SSG Schwartz, are you still recruiting?

[Jolly_Roger]

SSG Shwartz, you’re recruiting right now, aren’t you? If so I wish you a merry Xmas and I hope that its not as bad for you as I had it. Last week a few coworkers in my new unit and I were talking. One guy mentioned that he was thinking about volunteering for recruiting. I made a promise to myself to not go into too much detail on my years of punishing torment in that job. I actually get really upset and angry and if I dwell on it. But this morning I read this article.

I’ll have to speak to this guy. Its not worth it, and I don’t think he realizes how bad that job really is. Sure, Ft. Bragg ain’t no picnic but recruiting command is like the Dark Side of the Force. It took me a year out of recruiting to achieve emotional stability, and I won’t go into the health issues I had. (Hospitalized THREE times from Blood Pressure and stress related stuff).

It bothers me when recruiting command says something like

The Army began an investigation after being prodded by Amanda Henderson and Texas Sen. John Cornyn. Cornyn, a Republican on the Armed Services Committee, said he will press for Senate hearings.

“We need to get to the bottom of this as soon as we can,” he said.

The all-volunteer military is under heavy pressure to sign up recruits and retain soldiers while it wages two wars.

Douglas Smith, a spokesman for the Army Recruiting Command, acknowledged that recruiting is a demanding job but said counseling and other support are available.

“I don’t have an answer to why these suicides in Houston Recruiting Battalion occurred, but perhaps the investigation that is under way may shed some light on that question,” he said

I sat next to guy that tried to kill himself while recruiting. He called me one morning saying he couldn’t take it anymore and was going to end it. I found him in a park after he had swallowed a case of nyquil. I don’t know if it would have killed him, but I had to call an ambulance. Heck, I thought about it a few times, myself. (though I did not attempt to kill myself. I hoped every day that a car would hit me on my way to work though.)

This isn’t something new…its been going on for awhile. So SSG Schwartz, if you’re feeling stressed out about recruiting, you can always PM me to vent it out, man. (in the expectation that the thread will probably turn into a how recruiters suck thing.) I feel bad for all of the guys detailed into recruiting…because I know that I had never been so miserable before in my life.

[SSG_Schwartz]

Thanks for your concern, Jolly Roger. I actually read and responded to this last night, but somehow the post got lost.

Anyway, I heard that story on the radio yesterday and thought about that number–4 completed suicides in one Battalion in less than three years. We just had our ATC last month, and I saw almost everyone in the Oklahoma City Battalion. Four preventable deaths would really be a lot of people. I really couldn’t wrap my head around that. I did a quick search to find any other non-deployed BN in which four Soldiers had suicided in three years and came up empty. (The reason I don’t include deployed units is because a rifle is always close at hand, and people can be impulsive. If recruiters were armed, I would bet the number would be over a dozen completed suicides.)

Getting good medical care while on recruiting detail can be difficult, getting good mental health care is even harder. Trying to get a referral from Tricare for someone in your area, then trying to make it to the appointments, then actually doing something about the stress. I can see how suicides happen. And that is also assuming that the recruiter has the intestinal fortitude to actually seek help.

My Station Commander recently made a suicidal gesture. The Station Commander before him shot up his house and threatened to blow his head off. Hell, I’ve thought about it, but I have also thought about having sex with Jennifer Aniston, and that probably ain’t gonna happen either.

I’m not gonna make this a recruiting sucks thread, but it can. I have been told I can’t go home until I make 6 appointments. If I made six appointments then I would be told I can’t go home until I made 6 quality appointments. If a miracle should happen and I made 6 quality appointments I would be told I couldn’t go home until I conducted two of them. (At eight o’clock at night I am supposed to conduct a quality appointment.) If I did, I was told that I had to have one on the floor in three days or the appointment would not count and I would be working Saturday. At the end of the day, I would have to document every contact I had made during the day before I could go home and then fill out a ton of paperwork for those that did agree to enlist. I was not allowed to use prospecting time to prepare the enlistment packet.

So, I would make up appointments just to get to go home, find one person ready to enlist, listen to my Station Commander bully me about when that person was going to the floor and just pretty much say, “fuck it,” about working late nights and weekends.

I have a great First Sergeant now who does not allow those games to be played. I have still had my stress reactions. I am drinking about as much as I did pre-deployment, I have had high blood pressure and an EKG, but I am sure I will make it through the next two years.

Again, thanks, Jolly Roger.

SSG Schwartz