June 11, 2025 • 50 mins
The Army recruiting landscape is changing dramatically, and we've got the inside scoop. In this eye-opening conversation, Sergeant Bruner returns to break down the major transformation happening within Army recruiting—starting with the elevation of U.S. Army Recruiting Command (USAREC) to U.S. Army Recruiting Division (USARD), now a three-star command reporting directly to Congress.
This isn't just a name change. The recruiting world is undergoing fundamental restructuring, with Cadet Command now falling under USARD's umbrella and new MOSs being introduced. The traditional 79R recruiter designation is transitioning to 42T, with the addition of warrant officer positions (420T) to serve as targeting specialists and force multipliers across battalions.
Perhaps most significant for recruiters is the overhaul of the "ineffective recruiter" policy (601-1), eliminating the problematic monthly quota system in favor of quarterly evaluations against an annual goal. This common-sense approach allows recruiters time to implement training and develop strategies that work for their specific markets.
We dive deep into the reality of recruiting across different demographics and ZIP codes, exploring how a recruiter's background and presentation significantly impact their effectiveness in specific communities. As Sergeant Bruner explains, "You recruit your image. You recruit people that resonate with you." From rural farm communities to affluent suburbs, each market presents unique challenges and opportunities that seasoned recruiters learn to navigate.
The conversation also touches on how social media is transforming recruitment strategies, the importance of military visibility in creating future soldiers, and how these changes are already yielding results—with the Army on track to meet its annual accession mission for the first time in years. Whether you're considering recruiting duty or just curious about how the Army finds its next generation of soldiers, this episode delivers valuable insights into the evolving world of military recruitment.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Roger Sarne.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Welcome to the Roger Sarne podcast, where we talk all
things Army, and I'm your host,sarne Cruz.
Today we're going to be talkingabout the new changes that have
been going on within the UnitedStates Army Recruiting Command,
and today we have SergeantBruner, my good friend.
He hasn't been on in a whilebut he's back with some good
(00:32):
stuff and he's a really cool guy.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
And the SecDef nominee.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
And the SecDef nominee.
What's going on?
What's going on, man?
Everything good.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Yes, it is Finally life's back on track, the year's
going good, everything good.
Yes, it is finally life's backon track, the year's going good.
New hard drive in the computer.
We're good, we're back, we'relive, things are working.
I'm here did you just say I'mhere yeah, I almost took a
microphone to the face oh man,that's what's up, all right.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
So let's um, let's talk about the recruiting
command and how it's over goingan overhaul, right?
So there's a few things thatwe're going to talk about, a few
points.
One is how USAREC is taking onanother identity, if you will,
(01:21):
and then the next thing is goingto be the new MOSs within that
identity.
And then the last thing is thechange to the policy of 601-1.
Is that correct?
Am I on track?
Yes, we are Fair enough.
All right, so go ahead and takeit with the USAREC and how it's
called something else now USARD, usard.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
All right, let's talk about talk about everybody's
gonna, yeah, go ahead and maththat one up to what that one
rhymes with.
But, uh, so, yeah.
So when I got to recruiting, itwas usarek.
Um, after usarek or after I gothere, that's the the third
co-host.
You gotta have a third one.
(02:05):
So when I got to recruiting, itwas usric, us army recruiting
command.
It fell under trade doc.
It was led by a two-stargeneral.
We answered to trade off.
Trade off answered to don'tcare.
After that, right.
And then when I?
So, when I entered recruiting,it was this big you recruiting's
undergoing changes, withhistoric recruiting lows and the
woes and the tales ofrecruiting right.
(02:26):
So as of sometime this year, ona date that I don't remember,
um, usarek now has become itsown three-star command.
So we're the equivalent oftrade-off, we're the equivalent
of force com, right?
Um, we don't answer to anybody.
Okay, we are.
We are now known as the U Sarmy recruiting division.
Don't ask, because that doesn'tmath, right, but it is now the
(02:48):
U S army recruiting division.
It's a three-star command.
We don't answer to trade off,we answer straight to Congress.
Um, cadet command now fallsunder U S army.
Recruiting is a separaterecruiting function.
So all your ROTC programs atcolleges and all that good stuff
is now roped under USARD, whono longer answers to anybody.
(03:08):
We are our own entity.
We are out here doing it all.
Major General Davis got histhird star Probably got his name
wrong, but somebody will sue melater for that but he got his
third star, everything's good.
We're our own entity.
We're our own entity, we're ourown command, we're making our
own choices now, whichapparently is working, because
(03:30):
this is the first year in Idon't know forever, that we got
four months left and we're ontrack to make our retention
mission or our ascension mission, like this month, I think, like
61,000 people.
So we're out here slaying it.
Supposedly they're stillworking on it.
Um, like I said, like probablynot that anybody's been paying
(03:52):
attention, but if they'venoticed they get emails from
anybody in recruiting.
It's no longer showing up astrade doc usarek, it's showing
up as usard.
So we are our own people.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
That's fair and and and you know what's the funny
part?
Like there's always gonna,there's always uh online.
They always have these, uh,these messages, especially on
wtf, on how people are.
Uh, recruiters will messagesomeone and then it'll probably
be like some staff sergeant.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
That's been in for a while, yeah that ever happened
to you?
You ever I missed, so I got.
I got a good one today, I so Isent my.
You know, hey, whatever doofusmcgee you ever thought about
joining the army careerpotential or at all that cool,
sexy recruiting shit I wouldjoin the marines, not the army.
My response is well, why didn'twe join the marines yet?
Speaker 2 (04:43):
that's fair why are we not in yet?
Speaker 3 (04:46):
I got.
I think what?
What's my other good one, renee?
Oh pretty set on the navy.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Okay, cool um I don't know, I got some other dumb
ones.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
It's yeah true so sometimes you guys will hit
somebody.
Yeah, I couldn't.
I could imagine like the peoplewho like oh, yeah, I'd rather
just doing it.
That's fine.
I just that's their personalpreference.
I mean Army's Army, but I guesspeople want it.
People have to learn forthemselves, you know then.
And then they'll be like hey, Ineed to transfer over and go
(05:21):
green.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Well, I love the like .
I'm going to college on like$5,000 and I'll get a job and
I'll pay for it out of pocketand it's like I don't know where
.
You coughing up $40,000 a year,bubba, but hey, I'm gonna tell
you something right now.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
School ain't cheap.
I saw a buddy of mine he did,he finished I'm not sure if it
was his master, but histranscripts and each class a
hundred, and this is, withtuition, assistance and stuff,
140 something.
He didn't have to pay,obviously, one class was like
five something.
Some classes are threesomething mainly.
(05:56):
All the other ones were one, 40something, but a lot of them
were 500 and all that stuff.
So it's not cheap to say that.
A lot of them were 500 and allthat stuff.
So it's not cheap to say that.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
I guess my next thing is explain to us what the MOS
change is.
So everybody loves the old,crusty, rusty 79 Romeo.
Oh yeah, we all heard aboutthem.
We all hate them.
They're the old used carsalesman.
They're the fat, overweight,senior, noncommissioned officer
hanging out at Burger King goinghey man, you want to quit
flipping patties for the rest ofyour life?
I'm shining right here.
I'll hook you up, brother, yeah, brother.
(06:33):
So 79 Romeo is on its way outthe door.
Okay, it is now going to be 42Tango, don't ask, don't tango,
don't ask, don't know why, don'tparticularly care why, but it
(06:55):
is being replaced with 42 tangoas well, as we're getting 420
tangos for warrant officers.
You guys have ones over there,yeah Huh, who knew?
So that rolled out this yearthe first cohort, or whatever
they call warrant officersgroupies.
I don't know you never find themso I can't ask them.
Um, they started their firstcohort.
They did a bunch of trainingwith industry.
(07:15):
That first group of warrantofficers someone out to the
recruiting force to go do theirtargeting subject matter expert,
whatever metric they fit in inthe battalion level.
A lot of them circle back andwent to the schoolhouse to train
the next cohort and then thoseguys are going to start hitting
the force, I think the end ofthis year or something like that
(07:36):
, and they're going to getscattered around to be force
multipliers as well.
So with that, like 79 Romeo istheir whole, their whole metric
for like hey, you're a recruiter, you're in your year to two
year mark.
Have you thought about reclassand become a recruiter?
It was all a production basedmetric on on measurements.
It was like, oh, how manypeople you put in the army this
(07:58):
year.
Well, yeah, I put in 20.
Like good job, you can come onreclass.
Um, it hasn't.
There's a bunch of good onesout there, there's a bunch of
not so good ones.
I think USAR has finally figuredout that production is not the
only metric that we should bemeasuring, the senior
noncommittal, because at the endof the day, just because it's
(08:18):
recruiting like our coreresponsibilities.
Ncos is an NCO-centricorganization because we don't
have lower enlisted soldiersHasn't changed.
They're still responsible forthe training, mentorship and
development and I think they'vekind of realized that.
Hey, honda production is notthe sole source.
Just because you got a dudethat puts 20, 25 people in the
Army a year, is he going to beable to fulfill that station
(08:42):
commander spot and then trainthe next generation of
recruiters, the next stationcommanders, and train them up to
par?
Because there are some peoplethat are great recruiters.
They are not leadershipmaterial.
They can go out there and getlittle Jimmy on the hook all day
.
Hey, buddy, you want to jointhe Army and who blah and all
this good stuff and who blondeand all this good stuff, but
(09:04):
then they can't turn around andteach their fellow recruiters
Like this is how to become asuccessful recruiter.
So that's, I think, one of thebig driving forces with the
change to four 20 tango is.
I know the reclassificationprocess is going to be a lot
more in depth.
(09:25):
It's not just like a board,like production.
We asked a couple of questionslike what's use correct,
regulation 601, 210.
And what does that explain toyou?
And you know, like what's a 683alpha?
Like what do you use that formfor?
And like, oh, he answered thequestion, like he's good to go I
think they're taking a lot ofthe total soldier concept and
(09:45):
like, is this guy not only agood recruiter but can he lead,
train, mentor and develop ncosto become good recruiters?
Um, I don't.
The warrant officers?
Sure they're.
I don't know they're doingwarrant officer things.
All I can tell you.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
So the 42 to me sounds very admin, right, or is
it just me Like 42 alphas?
I don't.
You know what I mean.
That's what comes to my headwhen it comes to that.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
I don't know 79 Romeos were their own career
management field with their ownsenior leaders course, right,
yeah, um, I don't.
It's kind of like the why didthe 19 charlies bradley crew
members go to the armor whenthey used to be the 11 mics in
the infantry back in the 80s?
Like I don't know it's, it's acareer management field.
(10:44):
I don't know why it's fallingunder the 42 cmf um yeah it,
just it, just it.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Just in my head, that's what comes to it.
You know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (10:55):
um but I mean because you're not wrong, the station
commander is responsible for alarge portion of the admin work
in the office.
Like they, don't have juniorenlisted soldiers, right like
you go to a line and, oh, e5s,you know, mentor and counsel the
specialists and the e6s writethe ncors and counsel the
(11:16):
sergeants.
Like that doesn't work here.
Like you a sergeant or staffsergeant and you're a da select
recruiter.
There's a rank difference.
There ain't no positiondifference.
You both are recruiter.
Yeah, I don't rate an E5.
The senior, the stationcommander, rates all the
recruiters and he handles amajority of the admin stuff that
we do.
(11:36):
Now, again, it's nottraditionally related to what we
think admin in the Army,because it's a whole different
ballpark.
I don't again, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Ask me what we think admin in the army, because it's
it's a whole different ballpark.
I don't again, I don't know.
Ask me where 42 came from.
That's what it is.
We just like thumbs up, cool,yeah, congratulations, that's it
just comes to my head.
Um, so I do.
I do have a a thought process,because when I was instructor,
it was, you know, it's a bunchof staff sergeants in there.
Maybe you have a senior, that'sa sergeant, first class, first
sergeants and all that stuff.
Right, mainly NCOs.
But what that reminds me of isthat because you said there's no
privates or anything like that,right?
(12:11):
No, no.
Joes, no fives, no, nothing,right, no, no, regular hard
strike sergeants.
So details came up.
It wasn't no pawning it off tonobody else, it was you are
going to all staff sergeants aregoing to go there and you guys
are all going to mow that.
That, the whole premises, youguys are all going to paint, you
(12:31):
guys are all going to clean up,you guys are all going to do
everything, because there's noshit.
Rolls downhill thought process,right?
So does that happen over thereat the station as well?
Like everyone's?
Kind of like on the same planeplaying field.
So it's kind of like, well,you're not gonna pawn your stuff
up on me, or everyone's gonnado it, or do you?
(12:51):
Do you get what I'm saying?
You guys have that a pissingcontest, if you will.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Sometimes buddy, we are the bougie bitches of the
army we don't do anything rightso we have people to come and
clean the office twice a week.
Get out of town yeah sick bro,it's like monday and I'm
wondering like where in hell'sthe cleaning guy?
Like my trash is full.
Like the trash needs to betaken out of the office.
The shredder's full, um, I mean, like we're not on a
(13:21):
schoolhouse, we're not on amilitary installation, right,
like yeah, I'm in a, I'm in afucking like a four building,
like shopping center, businessplaza thing.
Like we're in office, like yeah, it's got all army stuff.
But like once I walk out thefront door, it's like like once
you walk in the door, like yeah,it's a federal building.
Right, like all the rulesimplies I can't bring your giddy
(13:41):
gat in the office.
Right, um, we're supposed tocheck everybody ids, you know,
can't bring guns and knives andall that stuff.
Like once you walk out thatfront door, like nah man, like
this is bum, fuck iowa.
Like there ain't no securityguard here, there ain't no palms
guard.
Like our military insuranceprocessing station is on a
national guard base.
Like it's not federal property,it's a federal building.
(14:03):
They have their own guardsbecause it's MEPS.
But when I drive through thegate to go to MEPS or go to the
company headquarters, this is aUS government installation, this
is state of Iowa, this is IowaNational Guard or state of Iowa.
(14:23):
We pay Iowa rent for having acompany headquarters there.
That's fair, that's fair.
But to get back to what you'resaying, we don't have those
details right.
I mean, sometimes it's like, ohyeah, someone's gotta go take
out the trash, and usually it'slike I don't know whoever kicks
the lid off and like man, thatfucking thing's full, like I
(14:45):
mean it's what you're saying isy'all got it good yeah, I mean,
at the end of the day, right,like, recruiting is a struggle
and it's it's.
Yeah, there's no real.
I'll be honest, I don't reallyremember the last time I've been
outside of, like company andbattalion leadership.
Like I don't remember last timeI've gone to parade arrest for
anybody or calling you know,calling senior non-commissioned
(15:09):
officer, sergeant, it's, youknow, it's just like we're a
bunch of dudes out here suckingit together.
This job sucks.
We all hate it.
Nobody wants to be here.
So you know what I'm saying.
Like it's not uncommon for,like a station commander to walk
out back my motherfucking trashfull and you watch that dude
walk out the office with the oldbag of trash over his arm.
Or like our our catastropheevent earlier this year the the
(15:30):
sewer backed up oh yeah, me andthe station commander in there
with like squeegee, like pushingshit water back down the drain
like poop, yeah, so it ain't.
Yeah, it's a little littledifferent.
Big boy rules out here.
Less, less rank and file stuff,more just like everybody's got
a job, everybody does their job,like you go to certain people
(15:51):
for certain things.
Other than that, it's just likewe're a bunch of dudes in
office, like there's five of us.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
So, with, with that being said, like um, as a
recruiter, you remember lastyear and how things were kind of
like crazy, meaning like it wasthe Alarak memo that came out
that you can be a recruiter youget promoted, but you got to get
so many what is it called?
So many recruits, 24 in one.
Correct, something like that 24in one.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
24 in one.
What does it called so manyrecruits?
24 in one, correct.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Something like that 24 in one, 24 in one.
What does that mean?
Speaker 3 (16:29):
24 contracts in one recruiting year, one fiscal year
24.
So that's two a month, yep,because everything we do here is
off of fiscal years years offof fiscal years.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Okay, so when, when that was going down, a lot of
people said well, I can't makerank in my, in my MOS, or my MOS
points are high, blah, blah,blah, or I need a branding
assignment.
And a lot of people flocktowards that and, from my
understanding, a lot ofespecially guys from the line
they prefer to stay on the line.
Um, but a lot of you, you'refrom the line right, you get on
(17:03):
the line.
But a lot of you, you're fromthe line right, you went over
there.
During that transition and thatimplementation, how was
recruiting for you particularly?
How did it go?
I'm pretty sure there was goodthings, bad things, but you
don't have to get into everydetail if you don't want to, but
overall, how do you think thatwent?
Speaker 3 (17:27):
So it was kind of a double-edged sword, because it's
this giant pissing matchbetween Userek and Branches.
Right, because, at the end ofthe day, right like Userek wants
one thing, branches don'tnecessarily want to give up the
people that they're asking for.
Right Like, especially the AGRguys.
(17:48):
So your Reservists, your dudes,your Active guard and reserve
guys, they play by a wholedifferent set of rules because
and I guess we're going to haveto talk about this right so, as
dumb as it sounds, right Like Iwear a uniform that says US Army
.
The Iowa National Guard wears auniform that says US Army, us
(18:14):
Army reservists wear a uniformthat says US Army.
The Iowa National Guard wears auniform that says US Army.
Us Army reservists wear auniform that says US Army, do we
all?
Fall under the.
United States Army.
We 100% do.
Reservists do not fall underthe United States Army, national
Guarders do not fall under theUnited States Army, right?
(18:45):
So because when you get apolicy memo that says only
applies to RA and the majorityof us go, okay, well, that
applies to me, you might turnaround to a soldier in your
formation and be like hey, bubba, you're going to get promoted
if you do 24 contracts in oneyear.
Well, until the whatever KingHoo-Ha the reserve world I
(19:11):
forget whoever he is right Cutshis own policy memo for 24, one
for AGR reservists in recruiting.
None of that applies.
They are not the samecomposition as we are.
So, yeah, everybody's playingby a little bit different games.
Anyway, we were way off beatwith that one Um.
(19:34):
So, yeah, I got to recruitingright before the surge started,
right, I got there.
And then it's like, oh, we'reseeing all this stuff.
Like, yeah, man, come onrecruiting, get a $5,000 bonus
for repeat, repeat in school Um,24 and one promotions, which
I'm glad.
There's a lot of NCOs that gotpromoted out there for it.
There's a lot that had highhopes that when they got to
(19:58):
their recruiting stationrealized that that was
physically impossible for themto do, because a lot of these
stations to get 24 contracts ina year, that's like 50% plus of
annual volume.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
So it depends.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
So you got three dudes in office, right?
Uh-huh.
They on for 33 contracts a year.
Mm-hmm.
And now Sergeant Cruz is outhere like hey, man, I'm going to
get promoted at E7.
I'm going to write 24-1.
All right, bubba, tell me howyou're going to write 24-1 in a
place that's going to struggleto write 33.
We're going to pump the brakeshere Because with the
(20:40):
ineffective recruiter policy,everybody's got to eat right.
So if your area right to keepthe math simple is only
propensity, is only 33 Armycontracts a year, either you
eating out of somebody else'splate and fucking them over in
the process, or it just ain'tgonna happen.
So I mean, at the time thearmy's like oh, more recruiters
(21:00):
was the way we solved therecruiting crisis problem.
I don't know if that's whatsolved it.
We ain't gonna even speculateon that.
Yeah.
But it was a way for them todraw more recruiters and I'm
happy for the people that did itAll right, yeah, I mean it
really hasn't changed until thisyear.
(21:21):
I mean it's been.
We've had our ups, we've hadour downs, we've had our
struggles and our woes.
I do think the big influx ofrecruiters did help.
At the end of the day, the morebodies you got out on the street
, the more people you got askingthe question right, do you want
to join your army?
Naturally, you're going to netmore people that want to join.
Right, because it's all about,it's a game.
(21:44):
Right, because we always say inrecruiting first to contact,
first contract.
It's, it's 100% true.
Because you got a kid, hedoesn't know the difference
between the Army, the Marines,right, other than what we wear
and the poster says Marines andthe Army.
You can have a kid that's likeI'm going home, marines.
But if you're the first dude toever talk to him and he never
sees a Marine recruiter, well,motherfucker, you ain't gonna
(22:08):
come talk to me, I'm gonna jointhese guys.
Well, motherfucker, you ain'tgonna come talk to me, I'm gonna
join these guys.
Even though he drives past a bigold Marine billboard every day.
So I mean, did it help?
Yeah, do I think it's entirelythe solution?
No, I don't think it was.
But.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
I mean it did help some.
That's fair.
So I think the last thing thatI want to ask about is the
policy change.
Was it dramatic?
Was it little things?
Speaker 3 (22:37):
any major issues or major updates, if you will so
when I got here, the previousyear to me getting here, when a
recruiter got to USREC, he had aone year exemption where he
wasn't on production for hisfirst year.
Right, things didn't countagainst him.
(22:58):
He had a year to get his feetwet, learn ropes.
When I got here, it was sixmonths.
And then so your first sixmonths, your production isn't
held against you, right, it's?
Hey, you're learning the ropes,you're going to do good.
You're going to not put peoplein the army this month.
You're going to put people inthe army this month.
And that was the first year.
601-1 policy came out, right,the ineffective recruiter, the
(23:19):
ghost in the in the room, right?
So the to keep it short, right?
The first policy was you're on11 contracts a year and one
contract a month.
Right, it was a double standard.
So in total, you had to write11 contracts a year at a minimum
(23:41):
.
So it's really great, right,everybody hears that because
it's like cool, if I write 11contracts from October going
into November, I'm done for theyear.
Nah, pump the brakes.
Remember, now you're on for onea month still.
So you put 11 in by Novemberand then come January, you don't
write one.
And it was on the month bymonth, may.
So if you didn't write one inJanuary, you got canceled
(24:04):
February, you got canceled Nextmonth.
After that, because months arehard, you got canceled.
Now you're on your last.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Wait, wait, hold on.
So you're telling me that if Ifreaking, let's say, out of a
12-month period, right, if I put12 in in six months, I'm still.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
Remember, you have a one-month mulligan.
You need 11.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
I get it, but you're saying that the last six months
I still have to do one per monthbecause I'm on a month to month
.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
And an annual requirement.
It was a double standard.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Oh, so I can meet my annual 11 a year one a month.
Okay so I can meet my annual insix months, but I still need to
meet the monthly.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Yep, and you're separated from USREC.
Quote unquote.
Yeah, ineffective recruiter.
Best part was nobody knew howto do 6011.
Legal was kicking Packers Bassback left and right because
there wasn't training records.
You didn't do enough for thesoldier, right.
So nobody was getting 6011.
Even the dudes that voluntarilywere like I'm taking this shit
(25:08):
off, because initially they werelike, hey, if you don't want to
be here, let us know.
Deuces Back the line you go.
It's not a punishment, we'regoing to leave it at that.
We ain't getting in thatfucking can of worms.
It's not supposed to be apunishment.
Your NCR is not any different.
If you leave early, instead ofa 12-month it's a nine month,
(25:31):
right?
Nobody's typically going inthere.
And this dude sucked at afucking recruiter, right, you
know, you still get top blocks,maybe not mq, but you get it
fully qualified, right?
Everything's good to go.
You still get a pcs award.
Thanks for playing, have a nicetime.
Go back to where we came from.
And then the common sense fairyshowed up.
So then fy25 rolled out new6011 policy.
(25:53):
Lots of sweeping changes intoverbiage and language and stuff
that we don't care about.
Big change the monthlyrequirement went away.
Now it was a one standard.
You were on 11 contracts a year, judged on a quarterly basis.
So you go through first quarter, right, you get your three
(26:15):
contracts, you're safe.
Yeah.
So we call it lead line right,because as every month goes by.
So you, you 11 a year, 11 at 12months, so like.
So you got one month, that'smulligan.
So october old crews here don'twrite a contract it's November,
december, on lead line.
Good to go, not on lead line,get a counseling right.
(26:38):
January, february, march comesby, write three contracts on
lead line.
Good to go, miss one or two,get another counseling, this
time from company level orbattalion, yeah, whatever,
whoever right to get anothercounseling, this time from
company level or battalion, yeah, whatever, whoever right.
Three counselings is the numberhere, right, yeah.
(27:01):
So Cruz right now is threebehind lead line, right, three
contracts deep.
Three behind lead line.
Cruz has a stellar month goingin the fourth month of the
calendar year, right, drops fourmotherfucking contracts Caught
up.
His three behind back on leadline, right, one, one counseling
.
Stop, because he's on lead lineright Now.
(27:24):
Here's where we get into somelegal verbiage, because, at any
point, right.
So let's just say Cruz missedall the first quarter, put two
contracts in the second quarterdoesn't have, as we call it, the
funnel to catch back up.
They can initiate separationfrom USREC, right, they can go.
Hey, you don't have what ittakes.
(27:44):
There's no way you can catch up, right?
Thanks for playing.
We're going to send you home,right?
Yeah, but the cool thing isright.
So let's say so.
We're going into third quarter.
We're six contracts deep, right, we're all in the summer.
Cruz has got all them juniorslined up Drops four contracts
right Now we're 10.
(28:06):
Drops another contract the nextmonth they get 11.
10 drops another contract.
The next month, they get 11.
You're done for the year.
You are marked safe from 6011.
Obviously, typically you're notgoing to stop writing people
because at that point you're notjust going to sit back and
chill, you're going to continuewriting people, right, but at
that point, right, if you justhad to shit the bed the last
(28:26):
year fell off the rails, I don'tknow.
Dog died, wife left you, kidsran away, right, and you just
fell off the rails because yourlife fell apart.
Yeah, you're marked safe.
You got your 11 contracts ayear.
Thanks for playing, right.
So it was a great change becauseit took it, gave time for the
actual like hey, I'm gonna sitdown the first quarter, start
(28:50):
crews.
Like you're really good atgetting people in the office.
You're really good at theappointment conduct, right.
Buddy, you shit the bed at thetest line.
Why can't you get them to testright?
And so it gives us time for meto train you on.
Like, hey, this is what youneed to do to get them tested.
Maybe you can't gain thecommitment right, but now we got
(29:11):
a whole 90 days that you cantake all that information that I
gave you at the beginning ofsecond quarter and implement it,
because it may not take effectthat first month, but you may
chew through eight, nine, 10, 12appointments right, and then
come out with six testers, fourphys right, three enlists and
then bam, you're caught up.
Baby, we gave you time forthose changes, that training, to
(29:31):
take effect.
So it was.
It was a great change okay.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
So do you?
Do you think that therecruiting in because you say
you're in idaho, iowa, iowa,you're in?
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Iowa Same difference.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Yeah, I guess.
Do you think that that wouldplay?
And I kind of know, or I don'tknow, I kind of would think I
know the answer.
But do you think Iowa would bethe same as New York, as
California or Texas?
And when I say the same, I knowit's not the same, but what do
you think the difference in thedemographic plays into
(30:13):
recruiting itself?
Access to the military accessto the military you mean like
proximity man, I wish we couldpull.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
I wish we could pull up screens and stuff.
We'll have to figure that outlater, right?
What just happened on MemorialDay, nascar, right?
Oh.
Roger, what did they do for thepace car on nascar this year?
They didn't watch it.
Tell me, 160th brought twoblackhawks oh, yeah, okay, yeah
(30:52):
and flew two blackhawks rightyep, they did that that pace
around, whatever it was whatthey call it, it's a, but okay,
yeah disclaimer.
Right, I'm not saying it's greatbecause, fuck them, nothing's
better than the 1990 whateverhooters 500, when those
motherfuckers got four apachesout there like getting low and
getting slow and strutting theirstuff.
Right, that best armyrecruitment video ever there
(31:13):
done.
Right, show that to every highschool kid in america.
Everybody's gonna join.
Right, access to the militaryplays a big part.
Right, you're at HUD.
What does HUD do every year?
Because you got the Texas MotorSpeedway.
What are we doing?
We send tanks, rallies,blackhawks, helicopters.
Right, soldiers down there,we're parking them on the
(31:33):
Speedway.
Hey, come check out what the USArmy does.
Right, you got kids climbingall over shit.
Right, so the closer you are toa military installation, the
easier it is to get peoplejoining our.
You get farther away you getfrom the flagpole, the harder it
is, because there's some zipcodes that it's like you're
doing your job as a recruiter.
You're going all your zip codes.
You're going all your highschools.
Right, you walk into highschool and realize like, oh shit
(31:54):
, you're talking to guidancecounselor, like who are you?
And you're looking.
I'm like motherfucker, I'mUnited States Army.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
They're like what the fuck's an army.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
You realize that a recruiter ain't been in there
since 04.
And now you're trying toconvince little Jimmy that, like
hey, you never met me before,you never seen anybody that
looks like, because you shouldprobably join the army.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Kind of like a that could be considered like a dead
zone because it's not frequentlyvisited.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
Yeah, so I mean yeah, so demographics play into it.
Um, this recruiting at therecruiter level is a game that
is fought by zip code to zipcode.
Right, there are zip codeswhere, like especially here in
iowa right, this is, this isamerican farm country.
Right, the majority of ethanolproduced comes out of the
Midwest right, corn soybeans.
(32:43):
Apparently, fucking Iowa's oneof the biggest pork producers in
the United States.
Didn't know that, right.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
I thought it was.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Smithfield in Virginia.
No, apparently Iowa's got morepigs than you can shake a stick
at.
It's unreal how many.
Like everything, everysupermarket you go into and you
look at pork, 90% of that shit'sgot a sticker that says raised
in iowa.
Gotcha like it is.
But so you go into a zip codethat there's no money, there's
(33:13):
no schools, right.
Well, there are schools, right,but there's no money, there's
no jobs, right.
And then you go one zip codeover and it's legitimately like
oh, my dad's an executive, johndeere, my dad's an executive
case.
My dad works for whatever thefucking seed store is, right
like he.
You know he's the owner of thelocal seed and feed store.
(33:35):
These dudes ain't joining thefucking army because their dad
makes three hundred thousanddollars you're working for john
deere not in the slightest.
Oh, here's a question go aheadbut it definitely helps when
you're in a place where the 160because, like people, don't
realize recruiting is a longgame nobody joins the army.
(33:59):
Rephrase that 90 of the peopledon't join the army.
Because what do you phrase?
That 90% of the people don'tjoin the army because a
recruiter talked to them?
Hmm, okay, little Jimmy joinsthe fucking army because he was
at the Texas motor speedway whenhe was 10 years old and all the
(34:20):
siren crews is like hey, buddy,come check out this fucking
tank where he's aneight-year-old at the Memorial
Day.
You know NASCAR 500 watchingthe 160 store store strut their
stuff with their Blackhawks,right, or?
ingrained yeah you know he movedto clean because that's the
only place his dad could get ajob working on posted the px,
making 15 bucks an hour.
(34:40):
And that dude sees us, you knowhis dad's taking him to daycare
.
He sees first cavalry divisionstrutting their shit down the
you know the tank trail and he'ssitting there in a car on the
way to daycare like fuck, isthat shit dad.
Dad's like oh, those are tanksand he's looking like man that'd
be cool to do one day.
Right like I, I didn't join thearmy because we're okay.
Well, I'll tell you why Ijoined the army.
(35:01):
I want to join the marine corps.
That dude wouldn't shut thefuck up because they have to
give their little spiel likeonce a marine, always marine.
You're not joining the marinecorps for the job, you're
joining for the title.
And I'm like bro, shut the fuckup.
I know what I'm joining.
Right, I joined the armybecause my grandpa was in the
army.
My dad was in the army.
I I grew up listening to mygrandpa tell these stories about
(35:22):
Korea and Vietnam and, oh yeah,shoot people's most fun you're
going to have with your pants onkind of shit, right?
And I'm sitting here like cool,I'm going to join the Army to
be an infantryman, like mygrandpa.
So I come home so I go talk tothe recruiter, runs his mouth
for an hour.
I'm like, fuck this guy, jointhe Marine Corps.
Why are you selling me on it?
Speaker 2 (35:41):
Because they want to stop talking.
He talked you out of it.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Yeah, I walked through the Army.
Hey, I'm joining the Army.
Got any questions?
Nah, dad and Grandpa did it.
I'm good, here's your packet.
Bring it back on Friday I'm inand out five minutes Right
Easiest recruit.
So I go home and I'm like hey,dumb first of all, you're not
(36:05):
infantry.
Well, so I wanted to, becausemy grandpa's infantryman, right,
he's got his, his shadow box atthat big cib up there, right
yeah yeah and that was about tosay I
fucking know you man, you're notyeah, but you know I'm saying
like he's yeah, you know I grewlistening to all these infantry
stories and all this.
Like shit running around thejungle in Vietnam like doing
snake eater shit and, you know,shooting it up with the North
(36:26):
Vietnamese and like that shit'sfucking cool.
Right, I go home, grandpa, I'mjoining the army.
He's like you're dumb,motherfucker.
I'm like I want that shit wasdumb.
You know how jealous it was.
Sitting on the side of the roadand fucking Korea, freeze my ass
off.
Watch these tanks drive by.
They're all warm.
They ain't walking.
Yeah, they're warm, they're dry.
(36:47):
They got some place to eat,someplace to sleep, someplace to
shit.
He's like why would you carryyour weapon when your weapon
carry?
Good idea.
I just pumped the brakes.
I ain't gonna be an infantryman, I'm gonna be a tanker.
That didn't happen.
I'm sitting in maps like, well,19 kilo ain't available.
What else?
You got tanks pulled up, the 19delta video and the dirt bikes
(37:09):
and shit.
I'm like, fuck yeah, stillwaiting on my sniper rifle,
still waiting on my ghillie suit, still waiting on my
motherfucking dirt bike so goddamn coach we waiting on all
that shit, hey I was gonna ask,going to ask you, man, before I
forget.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
So you said specifically the area code
matters, right, but I wouldimagine that you can recruit.
This is a two-part question.
I would imagine that you canrecruit anywhere, and if not,
then I'm fucked up.
But if you can, how does thatwork?
The second part is If you can,is social media Like TikTok,
(37:52):
instagram, facebook A good toolfor that, and even LinkedIn, I
would imagine so.
So, Can you recruit in another?
Speaker 3 (38:04):
area.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Let's do that one.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
You are going to recruit well, where you fit in,
right.
So I'm not going to take you.
I'm not saying you're not goingto be successful, right, yeah,
but I'm not going to take youinto bumfuck Iowa, dressed as
you are now Got the Giants hatsbackwards right.
The New York fucking shirt on.
Right he's got the Apple watch.
He's whipping it shitty in theTesla.
(38:33):
Right.
He's got the iPhone and theiMac right.
You're probably not going to dowell in most of these schools
because they're going to look atlike who in the fuck is this
clown, right?
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Gotcha, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:47):
Where you may go to someplace like.
So you may not do good inGreene County, iowa, because
they're all farmers, they're allrural, right?
Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
You're going to be mind fuckedbecause you're going to walk in
this high school and kids gotpocket knives and fucking fixed
blade knives and you're back.
The fuck is this shit.
Right, you're used to schoolmetal detectors and locked doors
(39:08):
.
Right, I just go bang on thefront fucking door.
Nobody checks my goddamn id.
They just let me in know whoyou're here to see today.
Have fun, right, I go roamaround at high school, all I
want.
Right, you may go down toanother zip code like Huxley,
iowa.
That's all rich people withmoney.
That's driving Tesla driving ahundred thousand dollars for
(39:29):
it's right.
And you may walk in there againin uniform with the.
I watch the iPhone.
Right, the slick glasses.
Right, the slick hairdo youknow whipping a shitty up in
your Tesla.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Did thela, did he?
Speaker 3 (39:44):
it's nothing but it's honestly true.
But you, but they may be likeoh you telling me you got all
that cool shit in themotherfucking army.
Like I ain't got to go work forjohn deere, like I can get the
fuck out of iowa and everybody'sflocking and putting in.
Like you recruit your image.
That's fair.
You recruit people thatresonate with you.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Okay, and with that, do you think social media is
also helping that?
Speaker 3 (40:10):
If you're good at social media fuck.
Yeah, it is, I'm a social mediaperson.
Are you saying your socialmedia?
Speaker 2 (40:16):
recruit.
Game is trash.
Speaker 3 (40:17):
How many times a year do you see me post a picture on
Facebook?
Ugh, when's the last time youseen me post a picture on
Facebook?
When's the last time you see mepost a picture on Facebook Ever
?
Probably like two years ago?
If you ain't good at socialmedia, you ain't going to come
out to recruiting and crack thebowl.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
That's fair.
Speaker 3 (40:37):
But someone like you that has taken the time and
invested in the social media todo this podcast, right, social
media may be your ticket.
I can't sit there and fuckingwhip out my iPhone and like
recording YouTube short in thefield, like this is going to be
me old, pissed off and angry,but you can do it, so it it does
help if you're the right personthat can leverage and do the
corny shit, cause you know me,I'm a pretty flat person.
(40:58):
I'm either pissed off, I'meither angry, or 1% of the week
You're going to find me in agood mood, right Fair, where
you're a more bubbly person andyou're more willing to put
yourself out there, where I'mnot, which is funny seeing I'm
doing a podcast.
But right it's, it can work foryou.
It doesn't work for me.
I tried social media media and,bro, I sit there for fucking
(41:21):
three hours trying to figure outsomething to post just to like
regurgitate some shit.
The go army did um and itdoesn't work for me.
But there are recruiters thatit works for, and 100 it is a
game changer, especially ifpeople are willing to not saying
that we circumvent the fuckingrules you used to calm down, but
there are recruiters that arewilling to use their personal
(41:42):
assets, because they're onlycertain stuff we can do with our
gov phones right they'rewilling to use their personal
assets to do the tick tock andand do the the stuff like that.
Right, and you know everybodylaughs like we saw these
retirees motherfucker recruiteron tick tock, like doing a live
stream, like answering questions.
I guarantee that motherfuckersputting people in the army, yeah
(42:03):
, yeah, the same way that I cango grab my shotgun and shit and
because I like to shoot andstuff and go ahead to the, the
local skeet range, be out thereshooting skeet and five stand
and sporting clays and doing allthis cool stuff.
And you know, just be chattingit up with the army.
And you see some kid like, hey,what are you doing out here,
man?
You know, just be chatting itup with the army.
And you see some kid like, hey,what are you doing out here,
(42:23):
man?
You know, just casualconversation.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
Yo, I shoot for Ballard high school.
They got a trap team and cooland like, just straight up,
frank, question, you everthought about the army?
Cause, those are my people,right, and they hit him with the
.
Not really like what he asked.
Like buddy, if you don't waitfor a motherfucking army, I
wouldn't be here and I wasshooting traps.
(42:47):
So, um, we just put our company, put somebody in this year that
goes to amu, really, armymarksmanship unit, yep yeah he
found him okay that's fair.
so I don't know who did, butthey're going to AMU.
Go ahead.
No, I don't know where that umcame from, fair.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
It's a nervous um.
Recruiting is just basicallywhere you are, how you work it,
and if social media is yourthing, it's good.
Speaker 3 (43:25):
You can use that as a tool for your arsenal.
So we have three markets right.
So we have targeted or we havemust-keeps, must-wins, markets
of opportunity.
Okay.
Must-keeps mean we're dominatingthe market, we're pulling in
the majority of DOD share.
Right means we're dominatingthe market.
We're pulling in the majorityof dod share right.
So when some s2 weenie doesthis shit, um, we get a map by
(43:47):
zip code, shows all our zipcodes, what's must keep, what's
must win right.
Shows dod share or dodpotential, army potential right
and breaks it down all thesciencey shit, right.
So if it's must keep, it'sbecause the army is dominating.
A must win is like, hey, we'redoing good, but we're not
winning the market share and amarket opportunity is like there
(44:09):
ain't shit out there.
There are recruiters that haveshowed up their recruiting
stations and in three years havetaken markets for markets of
opportunity to.
Must keeps because they'reputting in the miles or getting
in their schools or talking topeople, right, and something
that traditionally we're lookingat big picture saying, well,
there's no potential to writecontracts out here.
They're sitting here going well, motherfucker, I just wrote
(44:30):
eight this last year.
So tell me, there ain'tsomething out here.
In the next year you get thatsame map and it's a must win.
Yeah.
Next year you get the same map,it's a must keep.
Yeah, that comes into like,yeah, 90% of people you won't
convince to join the Army, butyou may convince a people in a
school that's never thoughtabout the Army before that they
(44:51):
can join the Army and succeed.
So it exists.
So I mean, yeah, it's you as aperson, like what you're capable
of doing, how you're willing toput yourself out there and how
good you are at being a peopleperson.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
Personality.
That's fair, All right.
So we've discussed a lot.
We talked about therestructuring or renaming of
USARC to USARD US.
Speaker 3 (45:25):
Army Recruiting Division.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
US Army Recruiting Division.
We talked about the new MOSs.
We talked about the changes tothe policy of 601-1, which
seemed to be working better ormore beneficial.
We talked about the recruitingmarket itself.
There's a lot that's going onhere and a lot of good things.
(45:50):
From what it seems like to me,right, it doesn't seem like
recruiting is such a bad deal,from like what I've heard in the
past from some people that theymay not like it.
I've also heard in the past ofsome people that have liked it.
I will honestly say that Ithink I've heard more positives
than negatives.
(46:11):
Personally, I'm in my laststrut, so I would not want to go
recruiter.
But those of you who do want togo recruiter, um, hit the
comments below.
Uh, here's a question, scott,where could people find you?
Speaker 3 (46:30):
I don't know anymore.
That's a good question.
I forgot.
I totally forgot about thiscourse I don't have.
It's been a rough year so a lotof stuff's falling away side.
People that have watched thisbefore know I was doing the
twitch stream and stuff.
It's been a rough year so a lotof that stuff's falling away
side.
People that have watched thisbefore know I was doing the
Twitch stream and stuff.
It's been up and down year.
I've been on and off trying todo the Twitch stream and stuff.
(46:51):
That's been.
I hit the milestone.
I'm almost a affiliate but Ican't quite cross that milestone
because I haven't been able tocommit the time to it.
That's where they can find you.
If you do want to find me, itwill be right here at the Rogers
Heart Podcast.
I'm back, we're live.
(47:13):
I know we were talking earlier.
I'm trying to get Casmo.
We'll leave it at that.
I'm trying to get a buddy ofmine, casmo.
We'll leave it at that.
I'm trying to get a buddy ofmine, casmo, on here.
Um, he was a Kiowa pilot, turnedApache pilot from a started as
a tanker, trying to get him talkabout the waft, what it was
like being a pilot flying acouple of different airframes.
(47:33):
Um, I'm my tenure here,recruiting, is about to expire.
I got a manning cycle for nextyear.
I know we got a lot to unpack.
So for future, just to outlinewhat I'm just, people don't take
(47:54):
this as a promise.
Don't take this as a guarantee.
Tell anybody who's paidattention in the army.
They know that 19 Delta's gotslashed by two-thirds.
At some point we're going totalk about 19 Delta.
We're going to do some rumorepisodes.
Rumor on the street is I heard4ID is losing tanks and they're
(48:16):
going to be 4th InfantryDivision strikerized.
Everybody, calm down, becauseI'm going to get real excited
about this one.
3 SCR 3 Striker CalvaryRegiment is now about to become
3rd Armored Calvary RegimentAgain.
This is rumor on the street,nothing confirmed, but we are
going to talk about this becausethat's big changes.
We're going back to an old wayof fighting at divisions,
(48:37):
especially if we're talkingbringing Armored Calvary
Regiments back.
I'd like to get to interviewingpeople.
I know we're going to try theCasmo thing, see if we can get
him to come.
I know, if you haven't seen it,that dude white-papered the
thing on the new XM7 rifles.
They basically beat them downwith a passion which is going to
(49:01):
lead into a bunch of funconversation because we're going
to go into some of the big sigcivilian side stuff with that
and the m17 slash the p320,going off in holsters and
shooting people in the legs andshit laxico it's my boy shout
out but yeah, I'm back.
Speaker 1 (49:17):
I'm back, though we got a lot of stuff to talk about
this summer.
Speaker 3 (49:22):
And yeah, so you can find me here.
And then at some point I'lllink all the other social media
and we'll have a cool little boxthat pops up.
Y'all can watch me play videogames and fly helicopters and
shit.
Speaker 2 (49:32):
Let's go All right, fair enough, you heard it first.
We got a lot to unpack thissummer and we're going to have
time for it.
So on top of that, I want tohear from you guys what do you
guys think.
Do you guys still want to be arecruiter?
Do you guys think these newchanges are going to make you
want to be a recruiter?
Drop your thoughts in thecomments and, if you found this
(49:55):
discussion insightful, check outany of our other videos and
remember you don't have toembrace the suck if you got the
right tools in your ruck.
I'm Sarn Cruz, that's SarnBruner and we're out and I'll
see you in the next one.
Peace Later.
Roger Sarn.
Roger Sarne.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Welcome to the Roger Sarne podcast, where we talk all
things Army, and I'm your host,sarne Cruz.
Today we're going to be talkingabout the new changes that have
been going on within the UnitedStates Army Recruiting Command,
and today we have SergeantBruner, my good friend.
He hasn't been on in a whilebut he's back with some good
(00:32):
stuff and he's a really cool guy.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
And the SecDef nominee.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
And the SecDef nominee.
What's going on?
What's going on, man?
Everything good.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Yes, it is Finally life's back on track, the year's
going good, everything good.
Yes, it is finally life's backon track, the year's going good.
New hard drive in the computer.
We're good, we're back, we'relive, things are working.
I'm here did you just say I'mhere yeah, I almost took a
microphone to the face oh man,that's what's up, all right.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
So let's um, let's talk about the recruiting
command and how it's over goingan overhaul, right?
So there's a few things thatwe're going to talk about, a few
points.
One is how USAREC is taking onanother identity, if you will,
(01:21):
and then the next thing is goingto be the new MOSs within that
identity.
And then the last thing is thechange to the policy of 601-1.
Is that correct?
Am I on track?
Yes, we are Fair enough.
All right, so go ahead and takeit with the USAREC and how it's
called something else now USARD, usard.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
All right, let's talk about talk about everybody's
gonna, yeah, go ahead and maththat one up to what that one
rhymes with.
But, uh, so, yeah.
So when I got to recruiting, itwas usarek.
Um, after usarek or after I gothere, that's the the third
co-host.
You gotta have a third one.
(02:05):
So when I got to recruiting, itwas usric, us army recruiting
command.
It fell under trade doc.
It was led by a two-stargeneral.
We answered to trade off.
Trade off answered to don'tcare.
After that, right.
And then when I?
So, when I entered recruiting,it was this big you recruiting's
undergoing changes, withhistoric recruiting lows and the
woes and the tales ofrecruiting right.
(02:26):
So as of sometime this year, ona date that I don't remember,
um, usarek now has become itsown three-star command.
So we're the equivalent oftrade-off, we're the equivalent
of force com, right?
Um, we don't answer to anybody.
Okay, we are.
We are now known as the U Sarmy recruiting division.
Don't ask, because that doesn'tmath, right, but it is now the
(02:48):
U S army recruiting division.
It's a three-star command.
We don't answer to trade off,we answer straight to Congress.
Um, cadet command now fallsunder U S army.
Recruiting is a separaterecruiting function.
So all your ROTC programs atcolleges and all that good stuff
is now roped under USARD, whono longer answers to anybody.
(03:08):
We are our own entity.
We are out here doing it all.
Major General Davis got histhird star Probably got his name
wrong, but somebody will sue melater for that but he got his
third star, everything's good.
We're our own entity.
We're our own entity, we're ourown command, we're making our
own choices now, whichapparently is working, because
(03:30):
this is the first year in Idon't know forever, that we got
four months left and we're ontrack to make our retention
mission or our ascension mission, like this month, I think, like
61,000 people.
So we're out here slaying it.
Supposedly they're stillworking on it.
Um, like I said, like probablynot that anybody's been paying
(03:52):
attention, but if they'venoticed they get emails from
anybody in recruiting.
It's no longer showing up astrade doc usarek, it's showing
up as usard.
So we are our own people.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
That's fair and and and you know what's the funny
part?
Like there's always gonna,there's always uh online.
They always have these, uh,these messages, especially on
wtf, on how people are.
Uh, recruiters will messagesomeone and then it'll probably
be like some staff sergeant.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
That's been in for a while, yeah that ever happened
to you?
You ever I missed, so I got.
I got a good one today, I so Isent my.
You know, hey, whatever doofusmcgee you ever thought about
joining the army careerpotential or at all that cool,
sexy recruiting shit I wouldjoin the marines, not the army.
My response is well, why didn'twe join the marines yet?
Speaker 2 (04:43):
that's fair why are we not in yet?
Speaker 3 (04:46):
I got.
I think what?
What's my other good one, renee?
Oh pretty set on the navy.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Okay, cool um I don't know, I got some other dumb
ones.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
It's yeah true so sometimes you guys will hit
somebody.
Yeah, I couldn't.
I could imagine like the peoplewho like oh, yeah, I'd rather
just doing it.
That's fine.
I just that's their personalpreference.
I mean Army's Army, but I guesspeople want it.
People have to learn forthemselves, you know then.
And then they'll be like hey, Ineed to transfer over and go
(05:21):
green.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Well, I love the like .
I'm going to college on like$5,000 and I'll get a job and
I'll pay for it out of pocketand it's like I don't know where
.
You coughing up $40,000 a year,bubba, but hey, I'm gonna tell
you something right now.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
School ain't cheap.
I saw a buddy of mine he did,he finished I'm not sure if it
was his master, but histranscripts and each class a
hundred, and this is, withtuition, assistance and stuff,
140 something.
He didn't have to pay,obviously, one class was like
five something.
Some classes are threesomething mainly.
(05:56):
All the other ones were one, 40something, but a lot of them
were 500 and all that stuff.
So it's not cheap to say that.
A lot of them were 500 and allthat stuff.
So it's not cheap to say that.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
I guess my next thing is explain to us what the MOS
change is.
So everybody loves the old,crusty, rusty 79 Romeo.
Oh yeah, we all heard aboutthem.
We all hate them.
They're the old used carsalesman.
They're the fat, overweight,senior, noncommissioned officer
hanging out at Burger King goinghey man, you want to quit
flipping patties for the rest ofyour life?
I'm shining right here.
I'll hook you up, brother, yeah, brother.
(06:33):
So 79 Romeo is on its way outthe door.
Okay, it is now going to be 42Tango, don't ask, don't tango,
don't ask, don't know why, don'tparticularly care why, but it
(06:55):
is being replaced with 42 tangoas well, as we're getting 420
tangos for warrant officers.
You guys have ones over there,yeah Huh, who knew?
So that rolled out this yearthe first cohort, or whatever
they call warrant officersgroupies.
I don't know you never find themso I can't ask them.
Um, they started their firstcohort.
They did a bunch of trainingwith industry.
(07:15):
That first group of warrantofficers someone out to the
recruiting force to go do theirtargeting subject matter expert,
whatever metric they fit in inthe battalion level.
A lot of them circle back andwent to the schoolhouse to train
the next cohort and then thoseguys are going to start hitting
the force, I think the end ofthis year or something like that
(07:36):
, and they're going to getscattered around to be force
multipliers as well.
So with that, like 79 Romeo istheir whole, their whole metric
for like hey, you're a recruiter, you're in your year to two
year mark.
Have you thought about reclassand become a recruiter?
It was all a production basedmetric on on measurements.
It was like, oh, how manypeople you put in the army this
(07:58):
year.
Well, yeah, I put in 20.
Like good job, you can come onreclass.
Um, it hasn't.
There's a bunch of good onesout there, there's a bunch of
not so good ones.
I think USAR has finally figuredout that production is not the
only metric that we should bemeasuring, the senior
noncommittal, because at the endof the day, just because it's
(08:18):
recruiting like our coreresponsibilities.
Ncos is an NCO-centricorganization because we don't
have lower enlisted soldiersHasn't changed.
They're still responsible forthe training, mentorship and
development and I think they'vekind of realized that.
Hey, honda production is notthe sole source.
Just because you got a dudethat puts 20, 25 people in the
Army a year, is he going to beable to fulfill that station
(08:42):
commander spot and then trainthe next generation of
recruiters, the next stationcommanders, and train them up to
par?
Because there are some peoplethat are great recruiters.
They are not leadershipmaterial.
They can go out there and getlittle Jimmy on the hook all day
.
Hey, buddy, you want to jointhe Army and who blah and all
this good stuff and who blondeand all this good stuff, but
(09:04):
then they can't turn around andteach their fellow recruiters
Like this is how to become asuccessful recruiter.
So that's, I think, one of thebig driving forces with the
change to four 20 tango is.
I know the reclassificationprocess is going to be a lot
more in depth.
(09:25):
It's not just like a board,like production.
We asked a couple of questionslike what's use correct,
regulation 601, 210.
And what does that explain toyou?
And you know, like what's a 683alpha?
Like what do you use that formfor?
And like, oh, he answered thequestion, like he's good to go I
think they're taking a lot ofthe total soldier concept and
(09:45):
like, is this guy not only agood recruiter but can he lead,
train, mentor and develop ncosto become good recruiters?
Um, I don't.
The warrant officers?
Sure they're.
I don't know they're doingwarrant officer things.
All I can tell you.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
So the 42 to me sounds very admin, right, or is
it just me Like 42 alphas?
I don't.
You know what I mean.
That's what comes to my headwhen it comes to that.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
I don't know 79 Romeos were their own career
management field with their ownsenior leaders course, right,
yeah, um, I don't.
It's kind of like the why didthe 19 charlies bradley crew
members go to the armor whenthey used to be the 11 mics in
the infantry back in the 80s?
Like I don't know it's, it's acareer management field.
(10:44):
I don't know why it's fallingunder the 42 cmf um yeah it,
just it, just it.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Just in my head, that's what comes to it.
You know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (10:55):
um but I mean because you're not wrong, the station
commander is responsible for alarge portion of the admin work
in the office.
Like they, don't have juniorenlisted soldiers, right like
you go to a line and, oh, e5s,you know, mentor and counsel the
specialists and the e6s writethe ncors and counsel the
(11:16):
sergeants.
Like that doesn't work here.
Like you a sergeant or staffsergeant and you're a da select
recruiter.
There's a rank difference.
There ain't no positiondifference.
You both are recruiter.
Yeah, I don't rate an E5.
The senior, the stationcommander, rates all the
recruiters and he handles amajority of the admin stuff that
we do.
(11:36):
Now, again, it's nottraditionally related to what we
think admin in the Army,because it's a whole different
ballpark.
I don't again, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Ask me what we think admin in the army, because it's
it's a whole different ballpark.
I don't again, I don't know.
Ask me where 42 came from.
That's what it is.
We just like thumbs up, cool,yeah, congratulations, that's it
just comes to my head.
Um, so I do.
I do have a a thought process,because when I was instructor,
it was, you know, it's a bunchof staff sergeants in there.
Maybe you have a senior, that'sa sergeant, first class, first
sergeants and all that stuff.
Right, mainly NCOs.
But what that reminds me of isthat because you said there's no
privates or anything like that,right?
(12:11):
No, no.
Joes, no fives, no, nothing,right, no, no, regular hard
strike sergeants.
So details came up.
It wasn't no pawning it off tonobody else, it was you are
going to all staff sergeants aregoing to go there and you guys
are all going to mow that.
That, the whole premises, youguys are all going to paint, you
(12:31):
guys are all going to clean up,you guys are all going to do
everything, because there's noshit.
Rolls downhill thought process,right?
So does that happen over thereat the station as well?
Like everyone's?
Kind of like on the same planeplaying field.
So it's kind of like, well,you're not gonna pawn your stuff
up on me, or everyone's gonnado it, or do you?
(12:51):
Do you get what I'm saying?
You guys have that a pissingcontest, if you will.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Sometimes buddy, we are the bougie bitches of the
army we don't do anything rightso we have people to come and
clean the office twice a week.
Get out of town yeah sick bro,it's like monday and I'm
wondering like where in hell'sthe cleaning guy?
Like my trash is full.
Like the trash needs to betaken out of the office.
The shredder's full, um, I mean, like we're not on a
(13:21):
schoolhouse, we're not on amilitary installation, right,
like yeah, I'm in a, I'm in afucking like a four building,
like shopping center, businessplaza thing.
Like we're in office, like yeah, it's got all army stuff.
But like once I walk out thefront door, it's like like once
you walk in the door, like yeah,it's a federal building.
Right, like all the rulesimplies I can't bring your giddy
(13:41):
gat in the office.
Right, um, we're supposed tocheck everybody ids, you know,
can't bring guns and knives andall that stuff.
Like once you walk out thatfront door, like nah man, like
this is bum, fuck iowa.
Like there ain't no securityguard here, there ain't no palms
guard.
Like our military insuranceprocessing station is on a
national guard base.
Like it's not federal property,it's a federal building.
(14:03):
They have their own guardsbecause it's MEPS.
But when I drive through thegate to go to MEPS or go to the
company headquarters, this is aUS government installation, this
is state of Iowa, this is IowaNational Guard or state of Iowa.
(14:23):
We pay Iowa rent for having acompany headquarters there.
That's fair, that's fair.
But to get back to what you'resaying, we don't have those
details right.
I mean, sometimes it's like, ohyeah, someone's gotta go take
out the trash, and usually it'slike I don't know whoever kicks
the lid off and like man, thatfucking thing's full, like I
(14:45):
mean it's what you're saying isy'all got it good yeah, I mean,
at the end of the day, right,like, recruiting is a struggle
and it's it's.
Yeah, there's no real.
I'll be honest, I don't reallyremember the last time I've been
outside of, like company andbattalion leadership.
Like I don't remember last timeI've gone to parade arrest for
anybody or calling you know,calling senior non-commissioned
(15:09):
officer, sergeant, it's, youknow, it's just like we're a
bunch of dudes out here suckingit together.
This job sucks.
We all hate it.
Nobody wants to be here.
So you know what I'm saying.
Like it's not uncommon for,like a station commander to walk
out back my motherfucking trashfull and you watch that dude
walk out the office with the oldbag of trash over his arm.
Or like our our catastropheevent earlier this year the the
(15:30):
sewer backed up oh yeah, me andthe station commander in there
with like squeegee, like pushingshit water back down the drain
like poop, yeah, so it ain't.
Yeah, it's a little littledifferent.
Big boy rules out here.
Less, less rank and file stuff,more just like everybody's got
a job, everybody does their job,like you go to certain people
(15:51):
for certain things.
Other than that, it's just likewe're a bunch of dudes in
office, like there's five of us.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
So, with, with that being said, like um, as a
recruiter, you remember lastyear and how things were kind of
like crazy, meaning like it wasthe Alarak memo that came out
that you can be a recruiter youget promoted, but you got to get
so many what is it called?
So many recruits, 24 in one.
Correct, something like that 24in one.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
24 in one.
What does it called so manyrecruits?
24 in one, correct.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Something like that 24 in one, 24 in one.
What does that mean?
Speaker 3 (16:29):
24 contracts in one recruiting year, one fiscal year
24.
So that's two a month, yep,because everything we do here is
off of fiscal years years offof fiscal years.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Okay, so when, when that was going down, a lot of
people said well, I can't makerank in my, in my MOS, or my MOS
points are high, blah, blah,blah, or I need a branding
assignment.
And a lot of people flocktowards that and, from my
understanding, a lot ofespecially guys from the line
they prefer to stay on the line.
Um, but a lot of you, you'refrom the line right, you get on
(17:03):
the line.
But a lot of you, you're fromthe line right, you went over
there.
During that transition and thatimplementation, how was
recruiting for you particularly?
How did it go?
I'm pretty sure there was goodthings, bad things, but you
don't have to get into everydetail if you don't want to, but
overall, how do you think thatwent?
Speaker 3 (17:27):
So it was kind of a double-edged sword, because it's
this giant pissing matchbetween Userek and Branches.
Right, because, at the end ofthe day, right like Userek wants
one thing, branches don'tnecessarily want to give up the
people that they're asking for.
Right Like, especially the AGRguys.
(17:48):
So your Reservists, your dudes,your Active guard and reserve
guys, they play by a wholedifferent set of rules because
and I guess we're going to haveto talk about this right so, as
dumb as it sounds, right Like Iwear a uniform that says US Army
.
The Iowa National Guard wears auniform that says US Army, us
(18:14):
Army reservists wear a uniformthat says US Army.
The Iowa National Guard wears auniform that says US Army.
Us Army reservists wear auniform that says US Army, do we
all?
Fall under the.
United States Army.
We 100% do.
Reservists do not fall underthe United States Army, national
Guarders do not fall under theUnited States Army, right?
(18:45):
So because when you get apolicy memo that says only
applies to RA and the majorityof us go, okay, well, that
applies to me, you might turnaround to a soldier in your
formation and be like hey, bubba, you're going to get promoted
if you do 24 contracts in oneyear.
Well, until the whatever KingHoo-Ha the reserve world I
(19:11):
forget whoever he is right Cutshis own policy memo for 24, one
for AGR reservists in recruiting.
None of that applies.
They are not the samecomposition as we are.
So, yeah, everybody's playingby a little bit different games.
Anyway, we were way off beatwith that one Um.
(19:34):
So, yeah, I got to recruitingright before the surge started,
right, I got there.
And then it's like, oh, we'reseeing all this stuff.
Like, yeah, man, come onrecruiting, get a $5,000 bonus
for repeat, repeat in school Um,24 and one promotions, which
I'm glad.
There's a lot of NCOs that gotpromoted out there for it.
There's a lot that had highhopes that when they got to
(19:58):
their recruiting stationrealized that that was
physically impossible for themto do, because a lot of these
stations to get 24 contracts ina year, that's like 50% plus of
annual volume.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
So it depends.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
So you got three dudes in office, right?
Uh-huh.
They on for 33 contracts a year.
Mm-hmm.
And now Sergeant Cruz is outhere like hey, man, I'm going to
get promoted at E7.
I'm going to write 24-1.
All right, bubba, tell me howyou're going to write 24-1 in a
place that's going to struggleto write 33.
We're going to pump the brakeshere Because with the
(20:40):
ineffective recruiter policy,everybody's got to eat right.
So if your area right to keepthe math simple is only
propensity, is only 33 Armycontracts a year, either you
eating out of somebody else'splate and fucking them over in
the process, or it just ain'tgonna happen.
So I mean, at the time thearmy's like oh, more recruiters
(21:00):
was the way we solved therecruiting crisis problem.
I don't know if that's whatsolved it.
We ain't gonna even speculateon that.
Yeah.
But it was a way for them todraw more recruiters and I'm
happy for the people that did itAll right, yeah, I mean it
really hasn't changed until thisyear.
(21:21):
I mean it's been.
We've had our ups, we've hadour downs, we've had our
struggles and our woes.
I do think the big influx ofrecruiters did help.
At the end of the day, the morebodies you got out on the street
, the more people you got askingthe question right, do you want
to join your army?
Naturally, you're going to netmore people that want to join.
Right, because it's all about,it's a game.
(21:44):
Right, because we always say inrecruiting first to contact,
first contract.
It's, it's 100% true.
Because you got a kid, hedoesn't know the difference
between the Army, the Marines,right, other than what we wear
and the poster says Marines andthe Army.
You can have a kid that's likeI'm going home, marines.
But if you're the first dude toever talk to him and he never
sees a Marine recruiter, well,motherfucker, you ain't gonna
(22:08):
come talk to me, I'm gonna jointhese guys.
Well, motherfucker, you ain'tgonna come talk to me, I'm gonna
join these guys.
Even though he drives past a bigold Marine billboard every day.
So I mean, did it help?
Yeah, do I think it's entirelythe solution?
No, I don't think it was.
But.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
I mean it did help some.
That's fair.
So I think the last thing thatI want to ask about is the
policy change.
Was it dramatic?
Was it little things?
Speaker 3 (22:37):
any major issues or major updates, if you will so
when I got here, the previousyear to me getting here, when a
recruiter got to USREC, he had aone year exemption where he
wasn't on production for hisfirst year.
Right, things didn't countagainst him.
(22:58):
He had a year to get his feetwet, learn ropes.
When I got here, it was sixmonths.
And then so your first sixmonths, your production isn't
held against you, right, it's?
Hey, you're learning the ropes,you're going to do good.
You're going to not put peoplein the army this month.
You're going to put people inthe army this month.
And that was the first year.
601-1 policy came out, right,the ineffective recruiter, the
(23:19):
ghost in the in the room, right?
So the to keep it short, right?
The first policy was you're on11 contracts a year and one
contract a month.
Right, it was a double standard.
So in total, you had to write11 contracts a year at a minimum
(23:41):
.
So it's really great, right,everybody hears that because
it's like cool, if I write 11contracts from October going
into November, I'm done for theyear.
Nah, pump the brakes.
Remember, now you're on for onea month still.
So you put 11 in by Novemberand then come January, you don't
write one.
And it was on the month bymonth, may.
So if you didn't write one inJanuary, you got canceled
(24:04):
February, you got canceled Nextmonth.
After that, because months arehard, you got canceled.
Now you're on your last.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Wait, wait, hold on.
So you're telling me that if Ifreaking, let's say, out of a
12-month period, right, if I put12 in in six months, I'm still.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
Remember, you have a one-month mulligan.
You need 11.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
I get it, but you're saying that the last six months
I still have to do one per monthbecause I'm on a month to month
.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
And an annual requirement.
It was a double standard.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Oh, so I can meet my annual 11 a year one a month.
Okay so I can meet my annual insix months, but I still need to
meet the monthly.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Yep, and you're separated from USREC.
Quote unquote.
Yeah, ineffective recruiter.
Best part was nobody knew howto do 6011.
Legal was kicking Packers Bassback left and right because
there wasn't training records.
You didn't do enough for thesoldier, right.
So nobody was getting 6011.
Even the dudes that voluntarilywere like I'm taking this shit
(25:08):
off, because initially they werelike, hey, if you don't want to
be here, let us know.
Deuces Back the line you go.
It's not a punishment, we'regoing to leave it at that.
We ain't getting in thatfucking can of worms.
It's not supposed to be apunishment.
Your NCR is not any different.
If you leave early, instead ofa 12-month it's a nine month,
(25:31):
right?
Nobody's typically going inthere.
And this dude sucked at afucking recruiter, right, you
know, you still get top blocks,maybe not mq, but you get it
fully qualified, right?
Everything's good to go.
You still get a pcs award.
Thanks for playing, have a nicetime.
Go back to where we came from.
And then the common sense fairyshowed up.
So then fy25 rolled out new6011 policy.
(25:53):
Lots of sweeping changes intoverbiage and language and stuff
that we don't care about.
Big change the monthlyrequirement went away.
Now it was a one standard.
You were on 11 contracts a year, judged on a quarterly basis.
So you go through first quarter, right, you get your three
(26:15):
contracts, you're safe.
Yeah.
So we call it lead line right,because as every month goes by.
So you, you 11 a year, 11 at 12months, so like.
So you got one month, that'smulligan.
So october old crews here don'twrite a contract it's November,
december, on lead line.
Good to go, not on lead line,get a counseling right.
(26:38):
January, february, march comesby, write three contracts on
lead line.
Good to go, miss one or two,get another counseling, this
time from company level orbattalion, yeah, whatever,
whoever right to get anothercounseling, this time from
company level or battalion, yeah, whatever, whoever right.
Three counselings is the numberhere, right, yeah.
(27:01):
So Cruz right now is threebehind lead line, right, three
contracts deep.
Three behind lead line.
Cruz has a stellar month goingin the fourth month of the
calendar year, right, drops fourmotherfucking contracts Caught
up.
His three behind back on leadline, right, one, one counseling
.
Stop, because he's on lead lineright Now.
(27:24):
Here's where we get into somelegal verbiage, because, at any
point, right.
So let's just say Cruz missedall the first quarter, put two
contracts in the second quarterdoesn't have, as we call it, the
funnel to catch back up.
They can initiate separationfrom USREC, right, they can go.
Hey, you don't have what ittakes.
(27:44):
There's no way you can catch up, right?
Thanks for playing.
We're going to send you home,right?
Yeah, but the cool thing isright.
So let's say so.
We're going into third quarter.
We're six contracts deep, right, we're all in the summer.
Cruz has got all them juniorslined up Drops four contracts
right Now we're 10.
(28:06):
Drops another contract the nextmonth they get 11.
10 drops another contract.
The next month, they get 11.
You're done for the year.
You are marked safe from 6011.
Obviously, typically you're notgoing to stop writing people
because at that point you're notjust going to sit back and
chill, you're going to continuewriting people, right, but at
that point, right, if you justhad to shit the bed the last
(28:26):
year fell off the rails, I don'tknow.
Dog died, wife left you, kidsran away, right, and you just
fell off the rails because yourlife fell apart.
Yeah, you're marked safe.
You got your 11 contracts ayear.
Thanks for playing, right.
So it was a great change becauseit took it, gave time for the
actual like hey, I'm gonna sitdown the first quarter, start
(28:50):
crews.
Like you're really good atgetting people in the office.
You're really good at theappointment conduct, right.
Buddy, you shit the bed at thetest line.
Why can't you get them to testright?
And so it gives us time for meto train you on.
Like, hey, this is what youneed to do to get them tested.
Maybe you can't gain thecommitment right, but now we got
(29:11):
a whole 90 days that you cantake all that information that I
gave you at the beginning ofsecond quarter and implement it,
because it may not take effectthat first month, but you may
chew through eight, nine, 10, 12appointments right, and then
come out with six testers, fourphys right, three enlists and
then bam, you're caught up.
Baby, we gave you time forthose changes, that training, to
(29:31):
take effect.
So it was.
It was a great change okay.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
So do you?
Do you think that therecruiting in because you say
you're in idaho, iowa, iowa,you're in?
Speaker 3 (29:48):
Iowa Same difference.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Yeah, I guess.
Do you think that that wouldplay?
And I kind of know, or I don'tknow, I kind of would think I
know the answer.
But do you think Iowa would bethe same as New York, as
California or Texas?
And when I say the same, I knowit's not the same, but what do
you think the difference in thedemographic plays into
(30:13):
recruiting itself?
Access to the military accessto the military you mean like
proximity man, I wish we couldpull.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
I wish we could pull up screens and stuff.
We'll have to figure that outlater, right?
What just happened on MemorialDay, nascar, right?
Oh.
Roger, what did they do for thepace car on nascar this year?
They didn't watch it.
Tell me, 160th brought twoblackhawks oh, yeah, okay, yeah
(30:52):
and flew two blackhawks rightyep, they did that that pace
around, whatever it was whatthey call it, it's a, but okay,
yeah disclaimer.
Right, I'm not saying it's greatbecause, fuck them, nothing's
better than the 1990 whateverhooters 500, when those
motherfuckers got four apachesout there like getting low and
getting slow and strutting theirstuff.
Right, that best armyrecruitment video ever there
(31:13):
done.
Right, show that to every highschool kid in america.
Everybody's gonna join.
Right, access to the militaryplays a big part.
Right, you're at HUD.
What does HUD do every year?
Because you got the Texas MotorSpeedway.
What are we doing?
We send tanks, rallies,blackhawks, helicopters.
Right, soldiers down there,we're parking them on the
(31:33):
Speedway.
Hey, come check out what the USArmy does.
Right, you got kids climbingall over shit.
Right, so the closer you are toa military installation, the
easier it is to get peoplejoining our.
You get farther away you getfrom the flagpole, the harder it
is, because there's some zipcodes that it's like you're
doing your job as a recruiter.
You're going all your zip codes.
You're going all your highschools.
Right, you walk into highschool and realize like, oh shit
(31:54):
, you're talking to guidancecounselor, like who are you?
And you're looking.
I'm like motherfucker, I'mUnited States Army.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
They're like what the fuck's an army.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
You realize that a recruiter ain't been in there
since 04.
And now you're trying toconvince little Jimmy that, like
hey, you never met me before,you never seen anybody that
looks like, because you shouldprobably join the army.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Kind of like a that could be considered like a dead
zone because it's not frequentlyvisited.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
Yeah, so I mean yeah, so demographics play into it.
Um, this recruiting at therecruiter level is a game that
is fought by zip code to zipcode.
Right, there are zip codeswhere, like especially here in
iowa right, this is, this isamerican farm country.
Right, the majority of ethanolproduced comes out of the
Midwest right, corn soybeans.
(32:43):
Apparently, fucking Iowa's oneof the biggest pork producers in
the United States.
Didn't know that, right.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
I thought it was.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Smithfield in Virginia.
No, apparently Iowa's got morepigs than you can shake a stick
at.
It's unreal how many.
Like everything, everysupermarket you go into and you
look at pork, 90% of that shit'sgot a sticker that says raised
in iowa.
Gotcha like it is.
But so you go into a zip codethat there's no money, there's
(33:13):
no schools, right.
Well, there are schools, right,but there's no money, there's
no jobs, right.
And then you go one zip codeover and it's legitimately like
oh, my dad's an executive, johndeere, my dad's an executive
case.
My dad works for whatever thefucking seed store is, right
like he.
You know he's the owner of thelocal seed and feed store.
(33:35):
These dudes ain't joining thefucking army because their dad
makes three hundred thousanddollars you're working for john
deere not in the slightest.
Oh, here's a question go aheadbut it definitely helps when
you're in a place where the 160because, like people, don't
realize recruiting is a longgame nobody joins the army.
(33:59):
Rephrase that 90 of the peopledon't join the army.
Because what do you phrase?
That 90% of the people don'tjoin the army because a
recruiter talked to them?
Hmm, okay, little Jimmy joinsthe fucking army because he was
at the Texas motor speedway whenhe was 10 years old and all the
(34:20):
siren crews is like hey, buddy,come check out this fucking
tank where he's aneight-year-old at the Memorial
Day.
You know NASCAR 500 watchingthe 160 store store strut their
stuff with their Blackhawks,right, or?
ingrained yeah you know he movedto clean because that's the
only place his dad could get ajob working on posted the px,
making 15 bucks an hour.
(34:40):
And that dude sees us, you knowhis dad's taking him to daycare
.
He sees first cavalry divisionstrutting their shit down the
you know the tank trail and he'ssitting there in a car on the
way to daycare like fuck, isthat shit dad.
Dad's like oh, those are tanksand he's looking like man that'd
be cool to do one day.
Right like I, I didn't join thearmy because we're okay.
Well, I'll tell you why Ijoined the army.
(35:01):
I want to join the marine corps.
That dude wouldn't shut thefuck up because they have to
give their little spiel likeonce a marine, always marine.
You're not joining the marinecorps for the job, you're
joining for the title.
And I'm like bro, shut the fuckup.
I know what I'm joining.
Right, I joined the armybecause my grandpa was in the
army.
My dad was in the army.
I I grew up listening to mygrandpa tell these stories about
(35:22):
Korea and Vietnam and, oh yeah,shoot people's most fun you're
going to have with your pants onkind of shit, right?
And I'm sitting here like cool,I'm going to join the Army to
be an infantryman, like mygrandpa.
So I come home so I go talk tothe recruiter, runs his mouth
for an hour.
I'm like, fuck this guy, jointhe Marine Corps.
Why are you selling me on it?
Speaker 2 (35:41):
Because they want to stop talking.
He talked you out of it.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
Yeah, I walked through the Army.
Hey, I'm joining the Army.
Got any questions?
Nah, dad and Grandpa did it.
I'm good, here's your packet.
Bring it back on Friday I'm inand out five minutes Right
Easiest recruit.
So I go home and I'm like hey,dumb first of all, you're not
(36:05):
infantry.
Well, so I wanted to, becausemy grandpa's infantryman, right,
he's got his, his shadow box atthat big cib up there, right
yeah yeah and that was about tosay I
fucking know you man, you're notyeah, but you know I'm saying
like he's yeah, you know I grewlistening to all these infantry
stories and all this.
Like shit running around thejungle in Vietnam like doing
snake eater shit and, you know,shooting it up with the North
(36:26):
Vietnamese and like that shit'sfucking cool.
Right, I go home, grandpa, I'mjoining the army.
He's like you're dumb,motherfucker.
I'm like I want that shit wasdumb.
You know how jealous it was.
Sitting on the side of the roadand fucking Korea, freeze my ass
off.
Watch these tanks drive by.
They're all warm.
They ain't walking.
Yeah, they're warm, they're dry.
(36:47):
They got some place to eat,someplace to sleep, someplace to
shit.
He's like why would you carryyour weapon when your weapon
carry?
Good idea.
I just pumped the brakes.
I ain't gonna be an infantryman, I'm gonna be a tanker.
That didn't happen.
I'm sitting in maps like, well,19 kilo ain't available.
What else?
You got tanks pulled up, the 19delta video and the dirt bikes
(37:09):
and shit.
I'm like, fuck yeah, stillwaiting on my sniper rifle,
still waiting on my ghillie suit, still waiting on my
motherfucking dirt bike so goddamn coach we waiting on all
that shit, hey I was gonna ask,going to ask you, man, before I
forget.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
So you said specifically the area code
matters, right, but I wouldimagine that you can recruit.
This is a two-part question.
I would imagine that you canrecruit anywhere, and if not,
then I'm fucked up.
But if you can, how does thatwork?
The second part is If you can,is social media Like TikTok,
(37:52):
instagram, facebook A good toolfor that, and even LinkedIn, I
would imagine so.
So, Can you recruit in another?
Speaker 3 (38:04):
area.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Let's do that one.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
You are going to recruit well, where you fit in,
right.
So I'm not going to take you.
I'm not saying you're not goingto be successful, right, yeah,
but I'm not going to take youinto bumfuck Iowa, dressed as
you are now Got the Giants hatsbackwards right.
The New York fucking shirt on.
Right he's got the Apple watch.
He's whipping it shitty in theTesla.
(38:33):
Right.
He's got the iPhone and theiMac right.
You're probably not going to dowell in most of these schools
because they're going to look atlike who in the fuck is this
clown, right?
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Gotcha, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:47):
Where you may go to someplace like.
So you may not do good inGreene County, iowa, because
they're all farmers, they're allrural, right?
Yeah, you know what I'm saying.
You're going to be mind fuckedbecause you're going to walk in
this high school and kids gotpocket knives and fucking fixed
blade knives and you're back.
The fuck is this shit.
Right, you're used to schoolmetal detectors and locked doors
(39:08):
.
Right, I just go bang on thefront fucking door.
Nobody checks my goddamn id.
They just let me in know whoyou're here to see today.
Have fun, right, I go roamaround at high school, all I
want.
Right, you may go down toanother zip code like Huxley,
iowa.
That's all rich people withmoney.
That's driving Tesla driving ahundred thousand dollars for
(39:29):
it's right.
And you may walk in there againin uniform with the.
I watch the iPhone.
Right, the slick glasses.
Right, the slick hairdo youknow whipping a shitty up in
your Tesla.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Did thela, did he?
Speaker 3 (39:44):
it's nothing but it's honestly true.
But you, but they may be likeoh you telling me you got all
that cool shit in themotherfucking army.
Like I ain't got to go work forjohn deere, like I can get the
fuck out of iowa and everybody'sflocking and putting in.
Like you recruit your image.
That's fair.
You recruit people thatresonate with you.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Okay, and with that, do you think social media is
also helping that?
Speaker 3 (40:10):
If you're good at social media fuck.
Yeah, it is, I'm a social mediaperson.
Are you saying your socialmedia?
Speaker 2 (40:16):
recruit.
Game is trash.
Speaker 3 (40:17):
How many times a year do you see me post a picture on
Facebook?
Ugh, when's the last time youseen me post a picture on
Facebook?
When's the last time you see mepost a picture on Facebook Ever
?
Probably like two years ago?
If you ain't good at socialmedia, you ain't going to come
out to recruiting and crack thebowl.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
That's fair.
Speaker 3 (40:37):
But someone like you that has taken the time and
invested in the social media todo this podcast, right, social
media may be your ticket.
I can't sit there and fuckingwhip out my iPhone and like
recording YouTube short in thefield, like this is going to be
me old, pissed off and angry,but you can do it, so it it does
help if you're the right personthat can leverage and do the
corny shit, cause you know me,I'm a pretty flat person.
(40:58):
I'm either pissed off, I'meither angry, or 1% of the week
You're going to find me in agood mood, right Fair, where
you're a more bubbly person andyou're more willing to put
yourself out there, where I'mnot, which is funny seeing I'm
doing a podcast.
But right it's, it can work foryou.
It doesn't work for me.
I tried social media media and,bro, I sit there for fucking
(41:21):
three hours trying to figure outsomething to post just to like
regurgitate some shit.
The go army did um and itdoesn't work for me.
But there are recruiters thatit works for, and 100 it is a
game changer, especially ifpeople are willing to not saying
that we circumvent the fuckingrules you used to calm down, but
there are recruiters that arewilling to use their personal
(41:42):
assets, because they're onlycertain stuff we can do with our
gov phones right they'rewilling to use their personal
assets to do the tick tock andand do the the stuff like that.
Right, and you know everybodylaughs like we saw these
retirees motherfucker recruiteron tick tock, like doing a live
stream, like answering questions.
I guarantee that motherfuckersputting people in the army, yeah
(42:03):
, yeah, the same way that I cango grab my shotgun and shit and
because I like to shoot andstuff and go ahead to the, the
local skeet range, be out thereshooting skeet and five stand
and sporting clays and doing allthis cool stuff.
And you know, just be chattingit up with the army.
And you see some kid like, hey,what are you doing out here,
man?
You know, just be chatting itup with the army.
And you see some kid like, hey,what are you doing out here,
(42:23):
man?
You know, just casualconversation.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (42:26):
Yo, I shoot for Ballard high school.
They got a trap team and cooland like, just straight up,
frank, question, you everthought about the army?
Cause, those are my people,right, and they hit him with the
.
Not really like what he asked.
Like buddy, if you don't waitfor a motherfucking army, I
wouldn't be here and I wasshooting traps.
(42:47):
So, um, we just put our company, put somebody in this year that
goes to amu, really, armymarksmanship unit, yep yeah he
found him okay that's fair.
so I don't know who did, butthey're going to AMU.
Go ahead.
No, I don't know where that umcame from, fair.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
It's a nervous um.
Recruiting is just basicallywhere you are, how you work it,
and if social media is yourthing, it's good.
Speaker 3 (43:25):
You can use that as a tool for your arsenal.
So we have three markets right.
So we have targeted or we havemust-keeps, must-wins, markets
of opportunity.
Okay.
Must-keeps mean we're dominatingthe market, we're pulling in
the majority of DOD share.
Right means we're dominatingthe market.
We're pulling in the majorityof dod share right.
So when some s2 weenie doesthis shit, um, we get a map by
(43:47):
zip code, shows all our zipcodes, what's must keep, what's
must win right.
Shows dod share or dodpotential, army potential right
and breaks it down all thesciencey shit, right.
So if it's must keep, it'sbecause the army is dominating.
A must win is like, hey, we'redoing good, but we're not
winning the market share and amarket opportunity is like there
(44:09):
ain't shit out there.
There are recruiters that haveshowed up their recruiting
stations and in three years havetaken markets for markets of
opportunity to.
Must keeps because they'reputting in the miles or getting
in their schools or talking topeople, right, and something
that traditionally we're lookingat big picture saying, well,
there's no potential to writecontracts out here.
They're sitting here going well, motherfucker, I just wrote
(44:30):
eight this last year.
So tell me, there ain'tsomething out here.
In the next year you get thatsame map and it's a must win.
Yeah.
Next year you get the same map,it's a must keep.
Yeah, that comes into like,yeah, 90% of people you won't
convince to join the Army, butyou may convince a people in a
school that's never thoughtabout the Army before that they
(44:51):
can join the Army and succeed.
So it exists.
So I mean, yeah, it's you as aperson, like what you're capable
of doing, how you're willing toput yourself out there and how
good you are at being a peopleperson.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
Personality.
That's fair, All right.
So we've discussed a lot.
We talked about therestructuring or renaming of
USARC to USARD US.
Speaker 3 (45:25):
Army Recruiting Division.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
US Army Recruiting Division.
We talked about the new MOSs.
We talked about the changes tothe policy of 601-1, which
seemed to be working better ormore beneficial.
We talked about the recruitingmarket itself.
There's a lot that's going onhere and a lot of good things.
(45:50):
From what it seems like to me,right, it doesn't seem like
recruiting is such a bad deal,from like what I've heard in the
past from some people that theymay not like it.
I've also heard in the past ofsome people that have liked it.
I will honestly say that Ithink I've heard more positives
than negatives.
(46:11):
Personally, I'm in my laststrut, so I would not want to go
recruiter.
But those of you who do want togo recruiter, um, hit the
comments below.
Uh, here's a question, scott,where could people find you?
Speaker 3 (46:30):
I don't know anymore.
That's a good question.
I forgot.
I totally forgot about thiscourse I don't have.
It's been a rough year so a lotof stuff's falling away side.
People that have watched thisbefore know I was doing the
twitch stream and stuff.
It's been a rough year so a lotof that stuff's falling away
side.
People that have watched thisbefore know I was doing the
Twitch stream and stuff.
It's been up and down year.
I've been on and off trying todo the Twitch stream and stuff.
(46:51):
That's been.
I hit the milestone.
I'm almost a affiliate but Ican't quite cross that milestone
because I haven't been able tocommit the time to it.
That's where they can find you.
If you do want to find me, itwill be right here at the Rogers
Heart Podcast.
I'm back, we're live.
(47:13):
I know we were talking earlier.
I'm trying to get Casmo.
We'll leave it at that.
I'm trying to get a buddy ofmine, casmo.
We'll leave it at that.
I'm trying to get a buddy ofmine, casmo, on here.
Um, he was a Kiowa pilot, turnedApache pilot from a started as
a tanker, trying to get him talkabout the waft, what it was
like being a pilot flying acouple of different airframes.
(47:33):
Um, I'm my tenure here,recruiting, is about to expire.
I got a manning cycle for nextyear.
I know we got a lot to unpack.
So for future, just to outlinewhat I'm just, people don't take
(47:54):
this as a promise.
Don't take this as a guarantee.
Tell anybody who's paidattention in the army.
They know that 19 Delta's gotslashed by two-thirds.
At some point we're going totalk about 19 Delta.
We're going to do some rumorepisodes.
Rumor on the street is I heard4ID is losing tanks and they're
(48:16):
going to be 4th InfantryDivision strikerized.
Everybody, calm down, becauseI'm going to get real excited
about this one.
3 SCR 3 Striker CalvaryRegiment is now about to become
3rd Armored Calvary RegimentAgain.
This is rumor on the street,nothing confirmed, but we are
going to talk about this becausethat's big changes.
We're going back to an old wayof fighting at divisions,
(48:37):
especially if we're talkingbringing Armored Calvary
Regiments back.
I'd like to get to interviewingpeople.
I know we're going to try theCasmo thing, see if we can get
him to come.
I know, if you haven't seen it,that dude white-papered the
thing on the new XM7 rifles.
They basically beat them downwith a passion which is going to
(49:01):
lead into a bunch of funconversation because we're going
to go into some of the big sigcivilian side stuff with that
and the m17 slash the p320,going off in holsters and
shooting people in the legs andshit laxico it's my boy shout
out but yeah, I'm back.
Speaker 1 (49:17):
I'm back, though we got a lot of stuff to talk about
this summer.
Speaker 3 (49:22):
And yeah, so you can find me here.
And then at some point I'lllink all the other social media
and we'll have a cool little boxthat pops up.
Y'all can watch me play videogames and fly helicopters and
shit.
Speaker 2 (49:32):
Let's go All right, fair enough, you heard it first.
We got a lot to unpack thissummer and we're going to have
time for it.
So on top of that, I want tohear from you guys what do you
guys think.
Do you guys still want to be arecruiter?
Do you guys think these newchanges are going to make you
want to be a recruiter?
Drop your thoughts in thecomments and, if you found this
(49:55):
discussion insightful, check outany of our other videos and
remember you don't have toembrace the suck if you got the
right tools in your ruck.
I'm Sarn Cruz, that's SarnBruner and we're out and I'll
see you in the next one.
Peace Later.
Roger Sarn.
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