I feel like I have been totally screwed. So if you are out there and can help, tell me what will "for sure" get me out of recruiter duty. I will do it. I completed a 12 month deployment to Iraq and then almost 1 year to the day deployed to Iraq for a second time, this time I did a 15 month deployment. I have only been back for 3 weeks and got an e-mail telling me that I have been DA selected to attend recruiter school and identified for recruiter duty. They will only leave me at my home station for 4 onths and then off I go to Fort Jackson for training. I am willing to sign a declination statement but was told that I can not since I have more than 4 years left. Is there anything I can do? Is there any paper work that I can sign to get me out? I could careless if it ends my career either way I lose. My spouse is a civilian and the contant deployments have put a hamper on our marraige. We have no kids and I ahve been putting it off becasue of the constant deployments ( I never wanted to be looked at as one of the "females" that got knocked up just to get out of a deployment). There is no way that I am willing to have kids in the Army as a recruiter......NONE. NOT AS A RECRUITER. I have a lot of driving infractions and am in danger of loosing my licsence. If I do loose my liscense do you all think they will still make me go through the school. Also I have been told that if you have a lot of debt that you can not be a recruiter.....well just how much debt are we talking about....right now I am about $250,000 in debt (mortgage, car payments, credit cards,etc.....). I thought that after completing so many deployments that they would leave me alone....DAMN!!!!! PLEASE HELP ME!!!!
Look all....I am sorry for sounding like a sh!t bag but I am really desparate. I came to this forum looking for some sort of comfort and as I read all the blogs I saw that just about everyone on recruiter duty said how much they hated it.
Ok. First off, I do not condone any person to purposely get out of their duty!! I did recruiting for 3 years and I loved most of it. It is all about what you make it. You should forget all of the negativity and just go. It's just like going to that next duty station. People are always going to have negative things to say about it, but you may end up loving it.
Now, you can get out of recruiting duty several ways. You can get pregnant, you are not able to go to any DA school while on a temporary profile. Now, this doesn't guarantee that 3 months after you have the baby you won't come up on Recruiting duty again. The debt thing is laughable! LOL. They will wave that!! You can lose your driver's license, but that would cause many other problems!! Trust me, you don't want to go that route!!
I have seen people get kicked out of recruiting school, because of lack of personality. They kept to themselves, didn't interact with any other NCOs, etc, etc. That is not a guaranteed way out, but it has happened. Recruiting school is the only school that you pass or fail because of personality. I have seen people fail every test, but because they had great personalities, they were pushed through.
Like someone else said, this may be their way of leaving you alone!!! For at least 3 years you are guaranteed not to deploy! As a NCO I think you should just do it. Being a NCO means that you are able to work through things that you may not be happy with, but still perform your tasks to the best of your ability. As a person, I can understand how you feel. Other's have felt the same way. But what I have found is that once they give it a chance, they may actually enjoy it. Good luck!!!
Be prepared for the worst and hope for the best.
Posts: 36 | Location: Fort Richardson, AK | Registered: 07 November 2007
No one here will give you any info on how to ruin your career. Sorry.
Also, if you have read the other forums then you also probably have noticed that this place, (the community) is no place where sympathy is easily given. lol
Seems to me like the ARMY needs you to be a recruiter. Though recruiting duty is challenging, you would ultimately gain more face time with your spouse than you did on your previous deployments. I hear its a shoe in for E-7 also. I dont have any methods of approach on this one, because well...I'm not a recruiter but I'm sure things will work themselves out.
RELAX.
You will be fine.
Soldiers may doubt what you say, but they will believe what you do.
Posts: 181 | Location: FT. Rucker, AL | Registered: 14 November 2006
Originally posted by dellic: i seem to remember that if you have a G.E.D or any previous field grades they will kick you out after you pass the school!
Originally posted by dellic: i seem to remember that if you have a G.E.D or any previous field grades they will kick you out after you pass the school!
When I went to the school (as a SPC back then) they did kick out a guy for having Article 15s, and then I was sent back for not having my citizenship yet LOL...I dont know if to try to go back to recruiting...
Lead by Example!!!
Posts: 1197 | Location: Somewhere in the US | Registered: 13 September 2007
I am almost in the same shoes, I have been DA selected for DS School. What an honor really I guess, to be looked at. However, I want to deploy, I am single and no kids of course. I had a supervisor that did not like females so I got over looked for a deployment since he was going to be there . I don't want to be a DS at all did think about it earlier in the Army but not now I like where I am at. However, my Command requested I get deleted, I don't have the TIS left for the required tour, and now I am looking at a deployment which that supervisor has no control over not letting me go. To add to it I just bought a house not even a year ago. Once you have been looked at it will stay with you I know that much. I have been told I can decline to orders and sign the statement, but that makes me non deployable and not really worth anything in my section simply due to a little BAR. Oh yeah the BAR also ends my Army career if I wanted one. At this time I am not sure I want to do that. I don't want to be a DS either but if I can be left alone for one more deployment then I will suck it up.
All I can say is do what I am going to do call the Recruiting branch (for me it's the DS branch) if you want but you have stated that you want to be left alone and not deploy so honestly that is your ticket out of deployments for 3 years. Thinks of being picked as an honor, you have 4 years lefts, with school and leave, all that stuff I am sure that is close to your ETS date or within 6-8 months. I would take if it I were you and get what you need to get settled settled. Or do you want to deploy again and risk what you are already having issues with? Another way to look at it if your an E-5 think of the easy E-6. I'm not saying it will be easy but it will sure help. And being a female if you decide to stay in think about MAYBE (and I say maybe not knowing any REG'S, no one bite my head off for this please!!!) getting your E-7.
What about requesting a slot for one of the many Iraqi Transition Groups? Everytime I look around DA is selecting NCOs to assist on building those teams. I mean the concept is great and if you want to do some real interesting work then ask for that. But I would suggest that you do that only if you have no real issues as far as medical goes. Basically you get stuck with the Iraqi military and you are doing more of the role as what the Special Forces guys should be doing but not getting the perks like they do.
Posts: 213 | Location: 513th MI BDE, Fort Gordon, GA | Registered: 06 July 2006
Originally posted by k9nermp: I have been told I can decline to orders and sign the statement, but that makes me non deployable and not really worth anything in my section simply due to a little BAR. Oh yeah the BAR also ends my Army career if I wanted one.
A Declination of Continued Service Statement does not make you non-deployable and it is not a "bar". It's simply you formally telling the Army you do not want to continue to serve past your contracted obligation (except for Stop Loss).
Not to take the spot light but with that Declination Statement, my supervisor now was told by JAG that if I sign that I get a DA directed bar. I was not the one that made the phone call. However if this is true I will go in tomorrow and check myself. If I do that, only thing is if I get closer to my ETS date then I decide that I want to stay in longer, that statement stops me from doing that. So if I sign it I am SOL for lack of a better term.
Originally posted by k9nermp: Not to take the spot light but with that Declination Statement, my supervisor now was told by JAG that if I sign that I get a DA directed bar.
I'm sure your supervisor is pretty good at what he/she does and we know JAG is the expert when it comes to legal issues; but this is a retention issue and a Career Counselor is the expert.
A DCSS does NOT equal or cause a BAR to reenlistment! These are two different actions.
A bar to reenlistment is a rehabilitative tool used by commanders to rehab Soldiers.
Can you reenlist after you've signed a DCSS? Not without a DCSS removal request approved by HRC. If you decide, after you've signed a DCSS, that you want to reenlist, you can see your Career Counselor and submit a DCSS removal.
Ruin your military career, and you will possibly ruin your chances of employment when your time in the Army is up. It's the nature of the beast, there's something about leaving the Army with anything less than an honorable discharge that makes civilian employers view you in the same light as a convicted felon. However you are an NCO, I'm certain you are well aware of what you could do to get out of recruiting duty even at the expense of your career. I've been known to be wrong on several occassions, but in my opinion if you truely didn't care if you had to ruin your career to get out of recruiting, you would have done it. What your post appears to be is a cry for help, you have no intention of ruining your career, you really don't want it to come to that. Talk to a chaplain, talk to your command, and talk to branch.
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