Well, I'm sorry to hear that. I will give you a good example of how I trianed the other recruiters in my station. You give the applicant all the options and scenarios, tell them what will happen if we go this route and what will happen if we go that route. You let them choose which path they want to take. Most candidates will take the path of least resistance. Here is the thing a good recruiter will do, if someone has an issue that is ongoing or re-occuring, you do the paperwork..End of story. If I had a kid that took ADHD meds for 2 years then stopped taking them becasue his parents wised up and realized the doctor was taking their money, I tell the kid NEVER EVER mention this to anyone again. If they bring it up in bootcamp, I get a phone call about it, and have to tell my side of the story. It happened to me twice. I told the kid to lie one of the two times, the other time I didn't know anyting about it. The time I told the kid to lie, he hated bootcamp and knew he would, and did, get kicked out and sent home if he told the truth. I got some flak about it, but nothing more since my command knew a little about what was going on, with the kid not really wanting to go in the first place. See something the public doesn't understand about the whole process, is that recruiting is a business. We spend lots and lots of money on getting these kids into the navy. Meps visits, hotels, government vehicles driving them back and forth form home and to the office, so on and so forth. You get my drift. Then a kid decides, I changed my mind, and the government is out a some money, and the recruiter is out some time. As a recruiter, you have to make the best choices possible. If I had a kid that didn't want to go, I cut him out quick. I didn't want to waist my time trying to convince him of something he would regret and hate me for later. I just cut him, and moved on. That is why I was a GOOD recruiter. I knew when to cut my losses and move on. I helped the kids that wanted to be helped. See another thing you don't understand is that the Navy rejects people left and right. I realize you and some others get screwed over by the process, and I was one of those early on in my Navy time, part of the reason I got out. But I got to see the other side of the fence. There are kids out there that desperately need the military. Their lives are in bad shape, for vairous reasons. maybe they have a bad home life, maybe they are hanging around the wrong people and have made some bad choices. So on and so forth. I can tell you, I wish I could have told the kids with records to lie, but that one will always come to light. I can't tell you how many kids I had that had a juvey record, and couldn't get in. I'm not talking about major stuff, I'm talking getting caught smoking weed, or a minor in possesion, or just really small stuff. Not stealing or anything like that. I tried to not pot people into the Navy I wouldn't want to have to work with one day. That is how I justified what I did. It might not be right, but tell that to the guy out on the boat who is working 6 hours on and 6 hours off due to the lack of personnel in his department. He needs recruiters to push people through, and he doesn't give a dang about what it takes. I've been that guy, believe me I hated life. All that said, I just try my best to shed some light on the process and what to expect. I don't regret one bit of my Navy experience. Some great times, some really, really bad times.
