What's a guy gotta do?

[GAANGSgt]

I'm really hoping that someone out there, preferably a Georgia guardsman, can tell me something positive.

The enlistment process took me in excess of five months. I'm prior service AF, clean records, very healthy, enlisting for one of the top 10 needed MOSs. Should have been a no-brainer. After months of getting jerked around by my recruiter, I went over his head and talked to his supervisor. One week after talking to him I was sworn in.

I've been trying to contact my unit since being sworn in, and have got nothing but voice mail. No return calls, nothing. I'm seriously doubting the wisdom of enlisting in the Guard.

As I said, I'm prior Air Force. That branch is far from perfect, but when someone wanted to get in the game, there was a process that moved things along. Wouldn't the Guard have something similar?

The rest of you folks in Georgia...give me some suggestions here. I'm a chain of command kind of guy, and believe in giving everyone a fair shot at doing their job. I had to do a lot of soul searching before going over my recruiter's head, and don't want to make a habit of doing that just to make things happen. So tell me how you did it. Were you contacted, did things move quickly, what snafus you encountered and how did you overcome them?

I've been made to understand (and I could be wrong) that the first part of the enlistment process is being accepted by the commander of the unit you are going to. So someone somewhere knows a person is in the pipeline. What steps are in place to get a new enlistee up to speed?

I really feel for recruiters who try to talk people into joining the Guard if this is how the system operates. I want to get in, and have found nothing but obstacles.

Any help would be appreciated.

[ping9798]

I'm not in Georgia, but can I add something?

I've had issues with recruiters for months now. I can't get my phone calls or emails returned. I talked with a third recruiter, who is a few hours south of my home, who replied that "needing a medical waiver is time consuming, so that's probably why they won't get ahold of you." So the fact that I need a waiver for a surgery I had 1 year ago is SO time consuming, allows the recruiters to be lazy and blow off possible recruits? I was under the impression that a recruiter's job is to RECRUIT people, not ignore them. I shouldn't have to hunt them down so I can join. I have a perfectly clean record, have an associate's degree in Criminal Justice, work as both an EMT and volunteer firefighter, will soon complete the police academy...and all this at age 23. I would think I would be a somewhat good recruit, in my opinion. If anything, I'm at least educated, which is more than can be said about some people who join. Look at people who are getting in with records, or no education, etc. Yet I can't even begin the process because my recruiters are lazy. I should have already been able to take the ASVAB and possibly go to MEPS. Yet I still don't even know what my options are because I haven't been able to go over them with anyone.

I'm truly disappointed, disgusted, and flat out irritated with this situation. I went from being overly excited to join, to considering other alternatives. I never thought serving my country would be made into such a huge problem. It's bothersome to know that this is happening in other places as well. You would think with the situation the country is in right now, they would take all willing recruits as soon as possible. But apparently people like me are "too time consuming."


Lindsay

[Andrew]

GaaNGSGT, Im sorry you had to go threw something like that... I joined the PA guard. My father sat in with me and three days later i was at Meps getting sworn at. It is unfortunate that you have had this experience.. But from what i have herd i have herd of nothing but the fastest transitions joining the Guard...

[GAANGSgt]

Kind of demotivating to know its not just Georgia. To be blunt, I live in South Carolina, and the reason I joined the Georgia Guard is because when I called the SC recruiter, he point blank told me I was too old to join. Never asked or found out that I was prior service. Now I realize this was just one SC guardsman, but yes, I reacted and judged the entire state by his reaction and said screw them.

I've said it before...getting into the Guard is the closest thing to joining a secret society that I have ever encountered. There is just a dearth of information to be had.

The NG web site is like a car dealers...just enough info to get you interested, but doesn't really answer questions. Like getting you onto a car lot so a salesman can deal with you. Only a car salesman will work his butt off to sell you a car!

Is the Air Guard this bad?

[GAANGSgt]

GaaNGSGT, Im sorry you had to go threw something like that... I joined the PA guard. My father sat in with me and three days later i was at Meps getting sworn at. It is unfortunate that you have had this experience.. But from what i have herd i have herd of nothing but the fastest transitions joining the Guard...

Glad things are going well for you. The other states can take a lesson from PA!

[ping9798]

"I've said it before...getting into the Guard is the closest thing to joining a secret society that I have ever encountered. There is just a dearth of information to be had."


I never in a million years thought it would be so hard to join. Was the Air Force that hard to get into? What made you pick the National Guard? For me, it was when I went down to New Orleans with other people from my ambulance company to help out. I saw many, many NG units from all over and I thought to myself...how great would that be - not only protecting the country, but also helping out during disasters in our homeland. Going there was the most rewarding thing I've ever done and I thought if I could do the same sort of thing with the military, I would be doing TWO great things.

[GAANGSgt]

AF was a snap to get into. From the time I contacted a recruiter until I was on a bus for basic was four weeks. (Bear in mind, this was in the 70's, and there was a war on, even though it was winding down.)

My reasons for going Guard are similar to yours. I chose the Guard because I want the broader responsibility that the Guard has as opposed to the active duty Army. Right now all I want to do is get trained up and go over the pond. When that's done I want to be available for disaster relief, etc. here at home.

**** if they're not making it difficult for me to play though!

[?ARNG]

... when I called the SC recruiter, he point blank told me I was too old to join. Never asked or found out that I was prior service. ...

I had the same problem. Only with the AD Army, believe it or not. Called two local offices & was told by both that I was too old. Knew that wasn't right with my prior service so I emailed the Army's cyber recruiter & received confirmation that I was indeed qualified to re-enlist & was then referred to one of the offices that had just told me that I wasn't! Apparently some (most?) recruiters aren't up to speed on the maximum age of enlistment & prior service relationship.

Is there any chance that the SC engineering unit you've been asssigned to has been mobilzed/deployed? That may explain why it's been impossible to contact anyone. Here's an idea: If there's a recruiter attached the unit try contacting them.

Good luck.

[?ARNG]

ping9798,

I can appreciate the problem you're having with your medical waiver as I had a similar but simpler (or so I thought) problem.

My age minus my prior service only gave me a small window of eligibility yet the NGB (National Guard Bureau) insisted I needed an age waiver.

Pretty certain my arithmetic was right as it was confirmed by a MEPS counselor (after I corrected his arithmetic) so either the NGB doesn't know how to do simple arithmetic or it doesn't know how to properly interpret service dates on DD214's.

In any case, my recruiter told me this past weekend that my waiver had been 'approved', which I'm very appreciative of.

The kicker: Official notice of the new max age limit of 42 has been out since, AFAIK, at least June 21st (but I learned about it the prior weekend) which made the age waiver 'approval' moot!

I'd just suggest shopping around for a new recruiter or doing what GAANGSgt did.

Good luck.

[GAANGSgt]

?ARNG:

I joined a Georgia Guard unit (not saying what type as I don't want any of this coming back at me.) since SC didn't even want to talk to me. The unit I'm assigned to isn't deployed or away for training, so I don't understand what the hold up is. I've run out of good reasons, and at this point can only think alien abduction.

Got through the recruiting mess. I'm prior service, so I do understand that things are often AFU. However, I thought that once I raised my hand things would move a little quicker.

It's kind of discouraging to think that, if an individual in a position as important as a recruiter isn't getting the training and communication he\she needs, how is the training going to be for any other MOS?

I just want to know what to do next, and I don't feel that I should have to mine this information from a variety of different sources.

If this was a civilian business, and they had an open position, how long would they screw around before getting whoever they hired productive? Your manager or an assigned co-worker would ensure that you had the tools and the knowledge available to you as soon as possible, and get you working as fast as they could.

Just frustration. And while it helps to vent, I really would like to hear from someone in Georgia that could help me make some sense of all this.

[ping9798]

?ARNG,

Thanks for taking the time to respond to me.

I tried to "shop around" with recruiters. There are two recruiting offices in the immediate area for me, which I contacted both. I also emailed one that is on the other side of Michigan to get another viewpoint. What else could I do? I'm not going to sit back and give up on my goal of joining, but at the same time, I feel I shouldn't be the one who is hunting them down. I don't know - maybe I'm just not as motivated at the current time because of this. Hopefully soon my spirits will get raised again and I'll be excited to join.

Lindsay

[?ARNG]

GAANGSgt,

Don't suppose you were given a drill schedule when you enlisted? The reason I'm asking is bc perhaps your unit is only manned on drill weekends. That would explain why you haven't been able to get ahold of anyone. If you don't have a schedule you could call every weekend until you reached someone.

But if I were having that much trouble contacting my unit I'd just say fuggedaboutit & call HQ & ask what the **** is up out of frustration!

Definitely doesn't leave a good first impression that's for sure but hopefully there's a simple explanation as to why you haven't been able to get ahold of anyone.

I wish I could offer more concrete advice.

Lotsa of luck.

[?ARNG]

ping9798,

Don't give up!

Go up the chain of command (CoC) & talk with the officer responsible for those recruiters & explain to him/her the problem you're having enlisting. Hopefully that'll get the ball rolling.

Good luck.

[GAANGSgt]

Exactly what I had to do...go up the chain to get the intel I needed. My contention is that I shouldn't have to resort to this. Now that I have some answers, we'll see how this goes.

Thanks to all for listening to my rants.