, despite all the horror stories. Then they found out he had gotten a field grade 6 years earlier and canceled his orders.
Wonder if they will over look hot pissing and PT failures too?
Maybe.
I saw a recruiter ask his E-7 and get permission no less to wear a Ranger Tab because it was the only way kids would talk to him.
Recruiting–where careers and souls go to die.
Used to be one of the big E-6 Branch Quals: Recruiter, Drill or Career. Though you could also go to RTB and walk.
From 2010-onward (when I was eligible for selection to SFC), the Memorandum of Instruction for the Infantry selection boards usually included Recruiter as one of the top considerations, with it being considered number one at least once (over even Ranger and Drill Sergeant). It was ignored, of course, and each Infantry selection board AAR would show selection rates by SQI (Airborne, Recruiter, etc.), EIB holder or not, and unit. Specialized regiments like 75th Ranger and The Old Guard usually have higher selection rates, Airborne helps while Ranger or Drill Sergeant have higher than average rates, and Recruiter usually had the lowest rate, below even a non-SQI holder.
Stationed in the Detroit area during the late 60’s and had the lads from Wayne State lined up at my door. Remember, if they dropped to a certain grade level, they were draft material. EZ duty.
But it got easier. Got orders to a mid size town in Iowa. There was a Senior CPO and myself. But get this – our goal was ZERO. So we sat there, sent in our weekly reports, met our goal for 3 months of ZERO and got a case of coffee cups from the Navy Recruiting District Omaha with the CO’s Special Recognition. Good times but they closed the office after 5 months. As FJB would say “true story”. BZ
I think I’ll sign up to be a recruiter! With less than seven months until I sign out on terminal leave, I’m going to go sit in an office and regale weak-bodied people of dubious gender with stories of how the army used to be. I’ll also lie and tell them, no, the army won’t pay for your transition. Then I’ll lie to the army and certify these potential recruits as clean-living, morally straight, having passed the ASVAB with flying colors, and ready to ship today! Then I’ll go yak in the toilet for having compromised all my standards. On second thought, I’ll just stick it out here in my office.
It might help recruiting (slightly), it’s damn sure gonna hurt retention (bigly).
Desperation to make recruitment numbers is really taking hold.
Anything…ANTHING…to get a warm body into a seat.
Lowering of standards, increasing the bribe, front running deployment dates, etc.
The end consequences of the destruction the military with woke marxist ideology.
Job for Beau Bergdahl– I did it, you can too… sign up now!
Is he getting court martialed again or what? Conviction (and his Dishonorable Discharge) get overturned, ya know.
In the meantime, his *ss has to do something. Recruiting duty!
“Accelerated promotions”…maybe for “soft skill” MOS’. Ask me and a bunch of other grizzled SSGs on Sand Hill in the mid-2000s how our heavily valued broadening assignment helped us get promoted. There were some, one was a Gold Badge SFC who made E-8 within his first couple of cycles, but he may have been an E-7, or at least promotable, when he did that duty. A lot of us had been voluntold to go Recruiter, then spent years afterward as effectively tainted product. Despite MOIs directing selection boards to consider successful recruiting duty as a top priority, those 11 and 18 Series E-9s seemed to view us as simply having shirked our Infantry NCO duties for three years.
On the other hand, I knew plenty of Quartermaster, Ordnance, and other CMF Soldiers who made E-7 and higher ranks quickly after their tour. Then, of course, you have the virtual guarantee of getting SFC if you convert to 79R. Chances of making it higher are much slimmer, but if you’re an 88M (truck driver), that’s a surefire way to make it past SSG.
I presume these soldiers who were picked at the last minute have the obligated contractual time to attend recruiter school and their next assignment.
I suspect if that isn’t waived, some will leverage that to remain on station and EAS.
I don’t know anything about recruiting, as I was never a recruiter and never recruited. It was entirely at my own initiative that became a Regular Army infantry officer. But I fail to see how more reluctant recruiters will solve the Army’s enlistment shortfalls. The unwilling or uncaring trying to recruit the reluctant few who qualify seems like a formula for failure. Maybe they should focus on recruiting gays, lesbians and trannies who want free drugs and surgery. The butch Lezbianese especially like wearing uniforms and doing the manly jobs; and they are mostly deployable.
“But I fail to see how more reluctant recruiters will solve the Army’s enlistment shortfalls.”
They won’t. Recruiting is extremely hit or miss. It depends on your personality, your location, how supportive your leadership and peers are, and of course, current events.
Personality: I am an introvert who is capable of public speaking and engaging with strangers, but who was never going to be effective at “selling” the Army. I did extremely well in Recruiter School but hit the ground face first upon reporting for the duty.
Location: walk-in quality markets equal success, other areas like Baton Rouge, not so much. Between low-quality schools and dropout rates, it was hard to find qualified Applicants in the city. Outlying areas usually produce either college-minded or vocational-minded individuals. It’s hard to talk someone out of going to LSU or taking a job making $30/hr. welding.
Leadership and peers: senior 79Rs found their success and it’s hard for them to fathom why a subordinate is unable to replicate that. Your peers, both 79R and Detailed Recruiters, are often seeking to be or remain successful. Let an aspiring Station Commander find some Prospect contact info on your desk or see you engage with a potential Applicant. Odds are good that at the earliest opportunity they’ll put that person in.
Current events: beating a dead horse here, but everyone see our current and recent “leadership”. Many of us suspect we’ll be getting more directly involved with Ukraine and/or Israel. Where the motivation to want to serve, and how many voluntold Recruiters would rather do what they knew for so long and deploy versus talking to uptight parents and their ignorant kids?
Well…I’m not SAYING anything but……..COMING IN 2024!!!!!!!!!!!
OVUM – Officially Voluntary, Unofficially Mandatory.
Waiving school requirements and guaranteeing promotion to E6…WHATS THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN!!!
Army of Me.
Here’s what they fail to tell you….
Brilliant!
I got to tell you, man.
To join the Army these days, you have to be a full retard. They don’t even get a pension after 20 fukin years!!!
The new system is designed to pump and dump. But there is no war going on right now to pump and dump. So nobody is going to join.
I joined for the fight. I didn’t even fukin know about retirement or leave, or tuition assistance, or BAH, or anything.
I was a brand new citizen, and I was here to do my duty smoking the motherfucker muslim bitches that attacked our country.
Being a jew contributed to my motivation, I aint gonna lie to you, since the enemies was from the religion of peace, but ultimately I tested my loyalties and I learned the history of the founding of our nation and the sacrifices our founding fathers made, and now I will fukin die any fukin day for land of my dreams. America the beautiful.
My endless admiration and thanks to great men that help me in my journey.
Rush Limbaugh, Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell, and Walter E Williams.
And fuk Budlight.
Bush Light fo teh win!
You know it’s also an ABInBev product, right? It’s basically the shit in the brewing vessel that wasn’t good enough to be Bud Light. And, before you do this, Natural Light is also an ABInBev product.
Maybe we should reward him with some of these, Pappy?
Fuck no. To paraphrase Wayne and Garth, “He’s not worthy, he’s not worthy!”
Yuengling?
I’ve got some Yuengling Light in my beer fridge now. Been working that in with the Seagrams 7.
I used to enjoy Natural Light and Busch Light as easy-drinking budget beers (in 2007, the former was under $11 a case at Bolling AFB). I stopped drinking beer altogether a few years back, but now mix in some Yuengling Light or Black & Tan along with Coors and Keystone Light. Gotta stay hydrated…
Poured myself a double of The Dalmore 12 year old single malt. It’s been one of those weeks.
SALUTE!…(tho I know that you are an NCO, Good Sir…and highly decorated to boot)
I also salute you. I am just pleased not to have served in what the Army has become.
Hooah! 🙂 ‘Merica!
Recruiting duty, where careers go to die.
I had a good friend in the Army, she and her husband went on recruiting together as E6s. She left with a meritorious promotion to E7, he left with a self inflicted meritorious demotion to E4 and a set of divorce papers.
One of my squad leaders during the invasion of Iraq was talking about his nightmare on recruiting duty when I realized he wasn’t wearing a recruiters badge. He laughed and said “yeah I got kicked off recruiting duty” Why? Because he got tired of his company commanders BS and called her a stupid bitch to her face. He was on orders to Korea the next day. Recruiting command always did love giving that assignment out as punishment. Joke was on them, he spent his year in Korea drinking and whoring instead of trying to make mission.
Had another friend who managed to survive his 2 years recruiting. He had a never ending supply of stories about the dumpster fire of recruiting command.
And I’ll leave you with this little gem. Back about 2015 I think, I was talking to someone who had done recruiting in the Army. He told me the first day of class, at their inbrief with the commandant/school SGM, they were warned, there would be no deliberately failing out of the school. EVERYONE was going to graduate.
My class had one SSG who was finally let go about three weeks in. Every time an Instructor asked who didn’t want to be there (sometimes multiple times a day), he raised his hand. We were learning about Recruiter ethics and the Incentive Awards Program when he was finally sent to talk to the CSM. We had an aviation mechanic report to my company who made it clear he didn’t want to go to the school. He’d been assigned to 160th SOAR previously and wanted to go back. From what I recall, he left for Fort Jackson (now the “College” is at Knox) and was back within a few weeks waiting for orders elsewhere. It’s a thankless job, and while a minority receive meritorious promotions, numerous accolades, and so on, many other just get the token “Great job!”, a pat on the back, and a reminder that the mission month starts again tomorrow. What spoke volumes was the treatment both of our original Reserve Recruiters (both SFCs) got. One allegedly screwed the pooch and was made an example of, when a younger female Soldier he’d enlisted claimed he was treating her unfairly as the owner of an apartment building he owned and she was a tenant in (should have seen that coming). Next thing you know he was a newly demoted SSG after the command got involved. The other had been with the company for over 11 years, besides a year or two in S3. He’d won all sorts of Recruiter of the Month and Top Production awards earlier in his career but when the Army decided to start making Reservists PCS, he was put in for an ARCOM. Being a Recruiter, he didn’t have much in the way of other awards outside of the badges, ring, and Morrell award. Meanwhile, a Detailed Recruiter who’d been selected for E-8 got an MSM for his three years and hundreds fewer contracts. I’d pulled the Recruiter History Report for the Reserve guy, and in the early 2000s he was consistently writing 36 or more contracts a year. “Thanks for your service, SFC,… Read more »
To be fair, my recruiter wasn’t too bad … the only real BS was him trying to act all hard by saying, “I was disappointed with BASIC because it was too easy! I expected to be pushed to the limit!!”
My recruiter lied to me.
I have never been able to get over it.
I’mma just drop this right here
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!🤣🤣🤣
Yeah, that’s just hilarious!!!
Damn. I think I was drunk last night.
I only had 3 Busch Lite
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