With recruiting levels still lagging behind pre-COVID years, recruiters in Central California, and across the country for that matter, are using all the tools at their disposal to get more boots in the Army.
Recruiters from 6th Recruiting Battalion’s Bakersfield Company are working with Fort Irwin to show young people who are thinking about joining the Army, but haven’t pulled the trigger on signing a contract, what life is like on a U.S. Army Garrison.
Fort Irwin, also known as the National Training Center, is about a two-hour drive east of Bakersfield and the nearest active-duty Army installation to central and southern California. While it is a bit more austere than other garrisons, it has all the life-support activities Soldiers and families need.
“This is a great way for us to showcase at least a bit of what the Army has to offer when it comes to Army careers and quality of life,” said Ridgecrest Army Recruiting Station Commander Sgt. 1st Class Michael Moret.
From late November through early December Irwin units and facilities provided access to their Soldiers and worksites.
Students got a chance to speak with Medical Evacuation (MEDEVAC) personnel at the installations helipad, mechanics at a motor pool, and visit a state-of-the-art Army Hospital and speak with Army medical officers and enlisted about career opportunities.
“Young people today are tangible, they want to touch things, they don’t want to just hear old people talking about what they do, or did in the military, they want to see it for themselves, added Sgt. 1st Class Moret.
Groups also toured Army barracks had lunch at Army dining facilities and visited an MWR Warrior Zone leisure activity center to get a taste of garrison life.
The tours are working.
“We’ve got at least a half dozen enlistments linked directly to recent tours,” says Moret.
He points out one of the tour participants.
“I’m pretty sure she is going to join, she was on the fence before today,” he adds.
Installation tours are part of the Army’s Total Army Involvement in Recruiting Program which emphasizes maximum support of U.S. Army recruiting efforts by all Army organizations.
“You see a shift, like a light switch flipped, on the faces of participants. Army life isn’t so scary after all,” said Central California Army Recruiting Battalion Commander Lt. Col. Phil Sauls who checked in on one of the early Dec. tours.
Sauls says his team is looking to conduct more tours at not only Fort Irwin but other Active and Reserve locations across Central California in 2025.
“It’s working, so we are going to keep riding this wave,” Sauls added.
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