The Dark Side Of Recruiting

When Army Staff Sergeant Amanda Henderson ran into Staff Sergeant Larry Flores in their Texas recruiting station last August, she was shocked by the dark circles under his eyes and his ragged appearance. "Are you O.K.?" she asked the normally squared-away soldier. "Sergeant Henderson, I am just really tired," he replied. "I had such a bad, long week, it was ridiculous." The previous Saturday, Flores' commanders had berated him for poor performance. He had worked every day since from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., trying to persuade the youth of Nacogdoches to wear Army green. "But I'm O.K.," he told her.

No, he wasn't. Later that night, Flores hanged himself in his garage with an extension cord. Henderson and her husband Patrick, both Army recruiters, were stunned. "I'll never forget sitting there at Sergeant Flores' memorial service with my husband and seeing his wife crying," Amanda recalls. "I remember looking over at Patrick and going, 'Why did he do this to her? Why did he do this to his children?'" Patrick didn't say anything, and Amanda now says Flores' suicide "triggered" something in her husband. Six weeks later, Patrick hanged himself with a dog chain in their backyard shed.

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This is shocking imo ... i guess i never realized how much these people go through in order to recruit people ... i can't believe that this happened ...does anyone here know a recruiter who's been having hard times? what are your thoughts?

No. But. Maybe they were aware that they were recruiting for a special program or something. Maybe they were aware that their particular recruits were slotted for gov testing-or something above and beyond the assumed bootcamp training and then likely deployment.

It does seem strange that 2 recruiters with families and people who love them would just up and end their life. There must have been a stronger catalyst than just not making the numbers. What was going on with those numbers? Maybe. I don't know.

It's terrible.

while in a rehab detox,,, everyone was housed together,,,, even those on suicide watch,,, and the skitzafrenic and all ,,, just one big dysfunctional family in 2 huge rooms

it was crazy being in there,,,,,,'

anyway


while there i met a guy in the army,,, he was a recruiter,,,,,, he actually went crazy,,, and got himself locked up in detox ctr,,,,on suicide watch,,, to get out of doing recruiting,,,,,,,apparently the pressure put on them was enormous and very stressful,,,,, and he wanted out,,,, he says he sort of acted nuts to get out of it,,,,,but i think it was half and half,,, it really did drive him nuts

apparently, he starting flipping out in his office and threatening people,, himself,,,,, and talked of getting his guns and such...
he was told to go home
an hour later mp's were at his door,,, confiscating his guns and such

i think soldier suicide may play a role in the ---no guns n baracks grounds rule---that's been posted lately that everyone is outraged over

and do you know what the quota was per month?????


take a guess in your head right now!!!!!




i figured like twenty to thirty a month



nope,,,,,, two,,,, two freaking recruits a month,,,,,, and they could barely do it and he admitted to trickery and saying anything to get someone to sign up to save his own hide from higher ups



this man ruined his future enlisted status,, retirement etc,,, to get out of recruiting 2 people a month


of course it worked,,,, he was transfered to another dept when he was gonna be released,,,,, he was stuck there extra long waiting for the army to make a decision...

and ,,, as with everyone,,, after getting stuck in there from some hard partying,,, after sobering up,,, you can't wait to get out,,, and wonder how the helll did i get in here in the first place????? he was p-ssed!!!

If he couldn't make quota he was facing a demotion anyway for nonperformance, maybe that pushed the situation out of hand. Getting recruits was never easy even in times of peace, one of my uncles did it in the early 1990s before retiring and it really was a 20-hour a day job even then.

I run into the local Army recruiter regularly who is an ex-Ranger and I swear he'd rather be in Afghanistan than talking to the local kids. He's so stressed out you can;t have a normal conversation with him, god only knows how he attracts recruits.

Thats very sad, I know these guy bust there butt everyday to get people into the military. It has gotten easier with the economy in the tank but still not an easy job.