The Thrill of the First Person I put into the Army

Columbia Battalion Army recruiters share information at quarterly training. Photo by Mark London.

Commentary by Staff Sgt. Jermal Kennedy

Columbia Recruiting Battalion

As recruiters we are always looking for the applicant that is ready to join but nothing beats your first Army contract. When I think back, I was so nervous about this assignment. I was focused on wondered why I got picked for recruiting. Like most Department of the Army select recruiters, I wanted to continue on the Army path that I had planned for myself such as a special operations unit or going to 82^nd or 101^stDivision.

Then I realized that recruiting is a special assignment and needed to be treated as such. I realized I would have a great impact on young people.

I was sent to my recruiting station of duty before attending recruiting school. In some ways this helped me while at the school, but at the station, I was burning to really start working. I had more than enough time to get the family settled into our new community and time to learn from more seasoned recruiters. However, the problem with this approach is you are learning but you can’t apply it until you graduate from the recruiter school house. After a couple of months, I was finally able to start recruiting and that is when I realized it is harder than it looks.

After school, I was ready to recruit and figured it would be easy to have someone join by the end of the first day. I was wrong. So much goes into making sure the person is qualified and ready to take the necessary steps of join. The first hurdle was finding someone qualified, so I went to a high school where plenty of students were qualified since they had already taken and passed the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB). I was eager but a lot of them weren’t ready to join. They felt rushed by my enthusiasm and I knew it would take more time. That hurt my moral so I decided to try phone prospecting. I made a lot of appointments and had a lot of no shows. That hurt me too but I persevered until I got the first contract.

I have to say my first contract was not hard but it was not easy either. The best thing about my first contract was that my applicant was motivated and he had the support of his family. The hard part was he had a GED but he didn’t have the needed college credits. The first step was to make sure he got enrolled into the classes to finish attaining his 15 college credits. Then, I signed him up to take the ASVAB and asked for his college enrollment letter. Things started falling into place. I scheduled his physical which he passed with flying colors. I continued talking with him to ensure he understood he needed to pass his classes and attend future soldier training. He was one of the station’s best Future Soldiers.

Now, I am glad my first contract didn’t fall right into my lap because anything worth having is worth looking for or is it worth working for? Both fit for me.