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Dateline: Saturday December 19 (Day 760)
Location: USArmy Headquarters
Reporter: Lt Col George Armstrong "F-Bomb" Custer
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In light of the big push our USMilitary is about to start, it's time for the USArmy Public Affairs Office to get down to business with a series of articles specifically targeting Recruitment.
I hope that civilians not in any USMilitary branch, and soldiers in other branches, will see these successes as inspiration to join our USArmy.
We'll start where you'll start-- after applying and being accepted, you'll be placed into the Reception Batallion (RECBN) under Major James Harding.

When an Application is submitted, the Intelligence and Security Unit (S-2) investigates and either approves or disapproves the applicant. The details of exactly what they investigate and their criteria for acceptance must remain classified for security reasons. We'll run an article about the S-2 Unit soon-- Applicant processing is only one of their duties and it is interesting work, I headed that Unit for a while myself and still enjoy working with them.

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Once approved, USArmy Recruits are all placed into the Recruit Batallion, or RECBN, for further training and indoctrination to the USArmy way of life. Some applicants are civilians, most are transfers from the Training Corps or the Home Guard, even USAirborne and USMarines join our USArmy.



But whether or not there's been prior military training and experience, everyone goes through the RECBN to learn the USArmy way.

Major James Harding has been in the USArmy since June, and has worked his way up through the ranks from buck private through XO and CO of platoons and a Division before being selected to head up this new Batallion. He has shown great leadership and communication skills, and most of all possesses the patience required to help people learn and adapt to The USArmy Way.


Drill Sergeants Kyler Lee Octan and ltdan676 helping a recruit adapt to the USArmy way

Army Times: Major Harding, we used to just place recruits straight from the Application process directly to the Platoons. Why the change?
Maj Harding: The S-2 Unit does a fine job of weeding out those who are unqualified or have some sort of bad history, I understand there are even enemy spies applying to infiltrate our USArmy. So while Intel does filter out what we absolutely cannot have in the USArmy sometimes this turns out to be more than a player can handle and they end up flaking out on us. It was very disruptive to the function of the platoons.

Army Times: Having led platoons myself, I understand that.
Maj Harding: Platoon leaders are more like managers than teachers. The RECBN is school and has Drill Sergeants trained specifically in the arts of teaching and training.
It takes a different type to know than to necessarily teach, the advancement and learning in RECBN is rapid. As a "Sarge" you see people getting it on a daily basis. Recruits go from just another citizen to very active, informed, and involved soldiers in under two weeks. Regular army doesn't get to see that in their troops. It feels really GOOD to move a soldier up into the regular army. You know that they know what to do, and you helped them get there. You know that their CO/XO team isn't going to have to show them the basics, they are going to get a kick-ass involved soldier from day one.
And, you also feel good when you cut a soldier who isn't working out. You think of that poor platoon CO/XO who has 3 weeks of notes in the roster saying, "I've PM'd him but no response. He was on deployment just last week, but now nothing. He's not filled out roll call in 10 days." We know they won't go through that with the guys we cut.


Major Harding stresses the importance of ECHO'ing Roll Calls promptly

Army Times: I can't tell you how grateful we all are to have RECBN to prepare them before turning them loose in the ranks. How do players wash out of RECBN? Have any of your graduates washed out of the USArmy?
Maj Harding: The USArmy requires focus and attention to detail, sometimes players misunderstand and aren't ready to conform to a structured environment. Some just join for the free guns and don't understand the difference between civilian and military game play.
My ideal graduation rate is 70-80%. I think if we're putting 100% of the people through, we're doing it wrong.
More important is how players do survive our training program and move on to become effective soldiers and leaders, themselves.
And no-- I'm proud to say that all our RECBN grads have found their places in the regular Army as solid and reliable soldiers, not one has washed out of the USArmy.

Army Times: Well, that's certainly an improvement over the old system right there. Can you give us a rundown of the 12-Point program?
Maj Harding: These are all presented not necessarily in this order, for for our purposes here I'll group the Program Points.
===>Communication: ECHOs, Forum Access, Avatars, IRC, Forum Checks, Roll Call, and Leave of Absences.
===>Execution: Daily Orders, Fighting, Deployment, Working and Economic Warfare.
The Program is designed to take two weeks, but some have been moved out into the regular Army sooner. One such exemplary soldier is Private Aldric Harper, who completed all assigned tasks in just 7 days.



Army Times: Wow... sounds like a subject for another interview, a real poster child.
Maj Harding: Private Harper showed that he fully grasped the fundamentals. He was always where he needed to be, echo'd daily, fought in the right battles, got the right job, etc.
Of course, but every one of our graduating soldiers deserves equal credit for the accomplishement. We won't discuss the details of how the tasks are presented, but I'll tell you that none are so simple as a Question and an Answer every day, the Program is more like "immersion" method than
rote. The recruits show over the course of time that they understand what they're learning through actions, not just being able to recite back some text answer correctly.
Our Drill Instructors, Sgt Kyler Lee Octan and Sgt ltdan676, interact with the recruits much more than simply issuing the Order of the Day and Program Assignments. We understand how foreign the environment and material are to some people, and we want them to succeed, so while we do expect perfection and ultimately accept no less we do all we can to help them achieve this difficult goal.



Army Times: You "expect perfection and ultimately accept no less." Oh, my goodness, Major, you sound like almost much a hardass as myself. Is this possible?
Maj Harding: You could say I am somewhat of a hardass, sure. But what are goals if they're easy? And what kind of soldiers are we to produce if we don't help players develop higher goals and then work hard to acheve them? We invest time and personal attention in them now so the USArmy's investment of weapons and moving tickets is not wasted later on.
Some of the transfer soldiers-- the Mobile Infantrymen, even the Airborne and Marines-- are surprised to find that getting into the USArmy is not a cake walk, that we have such high standards and even they might have to focus and work harder than they had thought to make the cut here.

Army Times: I wonder if I could handle taking your training course, Major Harding.
Maj Harding: With all due respect, sir, I believe it would be a challenge for you, but you're welcome to schedule a slot in the RECBN.
As a matter of fact, we do encourage all USArmy personnel who have been in the service but have not been through our program, to do so. We feel there's always room for improvement, and the experience will be helpful in leading the new wave of soldiers who are being put through the program.




Army Times: How about a witty quote to close the article with? maybe something like "big talk and badasses are everywhere. those things don't make a good soldier..."??
:Maj Harding: nah, I'm more the cold calculating type. I'm not gonna scream at you, but when you've f'd up, you'll be cut before you can say, "WTF?"

Army Times: Thank you for your time, Major. I must say that Senior Staff is very pleased that you've taken what was a fairly loose concept when you were assigned to it, and have developed a truly productive training program that works.
Maj Harding: Well, thank you Col Custer. We look forward to working with more new recruits, turning them into USArmy soldiers, and seeing them out on the battlefield fighting hard and fighting right.

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Lt Col George Armstrong "F-Bomb" Custer
USArmy Public Affairs Office
Editor, The Army Times
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