Vietnam Vet still on Active Duty Recruiting

U.S. Army recruiter Sgt. 1^st Class Joe Rappise has served over 26 years in the military, beginning with a tour in Vietnam in 1969. He is the only active Army recruiter who is a Vietnam veteran, so his retirement later this year will mark the end of an era, of the old-school Army. Called “Viejo” by his recruiters (a Spanish term of endearment meaning “old man”), Rappise has witnessed many changes during his long time with the Army. Some he approves of, like the more merit-based system of promotion that has replaced the old, much more political system. Other changes he is less fond of, feeling that the Army has grown softer over the years. He recalls the grueling Basic Training he went through in 1969, comparing his in-your-face, screaming drill sergeants to those in the film “Full Metal Jacket.” It is this element of toughness he misses, saying “We’re the Army. We’re not nice people, but we’re good people.” However, some of the Army’s regulations for the treatment of soldiers he does endorse, particularly the rule that forbids drill sergeants from hitting their soldiers. “Never hit [your soldiers],” said Rappise. “If you have to hit them, then either you can’t teach them or they can’t learn.”

Though he claims not to possess any great social skills, saying “I don’t play well with others; if somebody’s stupid, I’m going to tell them,” Rappise seems to have a depth of insight concerning ways to reach people. This is evidenced by his accomplishments, which include two titles of brigade recruiter of the quarter, a selection by the New York City Recruiting Battalion to interview with the 1^st Brigade recruiting team, and an Order of the Saber Award. In his 10 years with the New York City Battalion, he was continuously one of the top three recruiters, and, as of January, has won 478 enlistments in his 19 year career as a recruiter. His tactic is not to try to sell anyone on the Army, but to just be honest and tell potential recruits what he knows about the Army. He builds relationships in his community, and shares stories of his own experiences with the Army, even with people he just meets on the street. He is always on the lookout for opportunities for recruitment, even in his own leisure time.

Once on a bass fishing trip in New Jersey, he struck up a conversation with a man fishing near him. While they were waiting patiently for tugs on their fishing lines, the fisherman and Rappise swapped stories about various fishing spots they had visited. Rappise thrilled the man as he began to recount fishing in the Owyhee River, a tributary of the Snake River in northern Nevada known for rainbow trout and yellow perch. The Owyhee cuts through the Humboldt National Forest and the Wild Horse Reservoir, named for the wild horses that can still be seen roaming the Owyhee Desert. Then Rappise shared how he tested his angling skills in California’s largest reservoir, Shasta Lake, legendary among fisherman for its abundant varieties of bass and trout. Shasta Lake rests at the northern tip of the Sacramento Valley, surrounded by the Cascade Mountains, whose snow caps glitter even in summer. Surf fishing in Guam was Rappise’s most exotic fishing adventure, in water that was so clear you could see the sand 30 feet deep. He described how the waves break far off of the shore line, so a person can walk all the way out to a coral reef that encircles the island. After learning that Rappise was able to travel to these places through the Army, his companion asked how he could get started with a career there. With a smile, Rappise replied that he had already gotten started, from the time they first began talking.

Rappise’s ability to determine what is important to people and explain to them how the Army can relate to their values contributed to his success in recruiting the fisherman, as it has with all those he enlisted. This talent of his once even enabled him to enlist an entire family. Rappise first began recruiting the youngest son, explaining all the exciting opportunities available in the army to the 17-year-old. The boy soon made the decision to join the Army, but because of his age, needed his parent’s permission. He returned home from his meeting with Rappise, and tirelessly began selling his family on the Army, dogging them with lists of benefits and proclaiming the ways it would turn him into a better man. He was such an enthusiastic advocate that he not only convinced his family that the Army was right for him, he also persuaded his older brother to join as well. The next day they went back to the recruiting station for the older brother to enlist and for the mother to discuss the younger boy’s future with Rappise. Rappise so impressed her with the education and career possibilities that she jokingly asked if she could join too. Learning that she was under the age limit made the mother consider enlisting more seriously, and a few days later she decided to sign up with her sons.

Considering the level of success he has achieved, one might assume that Rappise is the picture-perfect model of a recruiter, the kind of decorated military man who is venerated by his superiors for his obedience and self-restraint. Though he is certainly respected by his colleagues, it is certainly not for his careful adherence to the rules. Rappise recalls with a laugh the practical jokes he has pulled, a common one being prank phone calls to other recruiting stations. He and his conspirators would act the parts of potential enlistees to test how long they could string along the recruiter, asking bogus questions about life in the Army. Rappise’s defense for these jokes is just that a person has got to have fun with life, an attitude he has maintained ever since his beginning with the military as a Marine in 1969.

Back then Rappise was only 18-years-old, and found himself face-to-face with a judge in a courtroom as a result of some of his troublemaking. The judge gave Rappise his choice of two men in uniform: one, a bailiff; the other, a Marine Corps recruiter. He chose the latter, and embarked upon his two-year tour with the Marines in Vietnam as a radio operator with the 7th Engineer Battalion. His first day in Vietnam after flying in to Da Nang, Rappise was told to report to the communication center at 4 a.m. He was asked if he had his weapon, then told to  

follow a group that was sweeping for land mines. For nearly 12 hours every day, the small group of men slogged down road after road, scouring the ground with metal detectors, and hoping their meager security would not be ambushed.

It was on one of these mine-seeking excursions that Rappise fell victim to a booby trap, detonating a hidden mine that exploded his legs. He was immediately evacuated to the USS Repose, a Haven class Navy Hospital Ship that floated off the coast of Vietnam. After a month on the Repose, Rappise continued his recovery in Guam for two months, in a hospital comprised of drab olive tents, nearly identical to the set of M*A*S*H*. After a final four months of treatment in St. Albans Naval Hospital in New York, Rappise returned to Vietnam to wrap up his tour. He finished in 1971, and left the Marines with a Purple Heart (which he jokingly refers to as the “I can’t run fast enough award”) and a Marine Corps tattoo on his arm (which made for interesting conversations in the Army showers later on).

Rappise then took a nearly 20-year sabbatical from military life, during which time he hitchhiked and travelled everywhere from Alaska to Arizona. His experiences during this time ranged from the incredibly exciting, like working as a cowboy to drive cattle 1.5 million acres across northern Nevada, to the less exciting, like stocking shelves in a convenience store. He ended up in New Jersey, working as a waiter and bartender for a catering house. Often times after working a big event or banquet, Rappise and the other workers would all go out together; this was how he first began to woo Jacqueline, the manager of the catering company and Rappise’s boss. The two were often thrown together by the other younger employees, and eventually, “because of my (Rappise’s) good luck and her bad luck,” they were married.

By this time, an Army recruiter had tracked down Rappise and was working to convince him to rejoin the military. Jacqueline had been an Army brat herself, so with her support Rappise signed with the New Jersey National Guard. He worked in a support battalion for a couple of years, then became a drill sergeant for the Army Reserve. He thrived in this position, using his natural abilities of intimidation to keep his soldiers in check. Rappise later requested a position as an Army recruiter, a duty he will have served for 20 years by this July. He says he was attracted to the challenge of the job, and like the idea of constantly meeting new people and doing something different every day.

When he first began recruiting in Paterson, N.J., he worked in a community heavily populated by immigrants; he said that in order to eat in his neighborhood, he had to learn to speak Spanish. This ended up working to his advantage, as Rappise was able to speak with  potential Hispanic recruits in their native language. One of the most interesting Hispanic men he recruited had immigrated Venezuela. Under the country’s communist government, parents sought to show their patriotism and curry favors from their leaders by naming their children for notable characters in history. Thus, this particular man bore the heavy name “Socrates Stalin Rodriguez.”

While in Paterson, Rappise was also able to work with Polish, Slavic and Arabic communities to recruit translators. One of these recruits was an Arabic woman who had to keep her recruitment a secret from her Islamic family throughout the entire process. She had always adhered closely to Sharia law in deference to her father, but wanted the independence that she had witnessed in other women since moving to the United States. Her visit to Rappise’s recruiting office was an extreme act of rebellion against her father, and marked the first time she ever removed her Burka in public. This woman successfully hid the fact that she was enlisting with the U.S. Army from her family until the day Rappise and another recruiter came to her house to take her to Basic Training. Upon learning who the recruiters were and exactly what his daughter had done, the girl’s father rallied his sons and neighbors to try to chase the recruiters away. After failing to drive them off, he offered Rappise $5000 in cash to leave his daughter home. Refusing the bribe, Rappise and his fellow recruiter were able to safely take the girl from her family and bring her to Basic Training.

Nearly four years ago in June 2008, Rappise’s ability to adapt to different cultures was tested perhaps more than it had ever been thus far in his life: he moved to the South. From Paterson, N.J., he and his wife migrated to North Carolina, to a city whose entire population numbers fewer than the population of their street in New Jersey. On one of their first errands to a shop in their new hometown, a clerk asked the Rappises where they were from. When she learned they were from New Jersey, she exclaimed “Oh, y’all are the Yankees that moved to Ivy Lane!” The lack of anonymity (and perhaps privacy) in his new mountain town may have baffled Rappise at first, but the sense of community it fosters has allowed Rappise to be very successful at the Asheville Recruiting Station. He originally had some trouble with basic communication, as he is a self-described fast and in-your-face talker, but has learned to understand the English dialect particular to the Appalachia region. The Rappises have so embraced their community that they have opened a shop in the Morganton flea market, where they can be found working amongst all the mountain people on the weekends. Called the “Cranky Yankee Shop,” they sell the brand of electronic cigarettes that Rappise used to quit smoking almost a year ago. In honor of their daughter who is a workout instructor in New York, they also sell premium Zumba wear.

Working in western North Carolina provides constant reminders for Rappise about what it is he truly loves about his job, and why he says he would do it all over again. Many of the kids he has recruited in Appalachia were living in single-wide trailers with three generations of family, their situation offering little opportunity for improvement. Now, these same kids are educated, disciplined and have bright career prospects. He often gets calls from these former recruits, some even 15 years after he brought them into the Army, to thank him for helping them direct their life through the military. “At the end of the day,” says Rappise, “take all the crap away, you’re changing lives.”