What a crazy month

I can't believe that it's been since the end of last month since I posted anything. It's amazing to me how I can go 150% one month, then the next month turn around and finish at 33%. Well that's how it looks like I am going to finish anyway. I guess that's what I get for not sandbagging last month. We'll see if that ever happens again. We started out looking good. Had a few guys lined up, and pow all but one of them fell through. Oh well. At least we are still 100% for the quarter. I was hoping to be done with the quarter this month. Oh well we just move on right? I really do like the $20,000 quick ship bonus though. I think that is a fantastic idea for the Army right now. We are advertising the crap out of it too. A whole lotta folks have come in asking about it too. Too bad none of them are qualified. HA

Prices

So I was at a grocery store today and I noticed something intriging and I was wondering why nobody is complaining yet.

I will leave off the brand names, but these are real prices by the gallon of some items at a real grocery store.

Baby Wash and Shampoo $90.88 PG
Mexican Beer $14.08 PG
Tequila $52.48 PG
Dr or Mr Something $8.96 PG
Island Water $6.40 PG
Cranberry Juice $33.28 PG
OJ (not the killer) $3.84 PG
Soy Sauce $28.16 PG
Dish Soap $12.80 PG
Fabric Softener $14.08 PG
Tomato Pasta Sauce $20.48 PG
Alfredo Sauce $33.28 PG

How come nobody is on the news crying about how much this stuff costs. Really how much could it cost to make a gallon of pasta sauce? 20 cents tops. Yet nobody is complaining about price gouging, or unfair profit margins. Ninety dollars a gallon for some baby shampoo? Wow

150% Today

Well barring any unforseen mishaps at MEPS, we should hit 150% today.

Thought of the day.

Punk rock is supposed to be about bucking the system, and individuality, and standing out against the norm, and being different right?

So if everybody is punk, and everybody seems to be, doesn't that make punk the same thing as Britanny Spears?

Mission Box and thought of the day.





So today we Boxed. For those of you who don't know what that means. We hit our "sales" goal. The month is not yet over and we have two more seniors enlisting on Friday. I can't think of a better way to welcome a new CSM than by going 150%. We are the shit.

My thought of the day is this. How come everytime Recruiting struggles a bit, it's got to get posted all over the news. Does anyone think that this helps our cause? Really. I think that everytime some young person who is considering serving his or her country sees this sort of stuff they think "well gee if no one else is doing it why should I."

Another thought. I was talking with someone a few days ago who is really into all of this Anti-Recruiting nonsense, and I had a good laugh about it as always. These are the people who stand out in front of high schools and what not, protesting recruiters looking for VOLUNTEERS to serve the country. I told this young fella who believes that we can love our enemies into submission "y'know I hope your cause wins I really do. Because when you do win, and I am not allowed to find people who are willing to volunteer to fight and provide to you the right to be retarded, the country has to start a draft, and I get you all. There will be no more volunteer only Army. I get every single one of ya. Do you realize how easy that would make my job? All I would have to do is show up at your house and tell you what time you gotta be there.

It's been a while

You know, when I started this blog, I had every intention of writing something clever everyday. Apparently I'm not that clever.

My station is one away from mission box, as of today, and two away from taking top small station in the battalion. I have three more lined up for the month, hopefully all will go well and we can take it to the top.

I hope everyone reading this had a great 4Th of July. Yesterday was awesome for me. I love getting together with friends and celebrating the birth of this great nation. I watched the Revolution mini series on the History channel too. If you haven't seen it I recommend you do. You might learn some things about the revolution you didn't know.

I also found one of my other sisters today (thank God for MYSPACE right). I am so excited about that, that I don't know what to do. It has been 15 years at least since i have spoken to anyone on that side of my family, to include my parents. I have looked for so long, that now that I have found them I don't even know what to say. My friend John tells me I have real forgiveness issues. He's probably right. He always is. I still consider myself a fledgling Christian, so I have a lot of issues like that I'm hoping God will help me through. Wish me luck. I had to find that side of my family again though. My kids need to know there is more to us than what's been presented so far.

Saturday I went to a Dodger game, and for the first time in about 15 years I sat in the pavilion, it only took me about 15 minutes to remember why we don't sit there anymore. Game went into extra innings, Dodgers lost, sucked. I got to spend two whole days with just my wife and no kids though, so it was worth it. Sometimes I forget just how sweet my wife can be. It's funny how adding a couple of crazy kids into your life can change a person. I like her better when there's no screaming monters around. Hey only thirteen years to go, and I can get rid of both of them right?

Rebuttal

Oh so because it's made in Texas somehow makes it more American? I don't really think so. I think that all of these foriegn car companies have a plan. I think that the whole purpose of putting them here in the first place was to give people a warm fuzzy feeling about buying them. You say to yourself, well gee they make these Honda's in Alabama so they are just as American as a Ford right? WRONG! What do you think is going to happen to all of those plants once Toyota has killed off Ford and Chevy for good? Do you think Honda will still need to keep paying workers in Ohio twice as much as they pay workers in Osaka? You know sometimes the enemy doesn't come in waving the flags of war. Sometimes they come in waving the flags of peace and good intentions. Ten years from now everyone will be wondering what the hell happened, and how come we can't buy any domestic made products at all anymore. Wondering why there is no steel industry left, why there is no plastic industry left, and why suddenly there is nowhere for Mr. Blue Collar Worker Man to collect a paycheck from.

Links

Could someone please tell me how to post your links on my blog. I just thought it would be polite to let people know about your blogs too. I just don't know how.

Thanks

Some Thoughts

Random thoughts of a blithering fool.

I think the Toyota Tundra is the vehicle that will Fianancially kill America once and for all. The large pickup is the only product that is keeping the big three alive. If Toyota takes even a small percentage of that it will be the end of them.
Y know what the real problem is in this though? The fact that we pay auto workers entirely too much money to do what they do. Does anyone reading this believe that the guy that puts the knobs on the stereos at GM deserves to get paid 65 dollars an hour? I don't. I read somewhere that GM paid more than 50 million dollars last year in Viagra claims. That's nuts. People tell me that if the big three made a better product they would stop buying foriegn cars. I say how can the big three afford to make a better car? If they made a better car they wouldn't make any money at all. I say they fire the whole union and start over. Maybe they should go private and tell the stockholders and the unions to piss off. Then maybe they could afford to make a better car again.

What happened to the American Male. When did everyone turn into such homo's, and why didn't I notice when it happened? Do we really live in a world where a guy like Sanjaya is a sex symbol? Everyday I talk to people about sitting down with me to discuss the posibilty of enlisting in the Army, and you know what I get? "My girlfriend won't let me". What kind of pussified answer is that? I wonder where we would be today if during WWII recruiters heard crap like that. I tell ya those were MEN. Men who gladly jumped up at the chance to defend freedom wherever it needed defending. It didn't matter that the war was "over there" they went. The country and the world called and they answered. What the hell happened to MEN since then? I tell ya I look around and I have a hard time finding Men these days. I look around my son's boyscout troop at some of the other dads there and I don't think half these guys could change a tire let alone save the world from oppression.

Heroes! Does anyone other than me think that is the coolest TV show in the last 10 years? (Besides Family Guy) I haven't seen a show in years that I actually look forward to watching weekly.

My son is an archery genius!! Took him on an archery weekend camping trip, and he took like it a fish to water or however that cliche goes. The instructer there told me that he had some of the best raw talent she'd seen in a while. I think I finally found his sport (and could it get any manlier).

I think it would be funny if Paris Hilton got shived in jail. Does anyone agree? I can't think of anyone in the whole world is more anoying on this planet. I can't tink of anyone is more useless on this planet either (well that's a lie).

Boxed Yesterday

Hey I forgot to tell ya that we boxed yesterday. Well volume boxed, just as good in my eyes. I don't really see the point in categories anyway.

I wanted to say that I am getting a huge response from my Death of the Ed System post.

I also wanted to say that if I offended anyone GOOD!!!! That was my intention. Sometimes I think the only time people hear what's being said is if some big dumb bastard like me is screaming and cussing at them. I think we have a lot of problems in this country, and that's one of the biggest ones.

It's easy to forget that our kids are our greatest commodity, and we owe them the best we have to offer. They are definately not getting that at school, but we like to pretend they are.

I want you opinions good or bad. If you're offended, do something about it.

If only the Libs would protest something wothwhile sometimes, we might actually get something done.

Do I know how to fix the problem? Nope. I know that throwing money at the problem won't fix it. We have been trying that for years, look what it's gotten us. California already spends 40% of it's budget on eduction. I'd like to know where that money is going. Oh yeah it's going to make sure all the little illegal alien kids get free lunches. Oh I meant to say undocumented workers, nah, no I didn't.

I have decided to use my blog as a way to piss people off. I am still going to talk about the joys and heartaches of recruiting. When I think about all the things that piss me off about recruiting though, it's usually issues like these. I can deal with angry 1SG's and angry CSM's, after all they are just trying to do their jobs too. Most of my recruiting problems come from stupid people. I didn't say uneducated poeple, I said stupid people. So they are the ones I am goin to blog about.

Have a great weekend all. I am going outside now to polish Victoria. She's dusty and hasn't been washed in a while.

This always brightens my day

The Death of the American Education System

Sooooo.. Here's my rant for the day. Please stop me if I'm wrong.

It seems to me that every year that I have been a Recruiter (going on five by the way) the young folks that I talk to just get dumber, and dumber, and dumber, and dumber. I do not understand how someone who has spent twelve years in school, can't pass the ASVAB. A test that is written at an 8th grade education level. What is being taught in school these days? Really. What is being taught. How does someone who speaks English, and has a High School Diploma not know a simple word like variable, or feasible? How does someone with a bachelor's degree fail the stupid test? A F&$king Bachelor's Degree!!

Honestly I had someone in my office three days ago with a Bachelor's Degree from a prominent California College come into my office and score a 19. Y'know if you just answered all the English questions and selected random numbers on the math parts, you could score a 27. Granted that won't get you in either, but for Peete's sake it's closer. I sat on my couch once and took that test while watching survivor, with my kids doing what they do all over the house, using no scratch paper, and only answering the math problems I could figure out in about two seconds, and I still scored a 69. I haven't looked at an Algebra problem in at least 14 years, and I can do better than someone who is "learning" it?

Earlier this week I was with a whole pile of High School Seniors, and I decided to do a U.S. History quiz, and the results were sickening. Nobody knew simple things. Simple significant things like why did the U.S. enter WWII, when was Pearl Harbor Attacked, When did WWII end? Why did we fight a Civil War. Really, who can't answer that? When did we land on the moon, who was the first American in space, when did the Cuban Missile Crises happen, and who was president at the time, how long did it last?

I asked them to write me a one page history lesson, just one page. When I got them back, it was like I got a history lesson from a third grade class. No I take that back, my son is in the third grade and he knows more about American History then most of those seniors did. Seniors we are about to send into the world. Y'know the future leaders of America?

So now we have established that they don't know English, math, or history. So what do they know. are they any good at P.E.? Hell no. I know this because more of them are coming home from basic training with injuries then ever before. Which tells me that their bodies are entirely too fragile. I know this because Basic training has never been easier. NEVER.

But I tell you these kids today can play the shit out of some video games. Oh yeah. I hope that comes in handy some day. They can smoke the shit out of some weed too.

You can't tell me it's this town I live in either, because the last town I lived in was the same damned way, and THAT school district was a freakin award winning district. What the F%ck is the criteria for winning awards these days? Show up sober, and able to write your name on a piece of paper and you get an A+?

Parents reading this you really need to wake the fuck up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Schools these days are really just retard factories. Sending your kids into the world barely able to read and write, and knowing nothing of their own history and culture. But you don't care either. That's why you've got little Timmy hopped up on twenty different kinds of A D D dope. So you can just ignore him all day. He's being quiet right now, so everything is good. Meanwhile he's up in his room wasting away on the X BOX. THAT'S WHY HE HAS A D D RETARD!!! How the hell do expect a teacher to be able to compete with HALO 3?

Also, If you think he's not doing dope, you're just as stupid as he is. Go ahead ask me how I know?

Boy can you tell how mad this makes me. What ever happened to standards? We live in some make believe world now where every one's a winner. WRONG. Contrary to what we believe not everybody is special. If everyone was we'd need a new word to describe it. We only learn through trial and failure. You can't win all the time. When was the last time in California someone was held back a grade? Teachers are so afraid of not getting tenured they pass everyone now, wether or not they can pass. The California ed System ought to change it's motto to something like "California Schools- Meet the Standards or we'll lower them to meet you".

Tragic Irony

I got some terrible news yesterday. A friend of a friend knows this guy that joined the USMC at the same time he joined the Army when they were seniors in High School. Both of these guys joined their respective branches so they could go fight and serve their nation and do great things for the whole world. After accomplishing both of these things one went on to be a recruiter, and the other went back to doing whatever Marines do an a daily basis. The Marine guy served a 15 month tour in Iraq and came home about two months ago. He was killed in a car crash Monday morning.

I often think of horrible stories such as these and wonder just what is God is thinking. I mean I hear all day long how people don't want to join the military because they are terrified of dying in Iraq. As if that is the most horrible thing that could ever happen to someone, and this brave young hero is killed in car wreck.

I just want everyone who actually reads this to stop and say a prayer for his family. These must be really trying times for them.

Rest in Peace
Lance Corporal Oliver Estrada
You will always be my hero

The Death of Boxing

So last night I paid 55 bucks to watch Oscar De La Hoya fight Floyd Mayweather, and I gotta tell ya I am very disappointed.

In a time where boxing is wondering why it is losing a huge chunk of it's audience to MMA venues, last night's fight makes it painfully obvious.

I don't know which fight the judges were watching, but I watched a fight where Oscar De La Hoya clearly was the dominant fighter. The entire fight was controlled by him. yet somehow the judges only saw Mayweather's hits. I mean doesn't aggression, and control of the fight count for anything in boxing anymore? It seems that a guy like Mayweather, (who is a great fighter by the way) just has to lay back and throw a jab and land it every once in a while to win a fight.

It looked to me like he was running from De La Hoya the whole fight. I think the boxing commission really needs to re evaluate the way it scores fights. This will probably be the last fight I ever pay for. I'll stick with MMA thanks.

Iceman vs Rampage May 26th. I hope Chuck beats the snot out of Quinten.

Just my thought for the day.

Station Commando Rocks

To anyone who is actually bored enough to read this blog, here is the link to the guy that inspired me to start one.

http://recruitingtirade.blogspot.com/

We enlisted another one today. He's going infantry. Picked up 15 grand in cash, and 38 grand for college.

Take that Taco Bell Guy. I'll take my Chalupa without tomatoes thanks. Oh and I spilled some Coke back there. I just wanted to make sure you were gainfully employed.

LOSER

Lakers

Oh yeah, and the Lakers lost yesterday! Down with the Suns! Down with them!

My Guy Re enlisted on Monday

With everything that has gone on this week, I completely forgot to mention that one of my NCO's re enlisted on Monday. I don't really think he knows how proud of him I am. Not that I think that there is anything wrong with not re enlisting. I just kind of knew he was going to . He waited until the last possible minute. He even started doing his ACAP stuff. ACAP is the Army Career Alumni Program. It is a pretty neat tool we use to transition form the Army life to a civilian one. It involves three days of classes covering resume building, job interviews, and what not.

This "kid" is a combat veteran who served in Iraq for 18 months. Shows you just how "bad" the Army life really is huh? It's so bad he volunteered to do it again. 22 year old kid from one of the poorest parts of Texas. He just bought a brand new GTO. How many 22 year old's out there are driving a GTO that wasn't bought by their Daddy? This fine young man literally started with nothing, in fact flying to basic training was the first time he ever flew in an airplane. Now he is a strong independent, educated young man who the Army is privileged to have among it's ranks.

It makes me laugh when I compare him with the guy from Taco Bell I was talking about a few days ago.

Congrats BAGADOOSH

Great Day

Today was a great day. I enlisted a young man today. This was a very hard person to enlist, which makes me feel even better that finally enlisted. He needed a Moral Waiver. Which means I needed about two weeks more extra work to get him in. Then we found out he had some counseling when he was a teenager so we had to round up all of those records too.

He enlisted as a 52D which is a generator repairer. Kid picked up a bunch of money to go with it too. He is leaving sometime in the summer. I am very excited to have had the opportunity to get this young fella going with his life.

My bosses also drove all the way up here to rummage through my paperwork today. I think that went pretty well. I thought they were going to tear my stuff to pieces, but apparently I take better care of my stuff than I give myself credit for.

It never ceases to amaze me how much paperwork is involved in this job. Mountains of it. Literally! And I only run an itty bitty station. I can't imagine what it's like for some of you SC's running giant stations. I think I will just hide out here forever.

Oh yeah and apparently nobody was interested in the protesting yesterday. Everybody must have remembered what "a day without pay" was like last year.

A day without Illegals II

So I was reading the news today, and I came across an interesting story about how all the Illegals or whoever, were planning on more protests across the country.

I remember when this happened last year. I am still trying to figure out who exactly this hurt, except for the Police that had to corral them . You would think that the protestors paychecks would be hurt the most. Y'know what else I remember? I remember that a drive home from LAX that normally takes about two hours only took me 45 minutes. Yipee!! I was wishing everyday could be a day without Illegals.

I am trying to figure out what is being protested. The fact that Illegals have completly drained the California Education system, the California Health Care System, the California Welfare System, and have completly overrun the California Prison System. Last time I checked all of these services are being provided for free, paid for by California Taxpayers. I wonder who it is that really should be protesting. 12 million people taking advantage of the system, and apparently no one seems to care. Or they do care, but people are so afraid of offending that they say or do nothing.

You know what else I remember from last year? I remember a High School in LA where all of the students decided to get together and take down the American flag, turn it upside down, and fly it below the Mexican Flag. Who was protesting that? A hundred years ago we would have gone to war over that.

When are the people of California going to wake up? They wonder why the state is broke, why hospitals are closing, why schools can't afford pencils, and people that actually deserve welfare can't get it.

Everybody just ignores the problem because after all, if we send them all back, who's going to cut the grass?

What a Waste

You know. I live in this little town out here in the middle of nowhere, and some of the things I hear on a regular basis..... Man I tell you what.

The median income here is somewhere in the 20's. That's right the 20's. Without giving away my location, I tell you that's about a third of what a family actually needs to survive comfortably out here. So it surprises me everyday when I talk to a young man who is recently married, is 23 years old, has a new baby on the way, and works at Taco Bell, telling me how he has "it all figured out."

I remember when I was 21 and getting ready to get married thinking how in the hell am I going provide for a family working as a cook? So into the recruiting station I go. Thirteen years later I think WOW thank God a recruiter was there that day. I shudder to think where I would be now. Really I do. I owe everything in my life to God and the Army. Without either of those things I would be nowhere.

Getting back to the point. Well I guess that was the point. I guess what I am trying to say is why not give the recruiter a chance? Why not sit down with him, and just maybe see if there is something there. I mean Taco Bell is never going to pay what we pay. Taco Bell is never going to give you all the money for college you will ever need. Taco Bell is never going to provide your family with the health care benefits we have. Stop being scared to admit your way isn't working. Sorry bud, I understand how much you want to be the next Jeremy Mcgrath, but get real. It's probably not going to happen.

Is the thought of going to Iraq that scary? Is the thought of maybe serving a cause greater than YOU (yeah I know nothing is more important than you) really a bad thing? You know you can take the dirt bike with you when you go to Fort Hood or wherever? In fact we'll pay to ship it there.

OMG I don't wanna die in Iraq!! That is a profound statement. So I am going to post a link hopefully I get it right. I thought whoever is reading this might find this interesting. Compare that to the current toll in Iraq and Afghanistan combined 3500 or so in 4 years. Don't get me wrong I think everyone of those losses brings me great sadness, but get real. More people are killed by drunk drivers every year.

Just my thought for the day.

http://www.the-eggman.com/writings/death_stats.html

Things that Amaze,Confuse and Annoy me

This list could be 14 days long. I'll try to keep it short for now. I am sure there will be many more to follow.

1. Kids in high school with a 3.0 average that can't pass the ASVAB. My ten year old can pass the ASVAB.
Parents take note. Contrary to what you might believe your son/daughter may be too stupid to drive a truck in the Army.

2. People who call me from jail wondering if they are qualified to join the Army. Hint: If you're not qualified to walk among the rest of us because you can't stop stealing, drinking and driving, or beating people up with a hammer, you're pretty much not qualified to play with 20 million dollar helicopters either.

3. Folks that work at MEPS that are sitting there staring at your applicant all day, knowing that they need something from the recruiter to continue, waiting until 25 minutes before they close to call and let the recruiter know something is wrong

4. Parents who somehow believe that sitting down with me and their kid, to talk about whether or not the Army might help their kid, automatically means that little Joey will be in the Army before I leave the house. As if I have a set of hair clippers in the car, and 14 different sizes of boots just waiting on him.

5. Kids who can't spell UCLA telling me how they are going to go there next year.

6. Every "tough guy" in town who looks down and walks into walls and such to not make eye contact with a recruiter. Even female recruiters. I saw a guy at Walmart bowl over a three year old once trying to get away from me. This guy weighed 300 pound easy. What on earth made him think I was even interested in talking to him?

7. Recruiters who think that they are fooling their station commanders. Hey genius, my phone has a speaker on it too. I can and do listen to all your phone calls.

8. Applicants that tell me the last time they smoked weed was a long time ago. Saturday WAS NOT a long time ago Jackass.

9. Recruiters that still don't believe that "big brother" is watching. That's OK I'll think it's funny when CID puts you in handcuffs. Go watch your porno at home, on your own computer jackass.

That should do for now. there will be many more to follow

My First Blog

Hello,

This is my first attempt at a blog, so excuse me if I get some of the etiquette wrong. I wanted to start a blog because I think I have a lot to share about my experiences in recruiting. I am going to try to NOT use this blog as place to get into huge political debates and what not. However if someone comes in here and says something retarded, I will probably say something retarded back.

I am a promotable Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army. I have served this great country for thirteen years, and have loved every minute of my service. There are things about the Army that drive me nuts, but those things do not weaken my love of this Army.


I did not join the Army as a recruiter, I joined as an 11 bravo, Infantry guy. Most awesome job in the Army. Even though I sold my soul to the gods of recruiting I still believe that the Army is made up of the infantry, and everyone else.

I do however believe that Recruiting is the most important job in the military. Without us there is no military.

I am going to try to use this blog as a way to vent some of my frustrations about this job. I am also going to use this as a way to express the joys of this job.

Contrary to what many believe, we are not here to steal yous sons and daughters, and make them "cannon fodder". That's my favorite thing to hear by the way. We are here to first provide the strength for the Army, and secondly to help young men and women achieve their goals. That is the reason I do this. That is the reason I chose to stay in recruiting. The joy of watching a young person grow into something great chokes me up every time. I have always felt I do the greatest good out here in "recruiter land".

I am located somewhere in the middle of the great hot nowhere. I live in a great little town. I have a great family, and I work for the greatest Army in the world.