Sergeant First Class Edward C. Ford
Most students only notice the Armed Forces Career Center when they are going into Metro. I went down the center and talked with the head army recruiter about what type of people they are looking for and if they do any recruiting at Wesleyan. Sergeant Ford was stationed in Seoul, Korea and then was a data communications operator in the Army before he became a recruiter. Sergeant Ford noted at the beginning of the interview that his comments were his own and not necessarily a reflection of the views of the Army. He also said he wasn’t going to talk politics either. Those who are interested in the Army can call the center at 860-347-3972.
KH: How long has the center been here?
EF: I don’t know that. I just got here in January. I’d imagine, just off the top of my head, at least four to five years.
KH: What is your typical day in terms of trying to get recruits? Do people just walk in here or do you run specific programs?
EF: Well it is just like any other sales organization. You do have people who just walk in because of things that we may have posted. People who come in because of what they have gotten on the website, or the telephone number they can call on television. We do have places that we go to such as high schools and colleges. Wesleyan is one of those colleges. And then there is the general public, just going out and talking to people face to face.
KH: Is there a good response of recruits from the Middletown area?
EF: I would say that the recruitment right now is steady. I don’t really know of any one specific time period in a year where you would get a great influx of people versus another part of the year. I think that a lot of things that happen in recruiting have to do with just a basic knowledge of the military. It’s how hard the recruiters are working, things that are going on in the world, the economy, and war situations. So I think that it varies a lot. And just like any organization that deals with pushing their product out there, you have to analyze the market. You have to know where people are coming from and why they want to join.
KH: What’s the type of person that would make a good recruit? What type of person are you looking for?
EF: First of all we are looking for committed Americans. People who are committed to just serving their country. What are we looking for? We are looking for the basic values that the Army instills and that is the people who have integrity, people who have a sense of loyalty to their country, people who understand what duty and responsibility is, someone who can say I am not selfish but I am a selfless person, and someone who has personal carriage, respect for themselves and for others. In terms of education, we try to meet the basic requirements for education. You at least have to have a GED or high school diploma or higher education. In terms of citizenship, a person has to at least have a green card or be a native born American citizen. Medically, there are so many things you have to look at. We are looking at people who are not going to be liabilities to the Army. We are looking for people who will be morally sound. No organization wants to bring in people who won’t meet their moral qualifications.
KH: In terms of Wesleyan, do you get anyone from the University? What are the benefits of someone coming out of Wesleyan to sign up for the Army?
EF: Obviously there are higher education opportunities. The Army does have the Loan Repayment Program, which is where you can qualify for up to $65,000 worth of student loans. As far as further education, there are different things that cover different job areas from counter-intelligence to being a finance officer. That is definitely going to give them experience, and the opportunity to work with a wide-variety of different kinds of people and in different situations. I think it is the leadership skills that you are not going to get anywhere else. The Army is a unique organization. And I think it is probably the oldest and the best place they are going to get the type of leadership experience that they are looking for.
KH: In general with Army recruitment, have you noticed an increase in recruits after Sept. 11 or with the war in Iraq?
EF: Well, personally, I saw an increase in a certain age group. And that was a group between the ages of about 36 and 45. And in the age group that the Army is particularly looking for, between 17 and 34, I personally did not see a high increase in people wanting to join. So we had a lot of people who wanted to join, and we had a lot of phone calls from people who were disqualified because of age. I think that speaks volumes to the mindset of the generation that we are dealing with right now. When you start looking at people from age 37 to about 40, that’s a whole different generation. It’s something that they had in their time that we are missing now. And to be honest with you, I don’t know everybody at Wesleyan, but I do know that there are other colleges who have people that are interested more in serving than they are at Wesleyan. Now, is it because at Wesleyan, students don’t know about the programs or is it some other thing?
EF: Our job here is not to just grab people and say you can join the Army. Our job is to tell the Army story and then to look at whether the person is qualified to do it. Because a lot of people that automatically tell us no don’t even qualify. But the thing that I always tell people is would it hurt to see what your country’s armed forces is doing for you. Because this is not my army, it is the kid at Wesleyan’s army. It is your army, you know what I’m saying. It is the American people’s army. And I think that is a thing that we forget. It’s like all of a sudden we’re on one side of the fence, and it’s them against us. The Army belongs to America and the kids at Wesleyan, the kids at Middlesex, and the citizens that walk in the street. They are all Americans, and that’s why we’re here. We’re not here to harm, we’re not here to fight wars. We’re here to deter them as much as possible. If it comes down to fighting wars, of course we will, because we would do it for the defense of this nation.
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