RANGER CHUCK
Baldilocks takes the Los Angeles school system to task for comments made critical of military recruiters and insulting to all who have served our country in uniform.
“This is a conscious plan on the part of the government to drive our students out of the schools and drive them into the military to take part in the death and destruction,” Suarez del Solar said.
Her reply is worth clicking over for a read, but if I had to summarize…
In short, the military doesn’t want your crack/meth babies…
I had an oppurtinity to serve as a recruiter for the Army a few years back in central Maine and know all too well the resistance and sometimes rude attitudes our recruiters face when telling the Army story and trying to fill boots. Recruiting duty wasn’t something I sought out, but when a Soldier is told to do something, he/she does it. So I did the duffel bag drag up to Maine and started filling boots.
There is an element of sales to recruiting, and yes, recruiters have specific goals to reach each month, but as Baldilocks pointed out, finding “qualified” young men and women willing to defend the Constitution was the real challenge. After reading her post, I was reminded of the day a young man came into the recruiting office with his uncle.
It was snowing out, as it often did in Waterville, and I had just returned from working the coast about an hour east. No sooner had I sat at my desk to check email messages, did the door open and in walked Chuck.
Chuck was a handsome young man with jet black hair who looked like a running back for his high school football team. He was trailed by his uncle who I later learned was retired from the Army, SF. Uncle Jack shook my hand and explained, “Chuck here would like to join the Army, he’d like to be a Ranger.”
Well, how about that! It isn’t often an applicant walks into your office and says he/she would like to join the ranks and has the support of his/her family. Things were looking up.
We sat down and I started building rapport with both Chuck and Uncle Jack. We eventually got around to talking about how difficult it is to get a Ranger Contract, but that as long as Chuck met the requirements I thought it very possible. That’s when Chuck said that he was ready to join NOW. That he wanted to drop out of high school and get a GED and a haircut and ship out. At the time, the Army was accepting GEDs, and I had no doubt I could’ve got Chuck a pretty good contract, but there was NO way he could go Ranger. High School Diplomas only.
So I smiled at Chuck, and looking at Uncle Jack said, “I’m sorry Chuck, I won’t put you in the Army with a GED. You need to stay in school and get your diploma.” Uncle Jack smiled and nodded holding back an “I told you so.”
I explained to Chuck that although it was possible for a GED to enlist, he wouldn’t be able to become a Ranger without a diploma and that there would be a lot of obstacles in his way. It was obvious to me that Chuck was a very bright boy, probably too bright as he seemed bored with school and tended to get into trouble, and I thought he’d not only make a great Soldier, but a damned good Ranger as well. I matter of factly told him that he’d have to find another recruiter if he insisted on dropping out, that I wouldn’t be a part of it.
So, we agreed that he would stay in school and graduate. I processed his application and Chuck enlisted into the Delayed Entry Program with a guarantee of Ranger school providing he finished high school on time.
The ensuing eight months included my having to bail Chuck out of jail for fighting, talking his high school principal into not expelling him, finding him an apartment because his mother threw him out of the house, meeting with his father enlisting his help to keep Chuck on track, meeting with his guidance counselor to talk about his failing grades, calls to Uncle Jack trying to find Chuck’s whereabouts, getting Chuck enrolled in a different school after he eventually was expelled, attending his high school graduation ceremony, and convincing the local Sheriff not to chase down the bus that was taking Chuck to the airport to catch his flight to Fort Benning, GA. Chuck was a royal pain in the ass.
Chuck is today an Army Ranger fighting in the Global War On Terror and his mother sent me a letter recently thanking me for sticking with her son when others hadn’t, herself included, and helping him to become the man he is today. She wrote that she never thought she would see the day that she and her husband would be proud of their son Chuck. They are immensely proud of him.
To Mr. Suarez del Solar of Los Angeles I’d say that not only is he wrong about our “conscious effort to drive our students out of the schools,” but he’s free to say it because of young men and women the likes of Ranger Chuck. This We’ll Defend. Sgt Hook out.
UPDATE: Uncle Jimbo at Black5 has a post re: recruiting you might like to read.
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This post is filed under: Reconstructed & The Soldier
Vorlon Whispers linked with
The Kind of People the Army Wants
