Army Enlists 80,000th Recruit Eight Days Early
Army Secretary Francis Harvey ceremonially enlisted this year's 80,000th recruit, Ms. Shirley Salvi, age 23, a graduate of Rutgers University in New Jersey, at the world-famous Times Square Armed Forces Recruiting Center. Specialist Salvi reports to basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and will receive language training before assignment as a Signals Intelligence Analyst or Cryptologic Linguish. She received a $20,000 enlistment bonus for her bachelor's degree and five-year enlistment period.
Operation Yellow Elephant salutes Specialist Salvi and the other 79,999 FY-2006 recruits for their service to our nation and wishes them all the best.
posted by Karl @ 9/22/2006 08:40:00 AM
7 comments
7 Comments:
Actually, this story is a disgrace. This woman is a minority, college grad from a great school. She should be entering the Army on a 09S OCS contract. Her recruiter and his Company Commander FAILED this young American by cynically enlisting her before the end of FY 2006 instead of doing the right thing ... Informing her of OCS opportunities and then processing her in FY 2007 because of the longer (only a few weeks) OCS enlistment process.
In 2007, our Active Army will be over 3,000 officers short and the Army Reserve is currently short 10,554 LTs and Captains. Who will fill these vacancies.
What's more, the Army Times, last week, had a lengthy article on the Army's difficulty in recruiting minority officers. Well, when you are activley enlisting officer eligible college grads as glorified privates, is there any wonder?
The Army needs to stop viewing Merto NY as only a source of enlisted recruits and recognize that it's population sought after as future leaders in every career but the military!
OCS enlistees enter the Army and complete BCT and OCS. They are then commisioned as 2LTs and incur a 36 month service commitment. OCS applicants are eligible for the GI Bill or $65K in student laon repayment. There is absolutely NO financial reason a college grad should be coming in as an E-4. The pay difference and housing allowance, not to mention the enhanced job prospects after service, far exceed any taxable enlistment bonus.
irr soldier-
You've got a real point there, and I'll be doing a post on this. I know that the military has lots of flexibility when it comes to such things as student loan repayment. It seems that this patriotic real American just got screwed.
By the way, I personally know that New York City is not considered a good source of officers; as a college senior there, the officer recruiters I contacted (Army and Marine Corps) basically weren't interested in me. [New York was probably not the only reason.]
Frankly, I think that our military is making a real mistake. Living/working in New York City teaches a lot of cross-cultural and b.s.-detecting skills that people growing up in more homogeneous regions miss.
irr soldier-
Please e-mail me.
operationyellowelephant [at] gmail [dot] com
Thanks very much.
I posted this already but, irr soldier, this is for you:
I know her personally and I know that she is going to do OCS later on. She started out enlisted not only for the experience, but also when you switch to officer after being enlisted you earn more respect amongst fellow soldiers and the pay is higher than if you went in directly as an officer. Also, if you come in directly as an officer you are not guaranteed a branch and she wanted intel so when she switches over, having already been in intel, she'll have a better chance.
Actually you have to go in as an E4 until completing BCT. You then sign another officer's contract upon completing BCT. I am enlisted as 09S and am only at an E4 pay grade. Upon completion of BCT I am put into "cadet status" until I complete OCS.
If there is any other way that somebody knows about I would be most interested in knowing about it.
I know her as an acquaintance. I hope she does not do OCS, because she is one of the laziest people I have ever met, in or out of the military. Also, her overall attitude towards the military and her job is pathetic. She is the only soldier I have met in my military career to actually avoid duty by sneaking off to take a nap.
Plenty of us enlisted soldiers in the MI corps have college degrees from better universities than Rutgers. Many of us choose to serve on the enlisted side for our own reasons, not the least of which is for better flexibility in our job fields - guaranteed language training is a huge plus for people who intend to pursue later careers with the State Department or a 3 letter agency, or even multinational corporations.
i like army america,but i have not the possibility to enter in these army,because i'm haitian and haiti lost all thing.thank you mister Obama for supor.
Post a Comment
<< Home