Recruitment
Did any of you other Retired Military guys get the same letter I did? Telling you of their gratitude for your service and sending you a pin? Bottom line in the letter is actually a plea for recuiting people into the service. New law enables Army Retired Soldiers to Receive Recruiting Referral Bonus. Ya get 1000 bucks for the referral and the other 1000 upon the recruit completing basic training for a total 0f 2000 bucks.
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I haven't seen one, at least not yet. 0 -
I got a letter from the Chief of Naval Operations asking me to donate to the Navy Relief Society. 0 -
Yes, Classic. I got it. Does it sound like blood money to you, too? 0 -
Yep, and it also looks as if the recruiting program in this country needs a boost if they are going outside the standard recruiting program to entice young people to join up. I dont think I am that desperate for money.[:0] 0 -
I did, however, put the sticker on my toolbox at work. Sometimes the soldiers will see it and start a conversation. 0 -
Any recruiting program that doesn't think beyond that which is conventional is going to lose to competing interests. It's not the Army's fault that our society is so self-serving that we have to offer $$$ for referrals that pan out into contracts.
When I was a recruiter, it took well over $20,000 in advertising and incentives per contract when you averaged out the money spent to generate a single soldier. It's not enough to appeal to a love for one's country anymore.
Think about it though. "Be all that YOU can be" was still about YOU and not about TEAM. The fact is that there are just as many lies being spread about military service by anti-American interests here at home as there are people who may or may not enlist.
This particular program requires that the person you refer actually enlist. A mere couple thousand dollars in your pocket isn't going to be enough for a young man or woman to make such a major decision about their future. It is more of a "thank you" for being that person's mentor. You just saved the Army and the taxpayer a ton of dough.
This is nothing new. Soldiers who provide ideas to the Army that actually pan out to save significant expenditure by the Army are rewarded with a small amount of financial compensation. The windshields that the Army puts on a helicopter today are a prime example. Their current design sprang from the innovation of a Soldier who had an idea.
What you can do for the Army and for your country today can go a long way to save the taxpayer and the recruiting effort a great deal of money. That small amount they promise to put in your pocket pales in comparison to what the Army would have expended had you not given positive influence to a young man or woman to enlist. That young man or woman is not going to enlist unless they trust you. If you have that trusting kind of relationship then you aren't going to do it for the money. The financial "thank you" is just that. It's a "thank you" in the form of dollars and sense for what you did for your country.
If I had a penny for every time I heard some conservative gripe about how the government should look for ways to save money and operate more like a corporation (cut fat, run efficiently, behave as though outflow of resources must generate inflow of proportional resources, etc...) I'd be a rich man. Corporate America and your Government does occasionally say "thank you" with financial compensation for what you have done.
A few thousand dollars is hardly enough to be called "blood money". Michael Moore might be interested in that take on things though. All current service members have been eligible for the same compensation.0
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