As 2021 comes to a close, I am currently enjoying my second week of vacation, with only but a few precious days left before returning to the chaos of recruiting. Over the last 6 months I have learned what unpredictability and stress is in the office setting. I'll get to that though. These precious days of vacation have been filled with time spent with my family; taking my boys out to the park, playing disc golf with my dad and enjoying some quiet time with my wife. I have had a few beers, I have been on a few good long bike rides and had lots of laughs and smiles in between; exactly as it, life that is, should be. I feel as if I have earned this leave more than any other time in my military career, here's why:
In June 2021, I was officially tagged by my commander to take over College Station Recruiting Center as the Station Commander. The series of events that led to this moment started rolling a few months prior when the then station commander got a DUI. The next person to the helm was a fellow SSG who is less than 2 years from retirement from the military and is ancient as far as military ages go. (Over 45 and you are considered somewhat of a rarity and a dinosaur.) Despite this replacement being a trained 79R (permanent recruiter) he was failing at this duty due to his lack of skill, ability and looming personal issues. I felt sorry for him, not only for the beatings he took from our command at his incompetence but mostly for the personal issues he was dealing with on top of it. Either way, in late May 2021 I told a mentor 79R SFC that I would be willing to take the station if the time came, seeing as it was already tanking hard. After a few more weeks of the replacement leader, the command team pitched me as the new leader to the battalion command team and they approved. My commander came to visit and after a conversation in the parking lot it was mostly official at that point.
My days at the office from then on started at 0800-0815 with me getting there, followed by my 0830 meeting that lasted from 15 minutes to over an hour; this meeting was the morning sync with my commander letting him know the plan and status of the station, prospecting and projections for enlistment. The rest of the day is usually, honestly, a complete clusterf*ck. Kids who are at MEPS trying to enlist will fail one thing or the other, I'll get 20 phone calls about it, hopefully find a way to circumvent the issue and get the kid going to sign a contract. If it's a day like this, I feel either like punching someone in the face, usually multiple people, or going through existential crisis mode on the way home.
Other days are more hum drum and I have to make it sound like we did something great for prospecting or projections that day. These very rare days are usually spent quietly catching up on the vast amount of data to be inputted into an endless stream of needless tracking forms on Excel or in Word. If there is one thing that drives me nuts about recruiting is the sheer amount of numbers that commands attempt to use to justify or crucify recruiting efforts. It's a people game, and people are not numbers. Either way, I do what I am told and I fill out the numbers over and over again, day after day and justify my own actions with them.
The one thing I hated about this time as station commander, but knew it was going to make me a better worker/soldier is the sheer amount of phone conversations I had to have. I don't like to talk to superiors and I don't like to have to give hard orders to subordinates. ( I truly get no joy from either.) I used to sugar coat everything; whether it was to command teams or to subordinates I did it to make myself seem like the innocent messenger. I have learned this method is ineffective and makes for a leader who is constantly apologizing to subordinates, which gives them a sort of power, and makes you look weak to superiors. I cut that bull crap out and just laid it out very bluntly to everyone. This was in large part to the new 1st Sergeant who took a temp spot as our old 1st Sergeant headed out. This new 1SG would call me, and I kid you not, between 5 - 40 times a day. Think about that. In an 8 hour day that is 1 - 5 times an hour. The first week I was annoyed. The second week I embraced it as good, and for this simple reason: each phone call would be under 1 minute. I kid you not, this man would as a question, a follow on question, give guidance and hang up. No bull crap, no yelling, just took in my information, formulated a possible next action and would expect a follow up on success or failure. Rinse and repeat and that is how he would operate. I quickly adopted it and found great success.
Regardless of how the day went, it usually ended after 6pm. Many days after 6:30pm. Some days after 7pm. occasionally later than that and a few times till 8-9pm. Due either to meetings, school events, or applicants taking to damn long in my office, these long days were horrible for my life. I lost motivation to work out in the morning seeing as work now started at 0800 and I wouldn't feel like working out after being beaten up all day until 630pm. I would just get home and try to soak up my kids before they went to bed and shoveling food down my throat so I wasn't so freaking hungry. This job drove me to starting to drink coffee again for the sheer amount of energy I needed to keep sharp with my memory and wakefulness. In part this would help curb my appetite and I ate less. Got down to 141 pounds which was fixed after thanksgiving.
The good news is that I am now returning to being a regular recruiter. 0900 work call means mornings are all mine again. As long as I put one person in a month no one will yell at me; and I did that every single month I was a recruiter and a few months as a station commander. I won't stay late regularly unless the new station commander is a dick. I'll bust my ass more than ever 9-5 and go home. I am very excited and thankful this chapter is coming to a close. I miss seeing my family and going home before the sun goes down!!
My newest boy Nico is growing so much! At 6 months old and almost 20 pounds he is a fast growing boy and is finding his voice. He yells now just for fun, probably due to the fact that his brothers yell almost constantly. He sleeps at night, thank the Lord, and that's just amazing. Ryker, my second child, did not sleep at night very well until about 7 months old and I'm not sure how I still maintain my hair line and color after that. Oren is obsessed with snakes now. I mean that literally. Almost all conversations with him lead to or start with something about the reptiles who lack legs. Ryker is following suit but I think just for the sake of sibling emulation. The boys give my wife a run for her money every day and I can't blame her, they exhaust even the strongest of spirits and could empty the stockpiles of patience from a saint. Bless her and bless them.
My wife has been an amazing wife and mother despite the crappy work hours on my end and the stress that it bleeds into our family life. Some days are hard and some are happy but at the end of the day she stays the course and does her damndest to raise upright men and keep me in line as well! For that I am eternally grateful to her and God. She is currently getting crafty with some jewelry making and has bought a few puzzles.
I have followed suit, as I usually do when I take leave for more than 3 days, in picking up a new hobby: Book making/binding. I literally made a book almost from scratch. I folded and stitched together paper. I cut paper board and bound the whole thing in maroon leather and included a maroon ribbon page marker. See photo below. I am pretty satisfied with this work as it only took 2-3 days and a few dollars. I am eager to work on a secret project regarding this hobby now and to rebind some old books of mine with a more fitting cover.
It is far too late, I must sign off. I apologize for the delay in the update. I pray life will not change after my vacation as to continue to keep me away from my spare time. - Mitch