A passion for recruiting

A passion for recruiting

Maj. Gen. Garrett Harencak is commander of the Air Force Recruiting Service, Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas. The Air Force Recruiting Service comprises more than 2,470 airmen and civilians in more than 1,100 recruiting offices across the United States and abroad. Harencak oversees recruiting efforts and strategic marketing for the U.S. Air Force.

Harencak entered the Air Force in 1983 as a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy. His assignments have included piloting a B-52; instructor pilot and squadron command in the B-1B; and service as aide to the commander of U.S. Central Command. He also directed the Headquarters U.S. Air Force Executive Secretariat, and served as deputy director of Requirements at Headquarters Air Combat Command. Harencak commanded the 7th Bomb Wing at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, and the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman AFB, Missouri.

Last month, Harencak spoke with The American Legion about his career, Air Force recruiting efforts and more. Here are excerpts of that interview:

One thing I’ve learned about you from your bio is that The American Legion is in your blood. You played Legion Baseball, the other day you said you were a member of the Sons of The American Legion, and you’re a life member now. Why is the Legion so important to you and your family?

Well, it’s always been. American Legion Post 347 in Clifton, N.J., is where as a young boy my brother and I grew up since my father was a member of that post his whole life. He worked, other than his time in World War II, in Clifton his entire life. And that was a big part of our life, was the Legion, growing up there. We lived in Elmwood Park, but interestingly enough, my father met my mother through my mother’s brother, Joe, who was a member of Post 347. So, it’s always been The American Legion, it’s always been a big part of our lives.

Tell me about some of your influencers and how they helped shape your career.

I always had tremendous respect, a lot of which I gained from interacting as a young boy with all the veterans and The American Legion post. I would sit there and listen to their stories. We even had my Uncle Adam Steiger — who was a longtime member of Post 347 — was actually one of the youngest veterans of World War I. He married my dad’s oldest sister. Up until the 70s when he passed away, my uncle Adam was revered by all the World War II and the Korea vets who were there. He was a runner and ran through the trenches, and then he got to come home and did a stint in the Navy before he came settled down and married my aunt and lived out his life in safe New Jersey. Just starting at the earliest days, listening to how their lives were changed and all for the better certainly I know influenced me. I don’t think there was one specific thing. I think it was kind of assimilation over many years where I just decided that, even as a young boy, that was going to be my life. Specifically, I was going to go to the Air Force Academy which I had never visited. But I used to ride my bike all to the library, and I studied the Air Force Academy Catalog. But, how I specifically came to that I believe, was through influencers — most of those influencers came through The American Legion.

How did you see yourself change once you got through the Academy?

I think all the lessons I learned as a young cadet — how to motivate peers, how to get teamwork, how to make sure that everybody gets across the line — mold who you become. What you learn, pretty early on, in America’s Air Force is how it positively changes your life. It’s that it is all about leadership. It’s leadership all working together to get the mission done. And, you know, and that’s what I think changes. That’s why I think veterans and people who spend time in the military are so valued outside of the military. You have to be that type of person who is going to persevere. You work until the mission is done. And I think that’s what really sets us apart from other things.

When you join the Air Force, you think you know what you’re getting into, but you don’t. And what happens, after a few years — you joined the Air Force, but then the Air Force joins you. And it becomes your passion. It becomes a way of life. And that is, that’s what I think transforms you from just somebody who joined an organization to somebody who is going to commit their life to a lifetime of service. And all of our ideals of integrity and commitment to excellence all of the core values that we have, because its integrity, commitment to excellence and service before self. I mean those become not just a motto, not just something that’s over a portal or a doorway, it becomes a way of life. And that’s how you’re changed.

And that’s why here in recruiting, I get so excited, I get so passionate about it because we are not offering people a job, we are not offering people a vocation, we are offering them a way of life. A way of life that will fundamentally transform them into something much better than they were when they left Elmwood Park, N.J., or Indianapolis or any one of thousands and thousands of town and villages and cities around the country. We are offering them a life-changing experience to join a brother and sisterhood that lives a lifestyle that uplifts everyone else. And that, to me, is what’s so incredibly cool about the opportunity and that’s why we work every day here in recruiting. Not just make a goal, but to bring people in who want to live our values but also we know we going positively change their lives.

Your passion for recruiting is obvious to anyone whose heard you speak, but tell me about some of the biggest challenges you’re facing in that role?

The youth of America has probably never been more disconnected from the military than they are today. It’s not their fault. The amount of influencers that existed when you and I were growing up don’t exist anymore. And it’s a function of a lot of things. One is, as you know, the military has shrunk. The Air Force is about as small as it’s been since 1940. All of the services are much, much smaller. But more than that, we’ve had an all-volunteer force that’s worked great; except less than 1 percent of the American public has served. And what you’re left with is a number of influencers that continues to decline. And so the people who are able to go out and say, ‘The military can be good for you, the military can change your life, the military changed my life, let me tell you my story,’ are fewer.

Is it accurate to say that the pool of applicants has also shrunken, along with potential influencers?

We’ve had a lot of challenges with our youth in academic requirements and we have a problem with obesity in kids. We have a problem with drunk convictions, and a host of issues that keep what you think is a large pool, down to a much smaller pool of applicants. And then, when you look at that pool that is academically qualified, physically qualified, those that can actually pass the medical exams at the military entrance processing center, you find out how few of them are actually prepared, meaning considered joining the military, it creates challenges for all the services.

And then you have parents. Over half of parents will not recommend the military to the children in America today. That is, of course, a function of a lack of influencers there too. It used to be parents were the biggest influencers. So a lot of recruits coming into the military are military kids. And that’s great except, you know, it distances us even further as a military from the rest of the population. So that’s why it’s important for The American Legion and other veterans service organizations go out there and help us tell the story that military service will fundamentally positively change your life.

In a presentation you gave, General, you mentioned one of the biggest reasons cited by those who don’t serve, is they don’t want to leave their family and friends. What would you say to someone that gives this as their reason?

It’s a total and complete misguidance. When you join America’s Air Force or America’s Army, America’s Navy, or the Coast Guards, or the Marines, you actually gain a new family. You don’t leave behind your old one. You always have your family, you always have your friends, but one of the enormous advantages of joining the Air Force is that you will be able to open your eyes to a brand new world. They are as much a part of your family as your natural organic God given family is. And in a lot of ways, you know, those friendships and family relationships will last far longer than any of your childhood relationships will.

All you have to do is go to one retirement ceremony in the United States Air Force, the United States military, and you see that. I’ve gone to hundreds. I’ve done untold ones as a presiding official and people will just say there is the family that we met, we lived in the same duplex at an Air Force Base in 1978, and that family grew up and came here at our retirement 30 years later. I mean everybody who joins the United States military gains a family and gains more friends. You’re not losing anything, you’re gaining it. And that is the greatest, one of the greatest things that people say when they leave the service, even if it’s after one tour or they’ve been in 40 years, it’s what they’ll miss the most is their Air Force family.

And everybody who’s been in The American Legion will understand that. Legionnaires still go to reunions, their military reunions, all religiously. Why? Because that’s where they gained a lifetime of friends and affiliations and a whole new family.

When it comes to young women who are considering joining the military, what should they know about the Air Force?

You can do anything as a female in the United States Air Force. Nothing is restricted to you. You could be a pilot, but you don’t have to be a pilot, you could be an engineer. You can be any one of 136 specialties throughout the Air Force. You will have absolutely every opportunity — if you live our values — to progress to the highest levels of the United States Air Force. And we are all about opportunities for females around. And that goes for every other diversity category out there. Join us and see that you have limitless possibilities in America’s Air Force.

When it comes to recruiting, what does success look like to you?

To be totally blunt, it’s meeting our goal and exceeding our goal. Obviously, that’s our mission and we will accomplish our mission. But besides just the numbers, success is getting the right people. The United States Air Force is not for everybody. We are looking for people who want to change their lives. We are looking for people who want to live a life of adventure, who want to be challenged.

One thing I tell young recruits and young officers when they come in is that we’re almost never going to let you get comfortable in the United States Air Force with a job. We’re going to constantly challenge you. We’re going to constantly push you to be better than you were last year and the year before whatever it is you were doing. We’re going to give you more responsibility. We’re going to give you more opportunity and more responsibility as you progress, as you go further. And so we do need the right type of person for that.

Is there anything that we haven’t touched on that you would like to mention?

I would ask for The American Legion, which has always been a part of my life, to help us. The local post could become even more influential than normal. How you do it? Contact recruiters — Air Force, Army, Navy, Marine, Coast Guard recruiters — that are nearby. Invite them out and ask, ‘How can we help?’ And then ask them questions: Are those recruiters getting the access they need in the local high schools? We need the youth of America to hear our stories and if the local recruiters are not getting the access they need, certainly, the involvement of the local post would benefit all the services. The people who most need those opportunities need to hear about it and to restrict the recruiters from high schools and other venues, I think is a shame. The people being hurt the most are the people who most need to hear it.