One Guardsman's Spiel

A Year in Review

2007-09-23T22:10:00.000-07:00

First off, I can't believe it's been a month since I last posted. It's amazing how fast time flies isn't it?

Since I last wrote the end of our fiscal year has come and gone and the new year started. I'm excited to start a new year but I'd also like to take a look at the last fiscal year.

I started off last fiscal year on a very high note. I made mission (of course) and even over produced - doing my part in ensuring my recruiting team was the #1 team in our state. Since we were the #1 team n our state we were rewarded with a training trip to Hawaii. After that we started the year out slow - some of it was my laziness and some of it was out of my control. I had some people get DQed at MEPS and learned that I hate MEPS and DTS. I had some downs, but there were some things that inspired me to keep going. I had real promising interviews but for a while things just didn't seem to pan out. I went on my training trip to Hawaii behind mission - something I didn't want to do. November was rough (besides going to Hawaii) and I needed to write 4 in December. I developed a plan and hoped it would work. I kept chugging along in January and by the mid month I was seeing some improvement - even with my brother and the 1/34th BCT being extended in Iraq. By the end of the month I had made some huge improvement and was back at mission and completed February's mission by the 9th. It was hard work but worth it even with the bronchitis it gave me. I had some time to myself in February which was well needed. I was really watching the media and took great interest in a story of recruiters under fire. I also had a little message to the media myself. Minnesota got hit with a major snow storm that we really needed - but I was at MEPS when it happened. My kid was underweight at MEPS and old man winter kicked my ass with his storm! The next few months were slow. I made my mission plus some and trained in my replacement - who didn't work out so I had to train another replacement. On May 15th I was free from Recruiting and on leave for the summer. While I was on leave all summer I had to hold the hand of my latest replacement. If I wasn't such a nice guy I would have told him that I was on leave and to go fly a kite.... but I AM a nice guy so I let him call me 5 or 6 times a day and tell him how to do his job. I thought I had taught him everything about recruiting while I was still recruiting but I realize now that he just didn't listen. I eventually cut the umbilical cord and it turned out he wasn't cut for this job. While on leave I still couldn't get recruiting out of my system. In addition to helping my replacement I was still providing leads to my team. In August I started my new job and enjoyed the new job till the end of the year. Oddly enough I took my 3rd replacement to all my old schools to ensure his success.

It was a hard fought year for my team. But through a lot of hard work from EVERYBODY we came out on top once again! My team, for the second year in a row was the #1 team in my state! As far as we know this is the first time in this state's history that a team has won 2 years in a row. So... we'll be doing more training in Hawaii again this year!

I'm really looking forward to this new year. I'll be starting college next semester (I couldn't go this semester because I missed registration) and doing my new job as an Automation NCO. I've learned A LOT about this job in the last 2 months. There is MUCH more to this job than I thought possible. To make matters worse, the guy I'm replacing has been doing this job for 9 years so I have some big shoes to fill. To make matters worse there are some bigger events on the horizon for SGT Guardsman but I can't reveal them quite yet because of OPSEC.

Sorry for the lack of posting lately - obviously I've been busy with the new job and all. I'll try and write more to all 8 of my readers.

-SGT Guardsman

I'm Alive!!!

2007-08-22T20:38:00.000-07:00

It's been over a month since my last post. I bet nobody even reads this anymore but I'm going ot continue blogging anyway.

In my last post I talked about all the changes I'm going through in my life right now. Well, there have been even more changes since that last post.

I was on vacation the entire summer and greatly enjoyed my time off. Seriously, I REALLY enjoyed it! In the last 2 weeks of my vacation I decided to make another huge chance in course of my life. Instead of going back to being a 1-weekend-a-month soldier and going to school full time, I decided to take another AGR position. I am now an Automation NCO for the Recruiting & Retention Command here in Minnesota. I've now moved across the state to the Twin Cities to start my new job and this new chapter of my life. The nice thing is that my command is encouraging me to attend college in addition to my daily duties.

Moving to the Twin Cities has been an adventure so far. I obviously drove down here all the time to go to MEPS, but I have learned a lot more about the cities during the 3 weeks I've actually lived down here.

One thing I've been wondering is how do people make it to places on time every day? My first day of my new job I left my sister's house (my tempory residence) an hour before I needed to be at work and arrived 25 minutes early. The next day I left only 40 minutes before I needed to be at work and arrived 5 minutes late. The next day I left 50 minutes before and arrived 5 minutes late. The next day I left an hour before and arrived 10 minutes early. The NEXT day I left an hour before and arrived right on time! I DON'T UNDERSTAND!

How do you factor in the traffic?

Does everybody just arrive early to everything?

Doesn't anybody want that extra 10 or 15 minutes of sleep?

Well, it's late and I have to work tomorrow (and have to leave the house an hour before I have to be there!) so I'm going to go to bed. This new job has opened up a whole new part of the Army that I never knew existed so these next few months should be interesting while I learn the ropes.

A Tragedy and a New Chapter

2007-07-09T21:16:00.000-07:00

Since my last post a brave soldier Adam Sheda, returned home, spent a week with his family, and then was murdered in my home town. You can read the full story here. My brother also has some comments about everything here.

I am deeply saddened by such a senseless crime. I am sad that this brave soldier lost his life, and I feel for his family. There are many more things I want to say about this tragedy - but most have already been said and the others probably aren't appropriate.

I usually don't read my local newspaper or watch the local news because there isn't much that's newsworthy that goes on in my town (in my opinion). I didn't find out about Adam's death until the Monday after it happened. The unit he deployed with is the unit I used to support as a recruiter. I've known Adam for a while though. What makes me mad is that I can still remember welcoming him home and shaking his hand just a week before he was murdered! His unit full-timers called and told me about his death and asked if I would be part of the funeral detail. Without hesitating I said yes.

Funeral detail is probably one of the greatest honors a soldier can ever do. Being there and laying down a fallen brother properly - to be part of that is simply amazing. Since I graduated AIT I have done every funeral any body's ever asked me to do.... the number of them is somewhere between 60 and 70, most of them being WWII and Vietnam veterans.

Of all the funerals I've ever been a part of, I've only personally known 2 of the soldiers who passed. Out of all of them, this was by far the hardest one to be a part of. Out of all of them this is the only one I've ever actually cried at.

The service was a good service. At the end of the service friends and family were invited to go to the podium and say a few words about Adam or their favorite memory of him. I can tell you that Adam was truly loved and Adam truly lived while he was with us. After that we carried Adam out of the church. As we carried Adam down the steps of the church I started to get choked up. When we placed him on the truck (not a real truck, the holder for the coffin is called a truck) everybody gathered around us. His parents were just to my rear left. We raised the flag off the coffin, and the 21 gun salute started. When Taps started I could feel the tears welling up as his parents sobbed behind me. After Taps I started folding the flag making sure every detail was right. At about the third fold the dam broke and I could feel the tears flowing down my face. Out of the corner of my eyes I could see the other soldiers of my detail were crying too. When I was done folding the flag, I handed it off so I could inspect it. With some final adjustments the flag was handed off and presented to the parents. After the funeral his friends and family hung around for a while and talked about Adam and ate lunch.

I've had over a week to think about everything and hope and pray that I never have to experience losing a child. The pain a parent is unimaginable. The pain Adam's parents must feel is probably 10 times worse. Adam spent 16 months in Iraq and came home without a scratch. His parents were able to see him and hold him in their arms - they were able to thank God their boy was alive and well. A week later that relief, that happiness was torn away by some low-life thug. No parent deserves to have that happen to them. Nobody deserves to be murdered, especially after serving his country for so long away from his family.

My thoughts and prayers are with Adam and his family. Their pain will never go away, but with His will they will get through this.

This last weekend marked the end of a chapter in my life and the beginning of a new one. This weekend was my last weekend as the NCOIC of the RSP White Phase - the "Jump Suit Jockeys". We had a lot of fun, the company even had a family BBQ for us on Saturday. It was nice to talk to all my soldiers, wish them luck at Basic Training, and meet their families. Some of my soldiers even bought me a cake to thank me! That was a nice thought.

Sunday was a day full of SINCGARS (radio) training and then some unexpected "remedial training". I didn't really plan it - but I guess it wouldn't have been right to leave these young soldiers without smoking them one last time!!!

I hope I was a positive influence on these young soldiers and that I was able to prepare them for BCT while they were in my platoon. I am really glad that I had the opportunity to train these guys. When I got involved in RSP I was expecting to be a squad leader and have just a few soldiers underneath me. Being thrown into the NCOIC/Platoon Sergeant position was unexpected and worried me at first. I actually went from never having soldiers to lead (I became a recruiter days after getting my E-5), to being in charge of training and taking care of almost 80 soldiers all by myself. It was a lot of on-the-job training - but I think everybody benefited from it in the end. While I really enjoyed training these soldiers, I am ready to move onto a regular unit. Next month I will have my first drill with my new company and I am really excited!

Looking back at this chapter of my life I realize that I have changed and grown so much. I started recruiting almost 4 years ago a young inexperienced 22-year-old kid. I see now how much I've grown as a person, as a soldier, and as an NCO. I see that these last few years have made changes in me that will last the rest of my life. As I end this chapter of my life, I look forward to the new chapter - A new company, college, and much, much more awaits me.

My RSP Platoon

A Video for the Children

2007-06-27T01:20:00.000-07:00

Over the last few months, between recruiting, ETSing, moving, and starting a new chapter of my life, I have been working on a new video. It is finally ready and I'm ready to share it with you all.

The inspiration for this video comes from the Family Support Group for the unit I supported while I was a recruiter. I finally saw first hand how it isn't only the soldier who sacrifices for this country. I saw how sometimes the world forgets how much the children of our Armed Service Members really sacrifice.

This video is for the kids... it's for every concert or soccer game their parent miss. It's for every band or choir concert their parents watch on video thousands of miles away. This video is for how much we really love our kids - and why sometimes mommy and daddy have to be away. Its because we don't leave because we don't love our kids - it's because we leave BECAUSE we love our kids.

Any comments are welcome.

-SGT Guardsman

Recruiters Under Fire Home Edition

2007-06-08T20:26:00.000-07:00

This latest edition of "Recruiters Under Fire" hits close to home - real close. As usual, I'll give you the article and go point by point. You can find the full article here. When you click the link click "cancel" when it tries to print - it's the only way to give you the full article for free. Anyway, here's the story.

Three brothers... all AWOL
After enlisting in the Minnesota Army National
Guard, the Kamunens had second thoughts and didn't return to basic training after Christmas.
By Randy Furst, Star Tribune
Last update: June 03, 2007 – 11:01 PM
CARLTON, MINN. -- Luke Kamunen began to wonder if he'd made a
mistake the moment he arrived for basic training. He was still in the airport at
Fort Jackson, S.C., with other members of his Minnesota National Guard unit,
when an officer reprimanded him publicly for leaving a paper cup on his seat in
the airport.
"I was thinking, is this what it's going to be like the whole
time?" Luke said. "I'm not even on the bus yet."

Shouldn't his mother have reprimanded him publicly for leaving his crap laying around the airport? That's not humiliation - that's just manners and common courtesy.

His twin brother, Leif, started having doubts within weeks when a drill sergeant indicated they were probably headed to Iraq. Leif said that possibility had been downplayed by the recruiter who signed him up in Duluth.

Raise your hand if you're prior service and your recruiter did the same thing when you were at basic...

Just as I thought - all of you are raising your hands. For me it was Yemen when the USS Cole was bombed. (Yep - I'm young!)

What the drill sergeant was doing was starting the process of teaching the young soldiers how to operate under stress. The drill sergeant, not the recruiter, was lying in this instance - nobody is going to go to Iraq straight from Basic Combat Training. The drill sergeant tells the soldiers a little white lie to stress them out and then counsels them on how to deal with it. Pretty standard stuff - it's part of basic training.

For a soldier to deploy to Iraq at the very minimum a soldier must complete Advanced Individual Training (AIT - your job training) before being deployed. Then they would have to go to their home unit, then deploy. Lets not forget to mention that Leif (at this point I must point out the fact this kid's name is Leif - Who in the world names their kid LEIF?!) is National Guard - he belongs to the Active Army for Initial Entry Training only. After completion of training he has to go back to his home unit before deployments - his drill sergeant would know nothing about his unit from Minnesota deploying.

On Jan. 2, the twins, age 21, and their brother Leo, 20, went AWOL from the Army. All three failed to return to basic training after Christmas break in northern Minnesota. Five months later, Luke has been released from the military, while Leif and Leo remain absent without leave. They say they plan to turn themselves in soon.

Soon? They've been AWOL for 6 months! What's the hold up?

The Kamunen brothers are an example of a growing problem -- Army desertions have risen 35 percent in the past two years, according to Defense Department figures. The number rose from 2,450 in 2004 to 3,301 in 2006.
There are many more who go AWOL -- tens of thousands who leave without permission for anywhere from 24 hours to 30 days.

Lets not forget that there are more people in the Army (Active, Reserve, and National Guard) than a few years ago.

Moving on....

"In any large group of military, you are always going to have some people change their minds," said Dennis Schulstad, a retired Air Force brigadier general and a former Minneapolis City Council member. Soldiers who desert are only a fraction of the 2.5 million in the military.

Good point General.

But Ronald Krebs, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota, blames the sharp rise on the "unfathomable pressure" that recruiters are now under. He says that forces them to lower standards and recruit people who might be less stable.
"Lower-quality recruits desert at much higher rates than higher-quality recruits," said Krebs, author of "Fighting for Rights: Military Service and the Politics of Citizenship," published last year by Cornell University Press.

Here we go - the old "lowering standards" issue. Please refer to my original "Recruiters Under Fire" Post, SFC B's posts here and here, and this Heritage Foundation Report to cover this issue.

Bottom line - the standards are NOT being lowered. But I would imagine that lower-quality recruits do in fact desert at a higher rate than higher-quality recruits.

There are a couple of things I would like to say about Mr. Krebs' statements. First, recruiters do NOT set the standards for enlistment. Congress actually does that. Second, recruiters are NOT moral compasses. Their jobs are to determine qualifications and process qualified individuals. Pressure or no pressure we don't decide if somebody is going to be a "good" recruit or not.

The Kamunens are typical of young recruits who go AWOL, said Sam Diener of the GI Rights Hotline, a national organization that counsels soldiers. "The recruits are disproportionately rural, mostly high school graduates who aren't sure what to do next," he said.

Sam Diener is wrong on this one - please see the Heritage Foundation report I mentioned earlier.

Still, the Kamunens' situation is unusual, simply because there are three of them. "I've talked to thousands and thousands of AWOLs," said the GI Hotline's Bill Galvin. "And I don't think I've ever heard of two brothers going AWOL at the same time."

I don't think I've ever heard of it either. You know what else the press never mentions? The THOUSANDS of brothers who have served and continue to serve HONORABLY.

A subdued reaction up north
The brothers' decision to walk away has made barely a ripple in this northern Minnesota county.

Does this mean that nobody cares?

"I hadn't heard of it," said Robert Langenbrunner, commander of the Cloquet American Legion post. Recruits pledge to serve their country, he said. "I'm dead set against" anyone going AWOL "unless there's something traumatic, like a death in the family."
Bruce Ahlgren, mayor of Cloquet, noted that a couple of years ago, three soldiers from the area died in Iraq. "It hit our area very hard," he said. "I think young kids have a tough situation when it comes to war."

Wouldn't those soldier's deaths be reason for kids not to join instead of go AWOL?

Ahlgren doesn't know the Kamunens. "They signed up for a reason, and for whatever reason they changed their minds and will have to suffer the consequences," he said. "But I am certainly not going to condemn them for it."
Carlton County's jobless rate is more than 6 percent. "It's really hard to find a job that's going to pay what you're worth," Luke said. "You either work for McDonald's or as a janitor."

So apparently Luke at least saw the Guard as a better opportunity.

Their father, Leo, suggested Luke join the Guard because he believed the military would help him pay for college. "It sounded really good," Leo said. "I encouraged him as much as I could."

I like Leo Sr., he seems like a smart man. Apparently the kids thought their dad had some good advice...

In March 2006, Luke walked into the National Guard recruiting office in Duluth. The recruiter, Sgt. Chris Beron, told him about a $20,000 signing bonus and, according to Luke, said that deployment was unlikely.
"He told me that it's really a rare occurrence that I was going to war," Luke said. And if he did go to Iraq, "he told me I would be sitting in the barracks somewhere fixing a vehicle."

Of all my friends in Iraq, including my brother, everybody has told me that 63Bs (the MOS Luke enlisted in) don't go on patrols or raids or anything like that.

SFC Chris Beron is a good friend of mine, I know him well as I've worked with him for over 4 years. This man is no lier. This man is no crook. This man is one of the most honest recruiters I've ever known.

Beron denies that. "I tell them that we are in a war, you are in a branch of the military. ... I tell them that in 13 years, I have never been deployed ... anywhere. I spend a lot of time telling them there is a possibility, but I can't guarantee it one way or the other."

Having seen Chris do many interviews over the years I will tell you that his statements are EXACTLY what he tells his applicants. He doesn't downplay the possibility of deployments. Nor does he lie. It is true that he has not deployed in 13 years. And it is also true that nobody can guarantee somebody that they won't deploy or that they WILL deploy. I have enlisted prior service guys who want to deploy right away and are still drilling 1 weekend a month 3 years later never having deployed.

Leif was next to sign up. He had done telemarketing, worked construction, stocked grocery shelves and washed dishes. "I didn't know what direction I wanted to go," he said.
Beron "was telling us all the benefits and what we would be doing," Leif said. "He made it seem too good to be true. All the money, we would be together through our career. He said there was always a chance [of Iraq], but he kind of minimized it."

I guess I'm confused about how saying "you might deploy, you might not deploy" comes off as "minimizing" the chances.

Also, how can explaining the benefits of the Guard make it seem too good to be true? All the benefits are right there on paper!

Over the summer, younger brother Leo signed up too. "I was sick of this town," he said.
The recollections of the brothers and Beron diverge on another issue. Luke said Beron told them not to disclose any medical problems or juvenile records that might bar them from enlistment. Beron denies it.
Luke said Beron told him to conceal his scar from surgery to insert a rod in an ankle and even sent someone to Wal-Mart to buy a fake tattoo to cover it. Beron denies that vehemently. "I knew nothing about this," he said.

Here we go, recruiters telling kids to lie....

As I said, I know SFC Beron personally, I consider him a friend of mine. I don't believe for a second that Chris told these kids to lie about medical problems or juvenile records.

After reading this article, I decided to do a little "investigative reporting" of my own. Turns out that the 3 brothers went to the Active Army prior to walking into SFC Beron's office. The boys talked to the active duty recruiter and Luke did tell them about the rod in his ankle. The active duty recruiter told me that he told Luke that he would be ineligible for enlistment because it. He said he told Luke something like, "If I bring you to MEPS and they know about the surgery and rod in your ankle, they'll disqualify you for sure." After being disqualified by the Active Army recruiter Luke went on to the National Guard, knowing his ankle would disqualify him - is it not possible, if not probable, that Luke himself concealed the surgery and rod from SFC Beron?

After an investigation by my former command, SFC Beron was found not to have committed any wrong doing.

On the note of concealing juvenile records I have a couple of things to say. The old adage about your juvenile record being "sealed" is not true. If you have EVER been fingerprinted in your life, it will show up. Prior to somebody enlisting recruiters are required to do a police records check in every county the person has lived in. If the person tells us that they have something on their record we have to do a records check with the agency that arrested them and have all supporting documents including a final disposition. When they're at MEPS they have to do a "Pre-Enlistment Interview" where they go through a security interview and then are fingerprinted. Their fingerprints then are run through an FBI database where if they've ever been fingerprinted before, even as a juvenile, it will show up. If something does come up from the FBI check the recruit is processed for discharge under an erroneous enlistment.

I have personally seen the police records check SFC Beron did on the three brothers - none of them had anything but minor things on their records. Nothing came up from the FBI check either.

My opinion as a former recruiter is that the conversations where SFC Beron told them to lie never happened.

Second thoughts
Once at basic training, Luke said he hated the way drill sergeants yelled at recruits. And then he started hearing rumors about deployment to Iraq.

Umm.... it's basic training. Nobody LIKES getting yelled at, but it's something we all have to go through. Was he not expecting this? I'm supposed to believe that nobody told him what happens at BCT? Nobody in his Recruit Sustainment Program explained to him what BCT is like? Hell, we even have a DVD about BCT to give to new recruits! I'm going to choose to not feel sorry for Luke getting yelled at - he's no more special than the rest of us. Besides, he went to Fort Jackson - he can't expect me to believe that he had it "hard" there. Good 'ole "Relaxin' Jackson"...

He thought, "You can't do nothing now. You're in the Army, you're screwed." He also learned that his unit, which was supposed to be fixing Army vehicles, would carry weapons. He was trained to use M-16s and grenade launchers.

Again, was he not expecting to learn how to fire weapons? This is, after all, the Army...

The drill sergeant told them, "Don't think you are not going to war," Luke said.

Well.... that is one of the duties of the Army.... apparently he didn't know this.

Maybe this shouldn't have been a surprise, he conceded. But, "I have been living in a small town, trying to get a job," he said. "I don't know what's going on."

So Luke expects us to believe that since he comes from a small town of about couple thousand people he didn't know what the Army does and that we happen to be at war?

What I find funny about all this is that all three brothers talk earlier in the story about how SFC Beron "minimalized" the prospects of going to war. Obviously Luke knew enough about the war when he was talking to SFC Beron to ask about it - but suddenly he goes to basic training and has never heard of it?

I'm calling "Shenanigans" on the whole "I didn't know nothin' about nothin'" excuse.

Meanwhile, the week before Leif left for Fort Jackson, his girlfriend gave birth to their daughter. "Halfway through basic training, I didn't want to be there anymore," he said.

Understandable, I guess.... but the thousands of soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen who have left their children behind to fight for our countries overseas probably don't want to leave their children behind either. It's the sacrifices we make for our country Leif - it's not easy but we all gladly do it to protect our children. You know what, I don't feel sorry for Leif either - he's no more special than the rest of us either.

At home over Christmas, Leo started dating a local woman. "I decided there was no way I could be apart from her for long periods of time when I didn't feel so strongly about fighting for George Bush's war," he said.

Man I love puppy love.... in 10 days Leo Jr. meets and falls so madly in love with a woman that he just can't bear the thought of leaving her to go back and finish his training or deploy in "George Bush's war" (more on that later). Guess what Leo, none of us LIKE to leave the ones we love behind when we go off to defend America. But we do it BECAUSE we love them. I don't feel sorry for Leo Jr. either - he too is no more special than the rest of us.

Leo and the reporter just couldn't resist putting in the "George Bush's war" comment in there, could they?

The fact is, that soldiers don't serve for a certain president. I have served under 2 different ones, my brother 3, and some people I know 4. We serve to protect America, to defend freedom, and to protect the Constitution - it doesn't matter who the president is - there will always be a new one just around the corner.... America will always be here.

On Jan. 2, Luke slept in and missed the plane back to his military base. Leif missed the flight, too. So did Leo.

They "slept in" like it was an accident.... "Oops! I missed my plane.. I don't think I'll ever go back!"

Right......

"We saw each other a couple days later," Luke said, "and we're saying, 'What, you didn't go back, either?' "

All THREE of them went AWOL and never discussed it with each other?! YEAH RIGHT!

I'm not buying that story for a minute. Those kids sat around the table over Christmas and discussed it. I mean seriously - SFC Beron has enlisted almost 200 people and has NEVER had any of them go AWOL. Then suddenly 3 of his enlistments go AWOL and they just HAPPEN to be brothers! WHAT A COINCIDENCE! They planned it plain and simple.....

The sad thing is that they almost make it sound like going AWOL was an accident.

Months passed, and the brothers began getting calls from military officers, demanding they return. About a month ago, Luke was spotted by a police officer, who told him he had a military warrant for his arrest. He was jailed in Carlton County for a week and then flown to Fort Knox, Ky., where he was given an "other than honorable discharge."

The brothers never got calls from military officers "demanding" they return - those "demands" are called ORDERS....

Luke was never "spotted" by a police officer. It's not like a person goes AWOL and the cops start going door to door looking for him. Luke was actually pulled over for a traffic violation - the cop ran his license and saw he had a federal warrant - the rest is self explanatory.

Luke's "other than honorable discharge" could have been a lot worse... he should consider himself lucky - he should be glad they were so lenient with him.

Leif and Leo remain AWOL. "I realized I made a mistake, and I am sorry about wasting their time and money," Leo said. He wants to move to the Twin Cities and get a job. Leif is looking for work. Luke enrolled last week in Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College in Cloquet. None got their $20,000 bonus; recruits get half after finishing training and half after four years, Beron said.

If Leo was really sorry, he would have gone back to BCT like a man and faced his punishment. The Guard could have provided so many opportunities - now that they're out it seems like Luke is the only one making something of him self.... good for him I guess. It's sad that these guys don't know what they let go.

The repercussions
It is not unusual for the military to be slow about catching AWOL soldiers. Galvin, of the GI Rights Hotline, said the Army has few people tracking them down. After 30 days, officials can get a desertion warrant. He said the military figures that most of them will eventually be picked up during traffic stops, as with Luke. Or the AWOL soldier will get tired of looking over the shoulder and surrender.
If AWOL soldiers are still in training, such as the Kamunens, a common penalty is an "other than honorable discharge." Diener, the counselor for the GI Hotline, said people with that kind of discharge can have a difficult time getting a job with police, government or major corporations.
"For smaller companies, it does not make as much difference," he said.

A lot of people don't realize how these things will affect them for the rest of their lives. I know when I did all the hiring for my local Best Buy I wouldn't hire a person with non-favorable discharges. I wonder if these guys weighed that out before going AWOL?

Department of Defense statistics show that while the number of AWOL Army soldiers climbed by 35 percent over two years, desertions dropped in the Navy, Marines and Air Force. Overall, AWOL numbers were up slightly, from 5,259 in
2004 to 5,361 in 2006.
Schulstad, the retired brigadier general, said it's understandable why the Army's numbers were up. "They are the guys on the ground fighting the war," he said.
Don Olson of Minneapolis is an anti-war activist who has counseled hundreds of soldiers, going back to the Vietnam War. He also counseled Luke Kamunen.
"Luke was recruited on the basis he'd be a mechanic for the Guard in Duluth," said Olson. "He told me he really didn't want to kill people."

I don't know of anybody who WANTS to kill people. Taking the life of another human being is something I've never had to do, nor do I ever WANT to. But if the situation calls for it - I will do what I have to to stay alive and protect my country.....

But Beron is perplexed by the brothers. He said he has recruited nearly 200 people over seven years, and the Kamunens are the first to go AWOL.
"I don't understand it," he said. "The reason the three brothers joined was for the educational benefit. Their goal was to try and do something with their lives."
He said the brothers made it sound as though their lives had pretty much stalled. "I accommodated them. I provided them the opportunity to serve their country."
Staff researcher Roberta Hovde contributed to this article. Randy Furst •
612-673-7382 • rfurst@startribune.com

In the end I must say I am pretty happy with how Randy Furst wrote this article. He did seem to be fairly balenced through out it - aside from my comments about it.

As a former recruiter, I see a lot more in the article than the average person does - I guess it doesn't hurt to know the recruiter very well. What I see is a couple of guys who wanted the benefits, nothing else. They didn't care about the country, they didn't care about freedom. They cared about $20,000 and a free education. The problem is that they didn't expect to have to do anything to get those benefits. Sounds typical of American society doesn't it?

These are 3 guys, the twins 21 and Leo 20, who made an ADULT decision. Things didn't go the way THEY wanted and they quit like scared little boys. Now they don't understand why the adult world is catching up with them.

The thing I dislike most about this article is the fact that it's written so that I'm supposed to feel sorry for them. I'm supposed to feel that they're just 3 dumb kids from some hick town who didn't know what they got themselves into - that the recruiter took advantage of them. The reality is that these were 3 grown adults who made a decision and can't live up to their obligations. I don't feel sorry for them at all. I think their story and excuses are all bullshit. In the end, I guess I'm kind of glad they're not in the Guard - I wouldn't want their kind serving along side me anyway.

Just Chillin'

2007-05-31T21:14:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know, while I'm done with recruiting I'm not done with the Army. I am going back to be a 1 weekend a month soldier and going back to college to be a teacher (any "You're going to brainwash them with your right-wing ideology" comments are welcome). Before I do that, however, I have to use up all my leave - 78 days of it. Basically, I'm on leave until school starts!!!!

So what have I been doing with my time? Not much really. I've spent some quality time with my family. I've spent some fun times with my friends. I've relaxed.... a lot! I know I really needed these last 2 weeks to unwind. I have no plans for the summer really, except to enjoy the sun while listening to the waves lap against the shore a the cabin I'm living in for the summer. I honestly can't complain about much.... and that's the problem.

Right now my brother, many friends, and my brothers and sisters in arms are in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other places fighting for our country. They're doing a tough job and doing it well. They're over there shedding blood, sweat, and tears for our country while I'm doing nothing. When they wake up they think about the most stressful part of their day - that moment when they leave the gates of their FOB and wonder "Is today going to be the day?". The most stressful part of my day is when I wake up and figure out what I'm going to wear (Do you have any idea how long it has been since I've worn civilian clothes every day?). Hell, the most stressful part of my week is mowing the lawn every Friday!

It all just seems...... unfair. Doesn't it?

The thing I love most about soldiers is their ability to make light of almost any situation. It seems as though no matter what is going on there is always a soldier who will make you smile or even laugh a little bit. Our brave men and women of the military are over there doing their duty - you and I both know they'd probably rather be somewhere else but they do their duty anyway. All of them deal with it differently, but some of them deal with it through humor... they make light of the situation. My brother sent this video to me and it is a prime example of that.

Not too much else going on... I'm just chillin'. The only problem is that the boredom is starting to kick in already..... what the hell am I going to do with my time?

On a side note - I realized the other day that all the songs on my MP3 player are NOT suited for working out. I really want a new play list for working out but I'm horrible at picking that kind of music since I listen to mostly country and jazz. Anybody have any ideas for songs? If so, leave any suggestions in the comments. In my next post, I'll put up which songs I picked for "SGT Guardsman's Ultimate Workout Play list".

-SGT Guardsman

Free At Last

2007-05-15T22:43:00.000-07:00

free at last - Thank God Almighty I'm free at last!

I'm done recruiting - I am on leave for the time being and will enjoy these next 3 months greatly.

I'm in the middle of moving so I won't be posting for a little bit - don't worry as I'm enjoying myself!

Reuters Needs Help

2007-05-07T00:20:00.000-07:00

I was looking a picture slide show of the "celebrations" after the French elections today and came across a picture with a.... well.... strange caption:

Click on the image to enlarge
"Damaged?" I think that car is a little bit more than "damaged"! And to think that people actually trust Reuters to give them fair coverage on world events. And to think that some of my friends think I'm crazy to hate the MSM.... or I might just be a crazy right-wing-wacko... either way, what do you think?

Congress is...

2007-04-14T00:09:00.000-07:00

... going to kill the military. Secretary Gates was right, if the Defense Authorization Act for FY07 isn't passed soon the entire military, and our families, will suffer.

How did I come to this conclusion? Simple - the 2007 Strength Maintenance Conference.

Every year the National Guard has the Strength Maintenance Conference where all the big-wigs get together and discuss recruiting issues. They have each state's Recruiting Commander come, the SGMs, the team commanders, and many of the team NCOICs. They also invite a select number of recruiters and their spouses. They make a big hoop-tee-doo about it and it's apparently a pretty good time.

This year they invited 1500 recruiters and their spouses. Yours truly was invited but for some reason they wouldn't book a plane ticket for my blow-up doll I lovingly call my wife.

This year's conference is going to be in St. Louis. I've never been to St. Louis so I was pretty excited. Some of my recruiting buddies were also invited so it was sure to be a good time. They were going to have a BBQ for us, an auction, an event for us and our spouses (nobody said what they were going to do with the single soldiers), and many other activities.

This year turned out to be different though.

This year they canceled pretty much the whole thing due to lack of funding.

Secretary Gates warned that if the budget wasn't approved soon, the military would start to suffer. It is now apparent that the military is running out of money. How long is it until the suffering begins?

I've never understood why, with our fiscal years starting on 1 October, that we didn't get our budget approved around.... well.... 1 October. But hey, that's the way it's always been I guess, we get it a little late.

Last year it was approved in January if I remember correctly.

It's now April.

I wonder what changed from last year to this year?

Oh yeah, Congress

So Congress has decided to micro-manage the war - surely not in their job description (at least it wasn't in the Constitution the last time I checked). They're doing it the only way they know they can - control the money.

The President warned months ago that if Congress passed the budget with a stipulation for pulling out of Iraq he would veto it. He told them to not even debate the bill if it called for a pull out. He said just approve the budget and debate the war later - too many troops lives were at stake.

Congress didn't listen - they debated the bill, but didn't have enough votes to pass it. What did they do next? They filled it with pork and bought enough votes to pass the bill - but not enough for a veto.

The President vetoed it and said take out the Iraq retreat and he'll pass it.

Congress refused.

No Congress and the President are in a stand-off - and every Soldier, Sailor, Marine, and Airman's life hangs in the balance.

The Democrats want the war to end, sooner rather than later - no matter the consequences

The Republicans want to win the war - no matter the cost.

The Democrats are going to hold off for as long as possible on this one. They are going to wait until the President MUST sign their bill because the DoD is that broke. They're going to wait until we don't get our paychecks and then blame it all on the President.

The cancellation of the Strength Maintenance Conference made me realize something: If they're canceling this conference - what else is going to be canceled? That next shipment of .50 cal ammo? That new HMMWV that is replacing the one that got hit by an IED last week? That new SAPPI plate to replace the one that took a round from an insurgent yesterday? More IV Bags that all the heat casualties use? That new shipment of plasma for the medics to use? That new supply of blood to keep our wounded soldiers alive?

Once the money is gone - where will the suffering begin?

I think Congress has a lot of explaining to do - and fast! We might work for them - but we vote their asses into office......

I guess I would hate to have to explain that somebody's father, or brother, or son died because Nanci Pelosi had to prove she has a bigger dick than the President.

Anybody else feel the same way?

The Muse is Broken

2007-04-08T11:23:00.000-07:00

I am still alive and kicking - my muse has been very broken for a while now....

Not much new to report - except I have about a month before my terminal leave starts!!!! I'm pretty excited about that. I was also invited to the 2007 Army National Guard Strength Maintenance Conference so I'll be going to St. Louis in May - I wonder if SGT Lori is going????

The picture included in this post is of what I was treated to last week. The week before was 70deg and sunny. It melted all the snow from the last several months. Spring was in the air and everyone was excited. Apparently Old Man Winter has a sick sense of humor! We went from NO snow on the ground..... to 10 INCHES!!!! Apparently Old Man Winter got the last laugh

JACK ARMY’s "A Day in the Life” of My FOB

2007-03-17T07:47:00.000-07:00

A chaptered story told on many blogs starts here and continues here:

Chapter Nine: The Gym

Our gym used to be a chapel. There was a sign on the door that said, “Welcome to the Church of Pain!” Funny.

Recently, we upgraded the gym by purchasing new equipment and replacing the wornout and torn floor mats with new ones. There are a few machines to get a workout on, several benches and lots of freeweights. It’s a good place to really break a sweat and it get used at all hours of the day. In fact, not that I do this often, I recall going in there at 2 am one morning when I couldn’t sleep and there were two guys in there working out with the music blaring.

I typically use the gym in the mornings. I like to go run out to the airfield, do a lap or two (it’s not a big airfield) and then grab a bottle of water and head to the gym. Some days I’ll do my push-up and sit-up improvement routine. There’s the strength-training workouts and there’s the endurance workouts, too.

And some days there’s the “I know I should work out but I feel like crap” workout that is more of a wander around the gym in a daze and wonder why I feel so bad. More of those days than I’d like.

And when I’m feeling really froggy, there’s the double-the-workout workout followed by a few sprints up the side of a bunker or something crazy like that.

As you can guess, I don’t feel froggy all that often.

Recruiters Under Fire Redux

2007-03-13T20:20:00.000-07:00

Andy Rooney must have forgot to take his meds the other day - I mean WOW that crusty old bastard is off his rocker!

On this week's edition of "60 Minutes" Andy Rooney talks about Military Recruiting and the state of our current military. This man needs to be put in a home...

There have been stories recently about the problem the Pentagon is having
recruiting enough soldiers to do the fighting that we're committed to do in
Iraq.

In an attempt to get the soldiers they need, recruiters have reduced the
standards for getting into the Army or Navy.

More

There are so many things I can say about this - it all goes back to my truth in reporting...... So instead of going on one big tirade I'll just go point by point.

In an attempt to get the soldiers they need, recruiters have reduced the
standards for getting into the Army or Navy.

Recruiters have reduced the standards? I WISH!!! Fact of the matter, Mr. Rooney, is that recruiters have NOTHING to do with the enlistment standards. The standards are created by the United States Congress. After Congress creates the standards, they're passed off to the Department of Defense. The Department of Defense takes those standards and creates the regulations and passes them on to each service. Each service is allowed to do slight adjustments to the standards as they see fit. With that said, they can only make the standard more strict - not more lenient. So, Mr. Rooney, recruiters have nothing to do with the reduction of standards at all. (we still have to PROVE that the standards have been reduced)

They have reduced the educational standards, for example, so that they're
getting more soldiers who didn't go to high school, let alone graduate from high
school.

I honestly have no idea where Mr. Rooney is getting this. Enlisting Soldiers who didn't go to high school? You have to have a high school diploma or a GED PRIOR to shipping to AIT. He MAY be talking about the Army's GED+ program. The GED+ program allows a high school drop-out to enlist without a high school diploma or GED given the following conditions: 1. He/She has completed at least the 9th Grade. 2. They are at least 18 years old. 3. No moral waivers are required for enlistment. 4. They score at least a 31 or higher on the ASVAB (AFQT depends on service) 5. They get their GED prior to shipping to basic training. As you can see the soldier must have SOME high school education prior to enlisting. They still have to pass the ASVAB just like everybody else. AND they have to pass their GED prior to shipping. Mr. Rooney is clearly lying when he says that we're enlisting soldiers with no education. I guess one could argue that since they changed the standards for home schooled kids that we are enlisting kids who have never been to high school - but they're educated none-the-less. Mr. Rooney is still a lier in this case.

Recruiters are granting thousands of what they call "moral waivers". A "moral waiver" it turns out means they'll take someone who has committed a crime or even someone who has been in prison. Last year, a total of 8,129 "moral waivers" were given to men who volunteered for the Army.

I've talked in length about moral waivers in another post. There are so many different kinds of moral waivers and they all act like every moral waiver is for being a rapist or ax-murderer! I'm working a kid right now who broke his hand at Basic Training and was discharged for it. Since he didn't get a medical discharge, it was a "failure to meet medical procurement standards". That discharge requires a moral waiver. This young man wants nothing more than to serve his country. He has no criminal record and is a PT stud. He scored a 84 on his ASVAB and has his high school diploma. Surely we're "lowering the standards" for this one. The truth is that moral waivers are a fact of this job that have been going on since the beginning of the all volunteer Army. Moral waivers are used for so many things from petty misdemeanors, traffic tickets, all the way up to some felonies. There is a process waivers go through prior to being approved and many checks and balances along the way to ensure only the highest quality recruits are enlisted. Do some fall through the cracks? Sure they do - nobody is perfect.

Are these the people we want representing us? As American soldiers, they're going to give the people they meet around the world the impression that they are what all Americans are like and if they have been taken from the bottom of the barrel, they are not what we're all like.

And what's wrong with these people exactly Mr. Rooney? I urge you, Mr. Rooney or anybody else for that matter, to pick any platoon in any unit on any post. Go to this platoon and talk to the soldiers there - and tell me which ones needed moral waivers and which ones didn't. I can guarantee you that you, nor anybody else, will be able to tell the difference between the "good" and the "bad" soldiers. I can guarantee you that any soldier you find will be immensely better than any McDonald's employee you find - do you really want a pimply-faced burger flipper representing us? Oh yeah - McD's is already all over the world.

[For yours and my sake, I'll skip the part where Rooney talks about how much he hates the Army]

In 1942 we were at war with Germany and it wasn't long before drafted college
students and high school graduates dominated our military. It changed the United
States Army for the better and in two years made it the best fighting force
there has ever been. The Army and Navy were no longer made up of losers.
Now comes the part of this I never thought I'd hear myself say: Whenever we,
as a nation, decide to fight a war – in Iraq or anywhere else – it should be
fought by average Americans who are drafted.

So that's what it all comes down to, huh Mr. Rooney? That we're all losers? I know you didn't outright say it - but we can all tell that's what you meant. This Army is the most educated Army this world has ever seen. Were there more college educated service members in WWII? Yes there was. This is probably due to the fact that there were 11,000,000 serving then vs. our 2,000,000 now. But I will tell you that the average soldier today is twice as educated as the average soldier then. I know soldiers with Associates Degrees, Bachelor's Degrees, multiple degrees, Master's Degrees, and even a few PHDs. I will also point out that all of these soldiers are enlisted. Hell, just look at my recruiting team. My office partner has his BS. The next office east of us has 2 recruiters. One with his BS and the other with two BS degrees and an AS. The next office east of that has 3 recruiters. One has three BS degrees, another has 2 BS degrees, and the other has his AA. The next recruiting station south of that has 2 recruiters. One has his AA, the other has his BA and speaks 3 languages. The next office south of that has 2 recruiters. 1 has his BA and the other just finished his Master's. As a matter of fact, I'm the least educated member of my recruiting team - I've been going to college off and on for 7 years but keep changing my major so I don't have a degree yet..... What's my point in all this? Surely we are an Army full of losers.......

Everybody can claim that the standards are being lowered. They can whine about it and say that the war is failing so the Army is having trouble meeting it's mission. With the trouble of the mission they can claim that the Army is enlisting more "criminals". Were there more moral waivers granted in FY 2006? Yes. Has the Army and Army National Guard been increasing it's end strength since 2003? Yes. Are all moral waivers for "hardened criminals"? No. Moral waivers have always been here, and always will be here - they indicate nothing on the current state of our military and the President's handling of the war.

Old Man Winter's Aftermath

2007-03-03T23:27:00.000-08:00

Old Man Winter left a pretty bad aftermath after his full-on assault on the mid west! Pictured here is my car on Friday morning - (mostly) buried under about a foot of snow!

Thursday was pretty uneventful - I just got to know my applicant REALLY well! He's a great kid and is really excited to join the Guard in 3 weeks after he's gained some weight (how often to you hear recruiters saying their applicants need to GAIN weight?). The Back to the Future marathon was about the most exciting thing we did (he slept through most of it).

Friday morning I woke up and checked the Doppler weather radar and, after looking out my window, confirmed that Old Man Winter was still attacking the Midwest. I spent the morning aimlessly watching TV and watching the weather radar hoping that I wouldn't be trapped for another night. Eventually I saw a break in the storm was coming - I estimated it would break in half an hour so we packed our crap and headed down to breakfast to await the break so we could hit the road. We ate breakfast and watched as Old Man Winter's assault fizzled out - FINALLY we'd be getting outta there so I went and started the car (and took the picture). By the time I checked out my car was completely dug out with all the windows scraped of all ice. The maintenance man at the hotel saw me start my car and did all that for me! That's what I love about small towns - you'd never see somebody do something so nice in a big city!

My applicant and I hit the road at the beginning of the break and the roads weren't too bad - again, that wasn't going to last long. The roads quickly got worse and I just focused on keeping the car on the road. From where we stayed it normally would take us about 2 and a half to 3 hours to get home. It took us 5 and a half hours to get home! My applicant shared our different tastes of music via MP3 players and XM radio and generally tried to make the trip more enjoyable along the way. Eventually I got him home safely and had to go back home to pack up for Winterfest.

Winterfest is my command's yearly conference where we all bring our families to a resort of some sort where we have team building parties, training with our spouses (sucks being single!), and a formal dinner and awards ceremony. Most people have mixed feelings about Winterfest. Me, I didn't want to go, but in the end I was indifferent about it. I saw it as a time where I'd be forced to hang out with a bunch of people I don't really want to hang out with - oh yeah, everybody gets drunk as hell so they're more obnoxious than usual. In the end it wasn't so bad and it was cool to spend time with my buddies before I ETS.

Anyway, back to Old Man Winter's assault.

I packed all my stuff into my POV because it has 4-wheel-drive and my command authorized the use of POVs due to the weather. I looked at Google Maps and estimated that it should take 3 and a half hours to get there under normal circumstances. The drive turned out better than I thought - Phase 3 of Old Man Winter's attack missed us. The problem was that it was really windy and the back-road highways I had to take were really icy. It took me about 5 and a half hours to get to Winterfest! I was REALLY late so I missed a lot of the festivities but I'm not complaining.

All-in-all, Old Man Winter really kicked some but - but I realize now it will really help the local economy of my home town with the tourism it will bring via snowmobilers. As much pain and agony it caused me, maybe it was a good thing?

I feel really bad for all my family in Duluth as they got hit HARD! My Uncle has some really great pictures here.

Tomorrow I'm going to get myself a message at the resort. I hope I get a young hot girl but my luck I'll get some old fat lady with warts! After that I have to go back to the cities for a team meeting on Monday. I've got some great pictures of the hotel that we paid for. I'd like to show what your tax dollars paid for but the connection here is really slow. I'll show you all soon though.

Old Man Winter's Assult Continues

2007-03-01T12:55:00.000-08:00

Phase 1 of old man winter's assault has been completed. He took a break early this morning before starting phase 2. Phase 2 is twice as bad as phase 1!!! The worst part is that intel says he's got a phase 3 planned as well!

I woke this morning to see the end of phase 1 but quickly went back to sleep. An hour later I was wakened by my phone ringing at 0800.... and it was MEPS calling. Every recruiter knows that it's never a good thing when MEPS calls that early. NEVER! turns out my guy is 6lbs UNDERWEIGHT!!!! Why do these things happen to me? After I got off the phone I started getting ready to go pick him up and head home - hoping the break in Old Man Winter's assault would hold and allow me to get home. I was wrong.

After checking out I walked out of my hotel and took this picture. Phase 2 had begun and apparently Old Man Winter had unleashed a full-on assault giving us all he's got. The normal 15 minute drive to MEPS took almost 45 minutes. I picked up my kid and had to stop by my headquaters for some errunds. HQ took a little longer than anticipated but we were finally on the road.

The trip didn't start out to bad - but it quickly got bad, and then even worse. We had been driving for 2 and a half hours and I realized we were in a town that normally took an hour! We had been going 30mph and there were lots of cars in the ditch - I decided that it wasn't safe to continue.

Here I am, stuck in a hotel wishing I could be home. My applicant crashed on his bed long ago so now I'm watching a "Back to the Future" marathon...... wish me luck.

Old Man Winter's Punishment

2007-02-28T21:06:00.000-08:00

And it starts......

Old Man Winter has started his punishment on Minnesota tonight. The best part? I'm at MEPS and have to drive home tomorrow in the storm!!! By Friday, most of Minnesota could be buried in up to 15 to 24 inches of snow!!! Why did this whole thing have to start while I'm at MEPS. I've got enough to worry about with the MEPS doctors and all..... but now I snow storm? One part of me says that if the roads are too bad, that I should just stay in the cities another night with my applicant because I'd like to make the 4 hour drive alive! Another part of me says to tough it out and get home as safely as possible. Right now I'm not sure what I want to do.

On one hand, I don't want ot die.... so I should just take the safest route and stay in a hotel for another night. On the other hand I'm looking at my weekend and I really just want to make it home.

This weekend we have our yearly conference called "Winterfest". I have to admit that I really don't like going to winterfest. Why don't I like winterfest? Let me tell you!

Winterfest is a time for everyone in my command to get together, get drunk, kiss some command ass, and stroke their egos. In the end it's a weekend where I'm forced to hang out with a bunch of people that I don't want to hang out with! A lot of these people spend the entire weekend drunk as hell, making me not want to hang with them even more. I'll will admit that there are other recruiters who I really consider my friends - but if I want to hang out with them I will. The other recruiters I just want to work with - I don't necessarily want to spend an entire weekend with them. The one nice thing about winterfest is that it is a time that the command issues out awards - and since we never recieved any awards for being the top team in the state last year I'm hoping to actually get some awards for once.

Let me get back to why I just want to tough out the storm.

If I stay in the cities another night I will have to drive 4 hours back to my office on Friday morning, then turn around and drive back to the cities to attend Winterfest. It's safer, but damn will all that drive time on Friday suck!

If I tough out the storm on the road and go back tomorrow, Thursday, I'll get to sleep in my own bed. Then I'll only have 4 hours to drive on Friday, instead of 8.

I think I'll see what the roads are like tomorrow - I'll take some pictures tomorrow morning to show you the aftermath of phase 1 of Old Man Winter's assault.

Message to the Media

2007-02-23T21:49:00.000-08:00

I was going to continue my piece about Recruiters being under fire but SFC B has done a much better job than I can. Follow his story over at his blog.

What I wanted to write about today is 11 things that I would like to say to the collective MSM:

1. Nobody cares about Anna Nichole Smith!
Every morning I wake up, I know that she's still dead - you don't have to keep reminding me. I don't care about the fact that she died. It's sad, but it happens every day. My neighbor died the other day of a suspected overdose and not one television cameras showed up - what makes Anna Nichole Smith so much more important than this guy to have her death all over every network for the last 2 weeks? I don't care what they do with her body, I don't care what happens to her fortune, and I don't care who gets custody of her daughter as long as she's taken care of. Frankly, none of this is ANYBODY's business other than the families. Maybe if you leave these people alone they wouldn't OD on drugs all the time!

2. I don't care about Britney Spears.
I don't care how many times she's been in and out of rehab. I don't care if she shaves her head. I don't care if she doesn't wear panties when out at the clubs - although it does turn me on a little. I don't care if K-Fed gets the kids - and frankly, none of this is ANYBODY'S business other than hers, K-Fed's, and their families. Again, this crap doesn't need to be on every network 24/7.

3. I don't care about mountain climbers who get stuck on a mountain.
These people made the decision to go up on that mountain, knowing the risks. They should take responsibility for their actions and I'm sure I'm not the only one who doesn't feel sorry for them nor am I the only one who's sick of the news telling me I should feel sorry for them. If they're stuck, go rescue them because we're the only country in the world who helps idiots like these but keep this crap off the TV. There's much more important things going on in the world besides some morons who want to go mountain climbing for "the thrill" just to cry like babies when things go wrong. It is sad when these mountain climbers never make it off the mountain but we shouldn't feel sorry for them when they knowingly took the risk to get "the thrill".

4. Hollywood celebs and recording artists are not military experts.
Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn, Jane Fonda, The Dixie Chicks, John Mellencamp, and the rest of the "stars" who oppose the war are NOT military experts so they should not be be on the TV saying what we should do in Iraq. Just because Martin Sheen played the President on TV does not mean he is qualified to be the REAL Commander-In-Chief. Just because Mike Farrell played BJ Hunnicut on M.A.S.H. doesn't mean he really knows how to be a commander at war. These people need to leave military decisions to the real experts who have the proper training and knowledge to make such decisions. If General Pace tried to give these moonbats advice on how to shoot a movie or produce an album they would laugh in his face. Yet they think they're "elite" enough that they can tell General Pace how to do his job. If they're against the war, that's fine, let them say they're against it - but leave the military planning to the people who's jobs it is to do so.

5. People who do suicide attacks in Israel are not "freedom fighters"
As a matter of fact the proper term is actually Terrorists. If these Islamic extremists were only attacking valid Israeli military targets I might agree that maybe they're "freedom fighters". But when these psychopathic sickos cross the boarder and blow up school buses filled with children they show that they aren't for freedom at all - they're terrorists plain and simple. Calling them anything else is an insult to our intelligence and only boosts the terrorists' morale.

6. If I wanted to know about the Oscars I would watch them on Sunday.
I. Don't. Care. About. The. Oscars. If I REALLY wanted to hear about them I would actually turn the friggin channel and watch them. There's much more important things going on in the world than the stupid Oscars. I don't understand how the Oscars get more coverage than the 13-year-old boy who was kidnapped at gunpoint and escaped unharmed - the latter story is MUCH more newsworthy. Keep all the Oscar crap for shows like Entertainment Tonight.

7. Every time you reveal classified information or operations you hurt America.
This is a pretty serious issue. Every time you release classified information or classified operations you hurt America, your own country. These actions are morally wrong and borderline treasonous. Don't you realize that you are potentially putting lives at risk here? Even if there aren't lives at risk, you are ruining our tools to actually WIN the Global War on Terror. If you actually WANT us to lose this war, keep doing business as usual. If you actually WANT us to WIN this war, then you'd better get your head out of your asses and stop selling out your own country for a story and a buck.

8. Stop the one-sided coverage of Iraq.
There are actually GOOD things happening in Iraq - your constant refusal to report anything but the bad things shows you for the traitors you probably are. You don't really have to look very hard to find these stories. CENTCOM has done a lot of the homework for you. Hell, my brother and a guy named Jim have done some of the homework for you as well. I'm not saying don't report the bad things - there ARE bad things happening in Iraq and it SHOULD be reported. What I'm saying is lets have a little balance here. What you are doing by only reporting the bad things is furthering your agenda of America losing the war in Iraq - that isn't your job. Your job is to report the facts and not try to sway the public opinion.

9. There are 2 sides to the global warming story.
Stop reporting just the democratic talking points on the issue. Sean Hannity shouldn't be the only one in the world actually reporting that many scientists don't believe the global warming hype. Besides, 15 years ago you told me we were heading into the next ice age - now the world is warming up? Maybe we should do a little more research before we scream "fire" in a crowded movie theatre.

10. Lets have a little TRUTH in reporting shall we?
Finally, you all need to tell the TRUTH in your stories, both on the air and in print. Every time I watch the news or read something in the paper I constantly find things that are either half-truths or down right lies and it's getting out of control. We have a free press in this country because our four-fathers believed you can't trust the government to tell the truth. Now we can't even trust our free press to tell the truth any more! If we can't trust the government to tell the truth (and I don't) and we can't trust the media to tell the truth (which I don't either) than who can we trust? The odd thing is that I find myself believing the government more than the media even though the government has more to gain by lying! I think I speak for more than just myself when I say we're sick and tired of lies in the media. You can't say Saddam NEVER had WMDs when he used them to kill hundreds of thousands. As SFC B said Chris Dugan was never a recruiter. U.S. Soldiers never flushed Korans down the toilet at Gitmo to antagonize prisoners. The scary part is that you don't realize the kind of damage you can and have done with your false reporting. Take a look at the case of the Times report of U.S. soldiers flushing Korans down the toilet at Gitmo to antagonize prisoners. That story caused riots across the Muslim world and several soldiers DIED because of the riots that story caused. The VERY NEXT WEEK the Times printed admitted that the only incidents of Korans being flushed was done by the prisoners themselves to try and clog up the toilets to piss off the guards! Who took responsibility for those soldiers who lost their lives because of your false reporting? Frankly, it needs to stop for every one's sake.

11. The election is too far away - lets hold off for now.
The election is over a year and a half away. Hell, the primaries are a year away! Can we please get this off the TV. At the rate you're going now, EVERYBODY is going to be sick and tired of the election and our horribly low voting rate will drop even lower.

I'm glad I got all that off my chest. Feel free to comment even if you think I'm a right-wing crack-pot.

I finished this month's mission (HAHA!!! I go off a calendar month - suck it USAREC recruiters!) back on the 9th and haven't done much actual recruiting the rest of the month. Frankly, after enlisting 6 soldiers into the Army National Guard in 34 days I think I deserved a little break. I think it's time to get back to work, don't you?

Finally, I have a couple of big announcements to make - and these are huge.
#1. With my ETS (End of Term of Service) fast approaching I have decided to NOT extend my tour in Recruiting. This job has been by far the best job I've ever had. At the same time this has been by far the worst job I've ever had. I'm glad I've had this opportunity to do this job, but in the end I believe it is time to move on. I will have a crazy amount of leave to burn up before I ETS so I will be ending my recruiting tour much earlier than expected. As of the information I have right now, I will out process from my BN on the morning of May 15th and start my terminal leave at 1200hrs of that same day. There's lots to do before that time so the two and a half months I have till I'm done will be busy - but a welcomed busy.

#2. I WILL BE ON VACATION ALL SUMMER!!!!!! I just wish my brother would be home to enjoy it with me.

#3. I only have SIX enlistments left! My replacement is already in my office and I've begun wrapping up my recruiting life. If all goes well, I'll have my 6 enlistments sooner rather than later and be able to have a very easy transition to the non-recruiting world.

#4. I'm going to go back to college full time next fall to FINALLY get my degree. I'll be majoring in Secondary Education with a focus in Broad field Social Studies. Troy, if you don't have your Masters by the time I graduate, I will never stop teasing you. By the way, you're 8 and a half years older than me so you should have your masters before I have my bachelors.....

I've included a poll at the bottom of this post that I encourage you all to participate in.

Take the poll

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Recruiters Under Fire

2007-02-15T21:42:00.000-08:00

In the last 2 days we've seen a lot of stuff about recruiting mostly focusing on the Army. Some of what is being put out by the media and lefty blogs is a lot of half truths, misleading information, and false information and I just can't not talk about it.

First up on the docket is Military Accepting More Ex-Cons:

Here's the cold hard facts: Did the Army grant more waivers in FY 2006 than it did in FY 2003? Yes, they did.

Some may argue that this is due to an increase in the missions from 2003 to 2006, but the increase in mission cannot account for the increase in waivers as the difference is only about 10,000 soldiers. It's just a simple fact that they granted more waivers than they did in the past.

Where I get confused is where they start to only mention moral waivers without even mentioning what kind of moral waivers they're talking about. Anybody who has been involved in recruiting for more than an hour would understand that there are many kinds of moral waivers. Lets say that you have a prior service guy who got a little overweight while on Active Duty and was kicked out of the Army because of it. After a while he gets in shape, loses the weight, and wants to enlist. Since his DD214 has a RE-3 he requires.... you guessed it a MORAL WAIVER. If you have a kid who has a tattoo on his hand, during FY 2006 he would have required a MORAL WAIVER. Lets say you have a kid who admits to smoking pot on more than one occasion, or "recreational use", he's going to require a MORAL WAIVER. Surely these hardened criminals should not be in this kinder-gentler Army right?

I also have a problem with what some of the people quoted in the article are saying:

"The fact that the military has allowed more than 100,000 people with such troubled pasts to join its ranks over the past three years illustrates the problem we're having meeting our military needs in this time of war," said Aaron Belkin, director of the center.

100,000?! HOLY CRAP!

How exactly did he get these numbers I wonder? From earlier in the story:

The number of felony waivers granted by the Army grew from 411 in 2003 to 901 in 2006, according to the Pentagon, or about one in 10 of the moral waivers approved that year. Other misdemeanors - from petty theft or writing a bad check to some assaults - jumped from about 2,700 to more than 6,000 in 2006, representing more than three-quarters of moral waivers granted by the Army.

Lets do math!

Lets say that there has been a steady increase in waivers each year starting in 2003 (I'm too lazy to look up the exact numbers but an estimation should do fine for our little fact finding mission). So for felony waivers we had 411 in 2003, 520 in 2004, 745, in 2005 and 901 in 2006. So in the last 4 years we've had 2,577 people enlist with a felony on their record.

For misdemeanor waivers we had 2700 in 2003, 3600 in 2004, 4900 in 2005 and 6000 in 2006. So that means in the last 4 years we've had 17,200 people enlist with a misdemeanor on their record.

If you add those numbers up, you've got 19,777 people who required moral waivers for law violations who've enlisted in the last 4 years. Lets just round my random numbers up to 20,000 to make things easier.

Where in the WORLD did Aaron Belkin from the California-based Michael D. Palm Center come up with 100,000?! Sorry, but when you put out a number that is 5 TIMES HIGHER than the actual (estimated) numbers that is not an "error in reporting", that is an OUTRIGHT LIE!

Noticed how he said it's 100,000 people with "such troubled pasts"? The story even admits that you need a waiver for writing a bad check - surely these are very troubled people. What if the person has a lead foot and requires a waiver for 4 or more speeding tickets - again, we should let people with "such troubled pasts" into our military......

What's worse is that the lefty bloggers are having a field day with this.

One blogger had this to say:

The waiver removes the standard measure of "morality" for people who have been convicted of such crimes as aggravated assault (including rape), burglary, robbery, and vehicular homicide.

Including rape? Wow, that's news to me - I was unaware that rape was a waivable offense.

Let me just look that one up in the ECM...... wow, says here that rape is a non-waivable felony.....

Aggravated assault? That one is a little tougher since the military classifies things differently. But let me look that one up too..... wow, here's the definition:

Assault, Aggravated (such as assault with dangerous weapon,
assault intentionally inflicting great bodily harm, or assault with
intent to commit a felony)

And you guessed it, non-waivable.

I'll give him burglary, as that is a felony waivor.

What about robbery? If it was armed robbery than that's non-waivable, but robbery without a weapon is waivable.

What's more interesting is he had this to say:

This policy was instituted gradually beginning around 2003, because the
recruiters' source pool, inner city youth and hapless rural youth,... wisely
withheld their hands from the contracts. And they were the ones without the
records.

Instituted gradually beginning in 2003? That's strange, when my brother was a recruiter in 1999 I remember helping him with some waivers when I worked ADSW. Maybe my brother was ahead of the curve, knowing we'd be stuck in this "quagmire."

Frankly, these bloggers need to stop lying about things they know nothing about. The scary thing is that every one of their ilk that reads this filth is going to believe it as the gospel.

You know what I find most hypocritical about this who thing? The left's talking points.

The left is the first group of people to talk about rehabilitation of our criminals and giving them a second chance - yet when the military does what they want and they're up in arms about it!Robbie at UrbanGrounds said it much better than I can.

That's all I'm going to write tonite - watch this weekend for the next thing on my docket - Undercover reporters catching recruiters lying.

Once Helluva Month

2007-02-11T19:55:00.000-08:00

This last month has been absolutely crazy! I didn't really believe it myself when I looked, but it's true. In the last 34 days I've enlisted 6 new people into the National Guard! How crazy is that? Very crazy indeed.

It's crazy how much work enlisting 6 people in a month's time is - it seemed like time just flew by.

You want to know what all that hard work got me? A lot really. It got me back at missing for the month of January. It finished my mission for February (We go off a calendar month, not that crazy USAREC "month") in only 9 days. And best of all - it got me bronchitis!

Man! Am I a lucky guy or what?!

Since my last post there have been some things to change when it comes to drill. Back in December my NCOIC told me that I would be at least a Squad Leader in a platoon of the Recruit Sustainment Program (RSP). I thought "this is interesting - they usually don't like us to become part of a drilling unit" so I asked what brought this on. Turned out it was being command directed because they believed that it would make the RSP more successful as well as provide great leadership opportunities for the recruiters. Sounded like a win-win so I was all for it. January drill was fast approaching when I was told by my NCOIC that I would not be a Squad Leader - I was now going to be a Platoon Sergeant for the white phase soldiers! This should be fun..... an E-5 thrown into this position. I knew I'd make it work though.

January drill came up and I apparently did a good job - my NCOIC and the Commander and 1SG for the supporting unit had nothing but good things to say about my performance. In the end they told me I would be the PLT SGT for white phase for the remainder of the training year. Sounded great to me - I love training troops and I appreciated the opportunity. Little did I know things would soon change again.

As January was coming to an end I received another phone call from my NCOIC telling me that February would be the last month I would be the white phase PLT SGT. I was very surprised by this and asked why. It seemed that many recruiters who were behind mission were blaming RSP on their mission failure so the command took away the scapegoat because it "was not beneficial to either RSP or the recruiters." That sucked so I decided to do something about it. I worked my way up the chain to fight to stay with RSP. Eventually I won the battle just before February drill.

While I was working my ass off to enlist 6 people I also had a lot of prep work to do before drill. I suffered a nasty cold the week before drill, so I suffered through 3 days of Career Direction at one of my high schools, taught 3 other classes at 3 other of my high schools, went to MEPS with 2 new recruits all while being sick as a dog. Then after getting back from MEPS real late Friday night, staying up till 0230 working on stuff for drill I had to be at the Armory at 0630 to start drill. What at start!

Drill was AWESOME. Lots of good training for the soldiers and lots of fun. I finished Saturday exhausted but happy and went to spend some time with the family (my parents live in the town we travel to drill for). I enjoyed my time with my family and went to bed early, excited to get the next day started.

When I woke up Sunday morning I felt a little funny but didn't think anything of it. I started coughing and hawked up a bunch of flem but when I spit it into the sink I saw it was filled with bright red blood! Exciting. I didn't have time to dilly dally so I continued getting ready while coughing up blood so I could get to drill on time. I got to the armory and figured I'd see if the state surgeon would be in this weekend (he lives in the area), at which he wasn't. The medic asked me why but I really didn't want to talk to him about it - but he kept pressing on. Eventually I said "I've been coughing up bloody mucus all morning, it's no big deal, don't worry about it." The medic told me I should go to the hospital and I told him I would after drill - I've got to much to do for drill. If I was gone there would be no NCO to train my soldiers so I could not miss. He insisted that I go to the hospital and I said something to the order of "Look private, I'm a big boy and I'll go after drill when I get back to my home unit. I've got too much shit going on to leave drill." I figured it would be over with that, but apparently not.

The little bastard had to brief the commander on medical issues, which includes how many people had come to see the medics and why. As I was the only one who had seen the medics he told them that I was coughing up blood. When asked what was done he told them he told me to go to the hospital - at which I "refused" because I had to much going on at drill to leave. Apparently the commander thought coughing up blood was a bad thing.

Next thing I know, another recruiter is taking my platoon for me and I'm on the way to the hospital. I didn't exactly have a choice in the matter. The doctor told me I have bronchitis, gave me my prescription, told me to take a couple of days off, and sent me on the way.

When I got to drill I was told to go home - which would be great if I didn't have to drive all my enlistees back home an hour and a half away. So stay at drill I did - which was great even though I felt like walking death by the end of the day.

The funniest thing that happened at drill? I asked my plt to figure out a plt name. There were many different suggestions, some appropriate, some not, some funny, some not, and some just plain weird. The winning name? The Jump Suit Jockeys!

You're probably wondering why we'd choose such a weird name, but anybody who has seen the "RSP Uniform" would understand.

Seems some months back, somebody at the National Guard Bureau had this great idea to create a special uniform for the RSP soldiers - you know, to give RSP that "espri de corps" feeling. I'm sure that somebody worked long and hard to design such an impressive uniform. Needless to say I have my reservations about this - these kids joined the Army National Guard, not the RSP - give them a set of ACUs for Pete's sake! As we were issuing the uniforms out nobody really knew what to call them. Some people started to call them the RSP PT uniform. That didn't work since they weren't just for PT. Some people started to call them the RSP Track Suit. That still didn't work since the soldiers are doing more than just running in them. At one point the 1SG heard me call it the "RSP Jump Suit" and he picked up the phrase - after that point it stuck. Everybody hates them, seems like a waste of money to most of us when the kids should have been issued ACUs.

Anyway, when we were trying to figure out the PLT name somebody suggested "The Jump Suit Jockeys" and we all loved it. You should have heard the supporting unit laugh when I stood in front of the PLT and screamed "Jump Suit Jockeys.... Attention!"