Recruiting is no easy task
http://www.salemnews.net/page/content.detail/id/502668.html?nav=5007
By LEONARD GLENN CRIST
June 8, 2008
Salem News reporter Leonard Glenn Crist recently spent two days
shadowing local Marine Corps recruiters and their potential recruits.
This is the second part in a series about his experiences.
Military recruiting is not an easy job. A Marine Corps recruiter in
Salem will often put in 70-hour workweeks, working seven days a week,
and at the end of the year, he has sent less than 30 people to boot camp.
Much of the work 99.9 percent, one recruiter hyperbolically claimed
is done by phone.
Every year, recruiters receive a list of student contact information
from local schools, a somewhat controversial provision of the No
Child Left Behind Act. If schools do not comply, federal funding can
be cut. To allay privacy concerns, parents have the option to remove
their child's name from the list.
Staff Sgt. Matthew Baughman, a Salem-based Marines recruiter, said
his office calls nearly every student on those lists at least once.
On an early Wednesday afternoon in late May, Staff Sgt. Tyrone
Sidney, another recruiter at the East State Street office, made phone
calls to several young adults.
On the first call, Sidney got a wrong or disconnected number.
"The wireless customer is unavailable," said a voice from the speakerphone.
Sidney then called a guy named Steven who must have sounded groggy.
"Still sleepin'?" Sidney asked. "It's about to be dark in a couple
hours." He quickly jumped into his join-the-Marines spiel. No luck.
The next guy on the phone seemed hesitant, but he let Sidney ask him
a list of questions about his physical condition and morals to see if
he could even qualify for the Marine Corps.
"When was the last time you smoked weed?" Sidney asked. He paused for
an answer. "A year ago? Ok."
Other phone calls revealed underage alcohol consumption convictions
that led to probation. Any pending court action or fine disqualifies
a candidate's entry into the Marines.
Another problem, Baughman said, is kids can't pass the Armed Services
Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB). The test is designed so a person
with a tenth grade education can pass it, Baughman said.
The higher a person's score on the ASVAB, the more options he or she
has in choosing a military occupation specialty, or MOS.
Among those who do pass, one of the most popular specialties is the
infantry, Baughman said. It is hard to get a position in the infantry
because there are only so many infantry jobs, he said, and they fill up fast.
Baughman said recruits who sign up for the infantry are "joining the
men's department."
A majority of the recruits I spoke with indicated plans to join the infantry.
One of them, Erik Carlson, an 18-year-old from Salem, said access to
weapons at a young age pushed him toward the Marines and the
infantry. He said his dad owns an M-16, the general infantry rifle
used by the Marine Corps.
Two days later, at a training exercise held in Ravenna for poolees
poolees are the young adults, generally high school students, who
sign up for delayed entry into the Marines Carlson showed visible
excitement at handling an unloaded M240 Golf machine gun.
Carlson said he had been hanging out at the recruiting center the
last three years. Guys like him, gung-ho from the start, make the
recruiting job easy. Carlson was scheduled to leave for boot camp today.
Convincing kids who are not so sure of themselves is another story.
Nathan Hall, a Leetonia resident and a 17-year old junior at
Heartland Christian, came to the East State Street recruiting office
later that afternoon to meet with Staff Sgt. Baughman.
Hall, a Leetonia resident with a brother in the Marines, is
interested in becoming an electrician. Baughman told him about the
various possibilities he would have to learn and practice his chosen
craft in the Marines. One option would be avionics.
"At 19 years old you could be doing work on a $22 million aircraft,"
Baughman said. "How many people you know do that?"
If Hall entered a traditional apprenticeship program to become a
civilian electrician, he would have to work his way up for at least
four years, Baughman said. Apprentices are also the first people laid
off because they lack the experience, he said.
But if Hall enters the Marine Corps, he would do hands-on work for
four or five years, Baughman said. He could also take advantage of
United Services Military Apprenticeship Program, giving him
equivalent training and certification to civilian apprenticeships,
with less out of pocket expense and more job security, he said.
"You got Timmy, who you just graduated high school with is going to
go straight to college, and all he's going to do is learn how to do
it," Baughman said. "He doesn't have any practical application, so to
speak. When it comes down to showing your resume compared to his,
your resume is going to say everything you've done and his resume is
going to say everything he's learned. That's a good advantage."
Hall asked if you can choose where you are stationed, and said he
doesn't really want to travel too far. Baughman replied Marines
create a wish list for where they want stationed, but in the end they
don't have the ultimate say.
Hall also asked if Marine reserves have to go through basic training.
The answer, of course, is yes.
Baughman went over the various educational opportunities, including
the Marine Enlisted Commissioning Education Program (MECEP), which
pays for college and upon successful completion commissions the
student a 2nd lieutenant. It's a complicated program with no
guarantee of being accepted.
"I would like to sit down with you again because I know we're pressed
for time," Baughman said at the end of his presentation. "How's all
that sound to you?"
Hall hesitated. "I don't know," he said. "My mom's not too happy about it,"
"You mom is always going to be your mom," Baughman said. "She'll be
proud of you. Everybody's mom has the same worries as everybody else.
"I'm gonna make you a Marine," Baughman said.
Only time will tell.
--
Leonard Glenn Crist can be reached at lcrist@salemnews.net
--------
Making the grade in the U.S. Marines
http://www.salemnews.net/page/content.detail/id/502664.html?nav=5007
By LEONARD GLENN CRIST, Salem News staff writer
June 8, 2008
Salem News reporter Leonard Glenn Crist recently spent two days
shadowing local Marine Corps recruiters and their potential recruits.
This is the first part in a series about his experiences.
--
Intangibles.
That is what the United States Marine Corps provides instead of
enlistment bonuses, said Staff Sgt. Matthew Baughman, a recruiter
based in Salem.
In place of cash incentives, the Marine Corps offers membership in an
elite war-fighting organization with a history that dates before the
Declaration of Independence. The camaraderie, world travel,
discipline, job training and respect a Marine gains while in the
Corps is more valuable than the $40,000 enlistment bonuses offered by
other branches of the military, Baughman and other recruiters argue daily.
"If the kids come here looking for a big bonus, I tell them to go
down to the Army," the 29-year-old Baughman said on a recent
Wednesday at the recruiting office on East State Street, Salem.
I spent two days late last month with local recruiters and the young
adults who are joining or thinking about joining the Marine Corps to
get a feel for how recruiters find new recruits and to better
understand the reasons area residents enlist.
While the other branches of the military have struggled to meet
recruiting goals since the start of the Iraq war, Marine Corps
recruiters have consistently exceeded their own goals. According to
U.S. Department of Defense statistics, the Marine Corps had recruited
142 percent of its monthly goal in April.
The Salem recruiting office is currently working with about 25
"poolees," young men and women, mostly high school students, who have
signed up for delayed entry into Marines. Some will head to boot camp
at Parris Island, S.C., just days after graduation. Others will take
the summer off and leave in the fall. Many of those enlistees will
likely be deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.
"The public view of the war hasn't blackened our eyes," Baughman said.
Sgt. Martin Harris, a Marine Corps spokesman on hand for much of my
time spent with recruiters and potential Marines, said, "There's
nothing hidden in the Marines. It's a war fighting organization.
People understand that it's what we do."
William Gamble, a 19-year-old poolee who just graduated from
Crestview High School, seemed to share that point of view. He's
taking the summer off and then heading to Parris Island in September.
He intends to enter the infantry and could very well end up in Iraq.
He said he's not worried about that possibility.
"You get what you sign up for," Gamble said. "It comes with the job."
Ever since Gamble was a little boy he has wanted to join the
military, he said, adding he hopes to stay enlisted for the 20 years
necessary so he can collect his military pension. After that, he's
thinking about joining the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Earlier in the day, Staff Sgt. Baughman, Sgt. Harris and I took a
drive to Gamble's home in Columbiana to pick him up and bring him
back to the recruiting office to hang out and help with the work.
Gamble was a nose tackle, tight end and defensive end for Crestview's
football team and he's one of the only African American students in
his class. Baughman termed him a key member of his class and uses
Gamble's personal connections as a recruiting tool.
"We use his influence," Baughman said. "Who he knows. What he knows."
Do you know so and so? Baughman asked Gamble, giving him the name of
a Crestview student.
"Kind of," Gamble replied. "He goes to the career center."
How about this guy? Baughman tried, bouncing a different name off Gamble.
"Rumor's going around he's gay," Gamble said.
"I can't ask," Baughman said with a laugh, referencing the military's
"don't ask, don't tell" policy on homosexuality.
Later on, Gunnery Sgt. William Brahen Baughman's direct supervisor
in the Salem recruiting office and a guy who appears to play "bad
cop" to Baughman's "good cop" walked in the office and gave Gamble
a funny look.
"Why you got an earring on in my office?" Brahen shouted. "Take that s out,"
"Really?" Gamble asked, surprised.
"Yeah," Brahen said. "You're about to be a Marine."
Gamble took the earring out. He may as well get used to it not being there.
I first met Staff Sgt. Baughman on MySpace.com, the popular social
networking Web site.
Baughman and fellow Salem recruiter Staff Sgt. Tyrone Sidney both
maintain MySpace pages that advertise the fact they are looking for a
few good men and women.
MySpace isn't an official Marine Corps recruiting method, spokesman
Sgt. Harris said, but it is a good research tool. The Marines even
have an official MySpace account that has directly led to enlistments.
Baughman's MySpace page quotes President Reagan and features a
hip-hip song by Outkast.
"If you think you are ready to man up, to see if you have what it
takes, hit me up on my cell phone," Baughman writes in the "Who I'd
like to meet" section of the page. "If you are wanting to skip all
the chit chat and cut right to the chase, come see me at my office."
He also writes about the many benefits his has received as a Marine.
"The last ten years in the Marine Corps have done me well," Baughman
writes under the "About me" header. "I have deployed to five
different countries, lived in Hawaii for four years, gotten my
associate's degree, bachelor's degree and I am currently working on
my master's degree. I have played football for the Marine Corps,
flown in helicopters, fired lots of guns and blown a lot of stuff up!"
Baughman's original military occupation specialty (MOS) was military
police. He has spent the last three years recruiting in Salem, far
from his role in law enforcement. It's something he hopes to return to.
After nearly 11 years in the Marines, Baughman plans to retire later
this year. Like Gamble, the poolee, Baughman intends to apply with the FBI.
Baughman said being a recruiter is by far the hardest thing he's done
so far in the Marine Corps. He has a love-hate relationship with
recruiting, he said. He often works seven days a week and puts in
70-hour workweeks, Baughman said. But at the same time, he finds his
job rewarding.
In an area with few jobs for new high school graduates, the Marine
Corps can be an excellent opportunity, he said.
"You're changing lives," Baughman said.
He keeps in touch with the men and women he sends to boot camp,
calling them and leaving messages at least twice and writing letters.
Many give him calls while serving in Iraq, he said.
In his three years of recruiting, none of Baughman's roughly 80
"babies," as he calls them, have been killed or injured. He knocked on wood.
"They're not just a number," Baughman said. "The Marine Corps is a
small place. You see a lot of them again."
--
Leonard Glenn Crist can be reached at lcrist@salemnews.net
.
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