Posted on May 25, 2016
What was the craziest thing you ever did to get an applicant to commit and/or ship?
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Responses: 11
Not looking for any illegal stories so don't self-incriminate. I had a candidate once that I worked on since he was in the 9th grade. I spent two years joking with this fool, and when the time to sign up came he got cold feet. I took his entire family out to dinner, told them my fears when i first joined, and let them pick my brains for 4 hours. After he signed up, he almost didn't ship. I spent 5 hours driving around my area trying to find this guy. I found out this guy was 4 hours away in another city. I drove out there, asked him why he was scared. After all this, he couldn't even tell me, other than fear of the unknown. We drove back to get his bags packed. He shipped the next day.
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I was doing an interview with a female applicant at her grandparents home. Her grandfather was a Vietnam vet. I went through my usual course of the interview. Told her about the National Guard and comparable of other branches. The girl was completely interested and ready to sign until her grandfather opened up. He berated about war and other stuff because he was a Vietnam Vet. Needless to say I went off on the old man to give him insight of myself and my background and experiences in a stern respectful tone. I then sucked down the rest of my beer and said have a good day. The next day the grandfather called me to say is granddaughter was going to enlist. I was surprised to say the least especially how I left the conversation.
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SFC(P) John McLaughlin
I was lucky. I tried the recruiting gig. Worked my ass off. I just couldn't bullshit or lie to them. I explained everything in full detail. My best was when I did have an applicant I directed him to active duty. The kid needed it. His home life was a wreck. But in my last deployment I was with several of my recruits. They loved it.
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PO1 Edward Spencer
He was probably testing you to see if you were full of it or not. You proved you weren't, and that you could handle a little bit of pushback, and most likely earned an immense of respect from him in the process. In short, you did it the right way.
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SFC(P) John McLaughlin
PO1 Edward Spencer - yeah I couldn't bullshit a recruit. Especially if they saw me at the unit or some other function. I'm the one that has to look them in the eye.
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PO1 Edward Spencer
SFC(P) John McLaughlin - me either. I got threatened with being written up maybe... 3 or 4 times because of that. At the end of the day however, I knew I'd done right by my kids, and still keep up with most of them, 8-9 years after they shipped for boot camp. Had I gone back to the fleet, I undoubtedly would have served with several of them, and I always kept that in mind when I was working with them when they were considering joining.
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Worked with a walk-in did all required recruiting FEBA on a MATTRESS got him to commit. Tested him pre ASVAB, had very high score. He was to return to do paper work the following day. Upon his return he stated that he was being held captive by a witch, many off the wall comments. All the other Recruiters in the multi-man station were grinning from ear to ear. Come to find out he was patient in a mental institution down the street. Where I recruited they didn't lock patients up they came and went at their leisure.
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PFC Dalton Rupert
Should have told him joining up will give him the power to fight witch and all of her dragons.
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