A funny thing happened to me today as I was walking with Castaway Conner enjoying the sunny aloha of a Sunday afternoon while the lovely and talented and downright Mrs. Hook, God bless her, took the other boys to the movies- Agent Cody Banks . I was pushing the jogger along the sidewalk pointing out the birds and the palm trees to young Castaway, who is at the age where he soaks everything in, as a young couple pushing a stroller approached us from the opposite direction. Passing each other, we exchanged greetings and continued on our separate ways when a light bulb came on in my head with a “ding.”
The young man pushing the other stroller must have heard the “ding” because he stopped and turned back precisely as I did the same. “Harvey?” I said. “Yes?” he said. “Hey, it’s Sgt Hook,” I continued, “I was your recruiter back in Maine remember?” To which he responded, “Oh yeah! Hi Sgt, how are you? This is my wife Mrs. Harvey and our son Harvey Jr. (he doesn’t give his kids cool pirate names like the rest of us ; ).
His wife, looking very confused (Harvey was single when I put him in boots) said, “So you recruited Harvey for the Army and now you are both stationed here?”
“Yes maam, small world I guess,” was my reply.
I not only recruited now Sgt Harvey for the Army, but he was my first recruit. “They” say you never forget your first recruit, but truth be told, I’ve tried to forget the whole damned recruiting experience. That’s a bit unfair of me, and as much as I’d like to elaborate, I’ll bite my tongue until long after I’ve retired. Let me just say for now that recruiting for America’s Army is a very important, thankless, and challenging job. If we didn’t send our Sergeants out to do it, we would not have the caliber of soldiers wearing the uniform today. But I digress; I’ll post a peek into recruiting duty at another time (it is, after all, how I met the lovely and talented and downright sexy Mrs. Hook).
Mr. Harvey (his title back when he was a civilian aimlessly walking the snow covered streets of central Maine) and I met at a Veteran’s Day ceremony that I had participated in. He approached me after the ceremonies were over and asked if he could join the Army. Mind you, I was a brand new recruiter yet to put anybody in boots so I enthusiastically answered, “YES!”
The following day I met Mr. Harvey at the recruiting station and helped him with filling out the application (a little more detailed than an application for McDonalds- trust me) and scheduled him for a physical. I was feeling a bit full of myself, after all, how many recruiters have young men running up to them begging to enlist after hearing just a brief speech given at a square in a town with a population of roughly 522?
My ego was crushed when Mr. Harvey failed the hearing test.
“You’re deaf?” I asked incredulously.
“What?” he replied (smart ass).
“DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU WERE DEAF?” I shouted.
“NO!” he shouted back. My illustrious career as a recruiter was fading fast. “But that would explain all the trouble I had in school,” he went on.
After consulting a friend of mine who was once a crewdog in Korea many years before, but was now, ironically, also a recruiter some twenty-miles south, I developed a plan for Mr. Harvey. We agreed that Harvey would see an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist (who would concentrate only on the “Ear” portion of his expertise so as not to discover any other ailments unknown to Mr. Harvey) and have his ears thoroughly cleaned. Then Mr. Harvey would spend a week without listening to the radio, television, or shooting his shotgun. “That is,” I said putting some pressure on, “if you are serious about wearing this uniform Mr. Harvey.” He complied and passed his second physical with flying colors, enlisting in the Army as an Airborne Combat Engineer.
It’s hard to believe that so many years later we would run into each other here on one of the Sandwich Islands and that he just pinned on the stripes of Sergeant, serving our Army proudly. As much as I didn’t care for recruiting duty, I’m damned glad I was able to help men and women like Sgt Harvey to join the ranks of the most powerful Army on the planet. Sgt Hook out.
Posted by Hook @ 0451 zulu | | Permalink
This post is filed under: Reconstructed
