Recruiters from the Albany Recruiting Battalion pose for a picture with their future Soldiers in front of a 10th Combat Aviation Brigade UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter during a Mega Future Soldier recruiting event Saturday at the Watervliet Arsenal in ...
FORT DRUM, N.Y. (May 21, 2015) -- Some 250 future Soldiers received a taste of life in the Army at the Albany Recruiting Battalion's Mega Future Soldier event Saturday at the Watervliet Arsenal.
Like a similar event held last November, roughly 20 10th Mountain Division and Fort Drum Soldiers were present to display equipment and share their military occupational specialty experiences with recruits enrolled in the Delayed Entry Program. The event attracted recruits from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont.
The event kicked off with a 10th Combat Aviation Brigade UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter landing and featured a squad of infantrymen and weapons from the 1st Brigade Combat Team, military policemen and their working dogs from the 91st Military Police Company, explosive ordnance disposal technicians from the 63rd EOD Battalion, food service specialists from the 10th Sustainment Brigade and an M-1 Abrams tank static display.
"The purpose behind this event is to let future Soldiers who have enlisted but not yet shipped to basic combat training get a taste and a sense of what it's like to be around professional Army Soldiers," said Lt. Col. Michael D. Coleman, Albany Recruiting Battalion commander.
Coleman described the support provided during the Mega Future Soldier recruiting event by the 10th Mountain Division (LI) and Fort Drum as being decisive to the overall success of the event.
"To let somebody who volunteered to be a helicopter mechanic to actually see a helicopter is a great recruiting tool and also lets that person talk about it when they get home," Coleman said.
The 10th Mountain Division and Fort Drum have built a relationship with the Albany Recruiting Battalion in recent months under the Total Army Involvement in Recruiting program, and Soldiers hope to build upon the success of Saturday's engagement by conducting similar events in the months to come. TAIR is a promotional program designed to engage the operational Army in the recruiting process by providing recruiters with the personnel and equipment needed to tell the Army story and reach influencers in the community and schools.
"Being a part of today's display and showcasing our aircraft is exciting for us as well," said Capt. Andrew Hicks, a UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter pilot from the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 10th Combat Aviation Brigade. "We are proud of our unit, our equipment and what we do. I feel we owe it to the Army to be good ambassadors and get involved in the recruiting process wherever we can."
According to Coleman, the TAIR program is not only valuable to recruiting the best and brightest future Soldiers, it also provides his Department of the Army select recruiters the ability to stay connected and involved with their MOS while away from the field Army conducting the recruiting mission.
The Albany Recruiting Battalion is responsible for the largest geographical recruiting area in the U.S. Army Recruiting Command and is located in a region with few active-duty Army installations, further illustrating the importance of their relationship with Fort Drum and the 10th Mountain Division.
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