thedrifter
06-09-08, 07:44 AM
Making the grade in the U.S. Marines
By LEONARD GLENN CRIST, Salem News staff writer
POSTED: June 8, 2008
Salem News reporter Leonard Glenn Crist recently spent two days shadowing local Marine Corps recruiters and their potential recruits. This is the first part in a series about his experiences.
Intangibles.
That is what the United States Marine Corps provides instead of enlistment bonuses, said Staff Sgt. Matthew Baughman, a recruiter based in Salem.
In place of cash incentives, the Marine Corps offers membership in an elite war-fighting organization with a history that dates before the Declaration of Independence. The camaraderie, world travel, discipline, job training and respect a Marine gains while in the Corps is more valuable than the $40,000 enlistment bonuses offered by other branches of the military, Baughman and other recruiters argue daily.
“If the kids come here looking for a big bonus, I tell them to go down to the Army,” the 29-year-old Baughman said on a recent Wednesday at the recruiting office on East State Street, Salem.
I spent two days late last month with local recruiters and the young adults who are joining or thinking about joining the Marine Corps to get a feel for how recruiters find new recruits and to better understand the reasons area residents enlist.
While the other branches of the military have struggled to meet recruiting goals since the start of the Iraq war, Marine Corps recruiters have consistently exceeded their own goals. According to U.S. Department of Defense statistics, the Marine Corps had recruited 142 percent of its monthly goal in April.
The Salem recruiting office is currently working with about 25 “poolees,” young men and women, mostly high school students, who have signed up for delayed entry into Marines. Some will head to boot camp at Parris Island, S.C., just days after graduation. Others will take the summer off and leave in the fall. Many of those enlistees will likely be deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.
“The public view of the war hasn’t blackened our eyes,” Baughman said.
Sgt. Martin Harris, a Marine Corps spokesman on hand for much of my time spent with recruiters and potential Marines, said, “There’s nothing hidden in the Marines. It’s a war fighting organization. People understand that it’s what we do.”
William Gamble, a 19-year-old poolee who just graduated from Crestview High School, seemed to share that point of view. He’s taking the summer off and then heading to Parris Island in September. He intends to enter the infantry and could very well end up in Iraq. He said he’s not worried about that possibility.
“You get what you sign up for,” Gamble said. “It comes with the job.”
Ever since Gamble was a little boy he has wanted to join the military, he said, adding he hopes to stay enlisted for the 20 years necessary so he can collect his military pension. After that, he’s thinking about joining the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
———
Earlier in the day, Staff Sgt. Baughman, Sgt. Harris and I took a drive to Gamble’s home in Columbiana to pick him up and bring him back to the recruiting office to hang out and help with the work.
Gamble was a nose tackle, tight end and defensive end for Crestview’s football team and he’s one of the only African American students in his class. Baughman termed him a key member of his class and uses Gamble’s personal connections as a recruiting tool.
“We use his influence,” Baughman said. “Who he knows. What he knows.”
Do you know so and so? Baughman asked Gamble, giving him the name of a Crestview student.
“Kind of,” Gamble replied. “He goes to the career center.”
How about this guy? Baughman tried, bouncing a different name off Gamble.
“Rumor’s going around he’s gay,” Gamble said.
“I can’t ask,” Baughman said with a laugh, referencing the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on homosexuality.
Later on, Gunnery Sgt. William Brahen — Baughman’s direct supervisor in the Salem recruiting office and a guy who appears to play “bad cop” to Baughman’s “good cop” — walked in the office and gave Gamble a funny look.
“Why you got an earring on in my office?” Brahen shouted. “Take that s— out,”
“Really?” Gamble asked, surprised.
“Yeah,” Brahen said. “You’re about to be a Marine.”
Gamble took the earring out. He may as well get used to it not being there.
———
I first met Staff Sgt. Baughman on MySpace.com, the popular social networking Web site.
Baughman and fellow Salem recruiter Staff Sgt. Tyrone Sidney both maintain MySpace pages that advertise the fact they are looking for a few good men and women.
MySpace isn’t an official Marine Corps recruiting method, spokesman Sgt. Harris said, but it is a good research tool. The Marines even have an official MySpace account that has directly led to enlistments.
Baughman’s MySpace page quotes President Reagan and features a hip-hip song by Outkast.
“If you think you are ready to man up, to see if you have what it takes, hit me up on my cell phone,” Baughman writes in the “Who I’d like to meet” section of the page. “If you are wanting to skip all the chit chat and cut right to the chase, come see me at my office.”
He also writes about the many benefits his has received as a Marine.
“The last ten years in the Marine Corps have done me well,” Baughman writes under the “About me” header. “I have deployed to five different countries, lived in Hawaii for four years, gotten my associate’s degree, bachelor’s degree and I am currently working on my master’s degree. I have played football for the Marine Corps, flown in helicopters, fired lots of guns and blown a lot of stuff up!”
Baughman’s original military occupation specialty (MOS) was military police. He has spent the last three years recruiting in Salem, far from his role in law enforcement. It’s something he hopes to return to.
After nearly 11 years in the Marines, Baughman plans to retire later this year. Like Gamble, the poolee, Baughman intends to apply with the FBI.
Baughman said being a recruiter is by far the hardest thing he’s done so far in the Marine Corps. He has a love-hate relationship with recruiting, he said. He often works seven days a week and puts in 70-hour workweeks, Baughman said. But at the same time, he finds his job rewarding.
In an area with few jobs for new high school graduates, the Marine Corps can be an excellent opportunity, he said.
“You’re changing lives,” Baughman said.
He keeps in touch with the men and women he sends to boot camp, calling them and leaving messages at least twice and writing letters. Many give him calls while serving in Iraq, he said.
In his three years of recruiting, none of Baughman’s roughly 80 “babies,” as he calls them, have been killed or injured. He knocked on wood.
“They’re not just a number,” Baughman said. “The Marine Corps is a small place. You see a lot of them again.”
Leonard Glenn Crist can be reached at lcrist@salemnews.net
Ellie
By LEONARD GLENN CRIST, Salem News staff writer
POSTED: June 8, 2008
Salem News reporter Leonard Glenn Crist recently spent two days shadowing local Marine Corps recruiters and their potential recruits. This is the first part in a series about his experiences.
Intangibles.
That is what the United States Marine Corps provides instead of enlistment bonuses, said Staff Sgt. Matthew Baughman, a recruiter based in Salem.
In place of cash incentives, the Marine Corps offers membership in an elite war-fighting organization with a history that dates before the Declaration of Independence. The camaraderie, world travel, discipline, job training and respect a Marine gains while in the Corps is more valuable than the $40,000 enlistment bonuses offered by other branches of the military, Baughman and other recruiters argue daily.
“If the kids come here looking for a big bonus, I tell them to go down to the Army,” the 29-year-old Baughman said on a recent Wednesday at the recruiting office on East State Street, Salem.
I spent two days late last month with local recruiters and the young adults who are joining or thinking about joining the Marine Corps to get a feel for how recruiters find new recruits and to better understand the reasons area residents enlist.
While the other branches of the military have struggled to meet recruiting goals since the start of the Iraq war, Marine Corps recruiters have consistently exceeded their own goals. According to U.S. Department of Defense statistics, the Marine Corps had recruited 142 percent of its monthly goal in April.
The Salem recruiting office is currently working with about 25 “poolees,” young men and women, mostly high school students, who have signed up for delayed entry into Marines. Some will head to boot camp at Parris Island, S.C., just days after graduation. Others will take the summer off and leave in the fall. Many of those enlistees will likely be deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.
“The public view of the war hasn’t blackened our eyes,” Baughman said.
Sgt. Martin Harris, a Marine Corps spokesman on hand for much of my time spent with recruiters and potential Marines, said, “There’s nothing hidden in the Marines. It’s a war fighting organization. People understand that it’s what we do.”
William Gamble, a 19-year-old poolee who just graduated from Crestview High School, seemed to share that point of view. He’s taking the summer off and then heading to Parris Island in September. He intends to enter the infantry and could very well end up in Iraq. He said he’s not worried about that possibility.
“You get what you sign up for,” Gamble said. “It comes with the job.”
Ever since Gamble was a little boy he has wanted to join the military, he said, adding he hopes to stay enlisted for the 20 years necessary so he can collect his military pension. After that, he’s thinking about joining the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
———
Earlier in the day, Staff Sgt. Baughman, Sgt. Harris and I took a drive to Gamble’s home in Columbiana to pick him up and bring him back to the recruiting office to hang out and help with the work.
Gamble was a nose tackle, tight end and defensive end for Crestview’s football team and he’s one of the only African American students in his class. Baughman termed him a key member of his class and uses Gamble’s personal connections as a recruiting tool.
“We use his influence,” Baughman said. “Who he knows. What he knows.”
Do you know so and so? Baughman asked Gamble, giving him the name of a Crestview student.
“Kind of,” Gamble replied. “He goes to the career center.”
How about this guy? Baughman tried, bouncing a different name off Gamble.
“Rumor’s going around he’s gay,” Gamble said.
“I can’t ask,” Baughman said with a laugh, referencing the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on homosexuality.
Later on, Gunnery Sgt. William Brahen — Baughman’s direct supervisor in the Salem recruiting office and a guy who appears to play “bad cop” to Baughman’s “good cop” — walked in the office and gave Gamble a funny look.
“Why you got an earring on in my office?” Brahen shouted. “Take that s— out,”
“Really?” Gamble asked, surprised.
“Yeah,” Brahen said. “You’re about to be a Marine.”
Gamble took the earring out. He may as well get used to it not being there.
———
I first met Staff Sgt. Baughman on MySpace.com, the popular social networking Web site.
Baughman and fellow Salem recruiter Staff Sgt. Tyrone Sidney both maintain MySpace pages that advertise the fact they are looking for a few good men and women.
MySpace isn’t an official Marine Corps recruiting method, spokesman Sgt. Harris said, but it is a good research tool. The Marines even have an official MySpace account that has directly led to enlistments.
Baughman’s MySpace page quotes President Reagan and features a hip-hip song by Outkast.
“If you think you are ready to man up, to see if you have what it takes, hit me up on my cell phone,” Baughman writes in the “Who I’d like to meet” section of the page. “If you are wanting to skip all the chit chat and cut right to the chase, come see me at my office.”
He also writes about the many benefits his has received as a Marine.
“The last ten years in the Marine Corps have done me well,” Baughman writes under the “About me” header. “I have deployed to five different countries, lived in Hawaii for four years, gotten my associate’s degree, bachelor’s degree and I am currently working on my master’s degree. I have played football for the Marine Corps, flown in helicopters, fired lots of guns and blown a lot of stuff up!”
Baughman’s original military occupation specialty (MOS) was military police. He has spent the last three years recruiting in Salem, far from his role in law enforcement. It’s something he hopes to return to.
After nearly 11 years in the Marines, Baughman plans to retire later this year. Like Gamble, the poolee, Baughman intends to apply with the FBI.
Baughman said being a recruiter is by far the hardest thing he’s done so far in the Marine Corps. He has a love-hate relationship with recruiting, he said. He often works seven days a week and puts in 70-hour workweeks, Baughman said. But at the same time, he finds his job rewarding.
In an area with few jobs for new high school graduates, the Marine Corps can be an excellent opportunity, he said.
“You’re changing lives,” Baughman said.
He keeps in touch with the men and women he sends to boot camp, calling them and leaving messages at least twice and writing letters. Many give him calls while serving in Iraq, he said.
In his three years of recruiting, none of Baughman’s roughly 80 “babies,” as he calls them, have been killed or injured. He knocked on wood.
“They’re not just a number,” Baughman said. “The Marine Corps is a small place. You see a lot of them again.”
Leonard Glenn Crist can be reached at lcrist@salemnews.net
Ellie