I often say now that I am no longer paid by the VA, I quit saying I no longer work for them sometime ago, since I get on average 3 to 5 phone calls or questions a week, either from previous vets who I knew from the clinic and stayed in touch with me, or new people who find out I worked there. While I firmly believe the VA is broken and needs some serious attention, I also believe our vets deserve any help and answers they can get, so I continue to fill out paperwork, make the occasional phone call to one of the "someones" I still know higher up in the VA and answer what questions I can.
I think the same goes for Richard now, he was in recruiting for five years, Station Commander for many of them, and the top recruiter in the whole area for most of the years he was in, now he will tell you recruiting was worse then Desert Storm for him, and given a choice he would go to Iraq (he would do that anyway its an Army thing I think) rather then go back to recruiting, but the other day we were driving off Post and stopped to pick up this kid walking, he needed a ride to a pizza place in town, Richard asked him if he worked there and he said no, he was just going in to apply for a job, well that brought out the recruiter in Richard, he spent the next 10 minutes asking the kid if he had thought about the Army, what job would he want( infantry of course) and telling him what to study to pass the ASVAB test they have to take (the kid had taken it and failed needs to study and take again) I could see why Richard was top recruiter and why we have a living room full of tropheys and medals to show for it, in that 10 minutes he had the kid completely ready to sign now, and if he were still a recruiter I think the kid would have committed right there, instead Richard sent him off with some tools needed to get in if he decides to for sure, and something to think about...how will the army help you when you get out, can you use the job you train for in the civilians world etc. It was pretty impressive how he could read the kid, knew what questions to ask and how to answer the kids questions, I guess somethings you just can't shut off even when you are not really doing them anymore.
How true, how true. Some things we are just good at. I agree the Vet program is broken. But for those it does manage to help it is good to have. There are just so many that get left behind and forgotten. I am sure you were really good at that job. I know my kids classes really enjoyed the years we helped with Christmas packages you put together.
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