Herb Nygren Jr / APAmanda Henderson holds a photo of her late husband, Sgt. 1st Class Patrick Henderson, at her home in Henderson, Texas.
HENDERSON, Texas - Sgt. 1st Class Patrick Henderson, a strapping Iraq combat veteran, spent the last, miserable months of his life as an Army recruiter, cold-calling dozens of people a day from his strip-mall office and sitting in strangers' living rooms, trying to sign up their sons and daughters for an unpopular war. He put in 13-hour days, six days a week, often encountering abuse from young people or their parents. When he and other recruiters would gripe about the pressure to meet their quotas, their superiors would snarl that they ought to be grateful they were not in Iraq, according to his widow. Less than a year into the job, Henderson — afflicted by flashbacks and sleeplessness after his tour of battle in Iraq — went into his backyard shed, slid the chain lock in place, and hanged himself with a dog chain....
Full Story:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28354659/
I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with B-Billets in the military. I don't know if they refer to it the same as they do in the Marines.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, a B-Billet is very important assignment in them ilitry. You mess up during your time, and you pretty much are guaranteed no promotion and certainly a tough time from your chain of command.
I dated a Marine Recruiter many years ago and aside from it being a step outside of his self, Recruiting was extremely stressful and tedious.
They often work 6 days a week (seven if they can only get a potential poolee on that day) from sun up to sundown (literally).
They're often on the phone, at schools, in the malls, anywhere they might be able to sign up an interested individual.
After all of the effort to simply get them to listen to their Marine Corp pitch, take a brief test...now they have to hope that the potential recruit is not a felon, addict, alcoholic, ex-con, pregnant or mentally ill...or else all of their hard work and days/hours are out-the-window.
Then, at their once a week staff briefing, if they have not met their quota they are berated and chewed out in front of their peers.
Debilitating...is a nice way of putting it.
God bless those that have fought and died for us.
God bless those that have returned home...physically alive, but dead inside.
A probe is needed, but more importantly, they need to focus on the pressure placed on these men and women.
OH, yes.. I use to date an army recruiter it was not all that great! I never saw him that is why we broke up!!! He had no time for me!!
ReplyDeleteI know that feeling all too well, Susan. I barely saw Roger during his stint as a Marine recruiter and it was heartbreaking. We did break-up. He ended up getting into some trouble (a poolee) behind that billet and it ruined his career. SMH
ReplyDeleteI dont think I truly understood just how stressed he was back then.
Thanks for commenting.