Am I out of line for wanting to file a complaint against a recruiter for not processing my direct commissioning packet in a timely manner?

2022-11-07T16:31:56-05:00

A year ago I began starting the paperwork for direct commissioning as a nursing officer. Along the way I was given the runaround, not getting responses from the recruiter. In October I was command-directed over to a sister company to deploy. I made my leadership aware right aware that I was pursuing this route. They said they would work to find out where the application was at and I was going to do the same to assist. I called and emailed several times until I got in contact with someone in charge of them last week. This morning I received an email from the original AMEDD recruiter who changed jobs. Telling me that my packet is nowhere near ready. I understand that I should be happy with the chance to mobilize. I am just a little frustrated that after a year of myself working on this packet and having a quick turnaround that the recruiters failed to do their job at all. Am I out of line for wanting to file a complaint? If so who do I file with?

Response by MAJ Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 7 at 2022 4:50 PM

2022-11-07T16:50:30-05:00

What do you hope to gain from filing a report? Paperwork goes missing all the time. People PCS and change jobs all the time without getting a change to do a handoff with the next person.
It took me a year to find a recruiter/retention NCO that knew what a direct commission was .
IG would be the agency to complain to-the look at processes and procedures.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 7 at 2022 5:01 PM

2022-11-07T17:01:16-05:00

Before you file that complaint - ask your self if you have really done your due diligence to follow up. Not saying people should not be held accountable for their mistakes; but you own your career. Have you really followed up consistently? How long ago did the recruiter PCS? Who is next in line to review? If you don't have these answers... look inward with that complaint and try to get it back on course. You are the only one you are working on... the Army is working of 100s of thousands of soldiers... I have never left a single part of my career up to any other person other than myself. Sometimes it felt like a full time job, but shit got done.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 7 at 2022 5:32 PM

2022-11-07T17:32:54-05:00

You've made the classic mistake of over estimating your value. The Army isn't short on Nurses to access. Direct commissions were all the rage back during the surge, about a decade ago, when the Army couldn't get enough medical personnel on board. Now, they fill their requirements with the AECP from Active Duty and plenty of scholarship programs. Direct Commissions are somewhat of an exception. There are several career fields that still allow direct commissions, but you would be coming in as a 2LT/1LT so you are competing with all the brand new accessions. That means you are a person with a (usually) three year obligation to the Army while scholarship and AECP Soldiers have a bigger commitment. That makes you an outlier and statistically insignificant.

AMEDD Recruiters do not have a recruiting quota, they are not required to recruit you. There is no incentive for them to recruit nurses, especially when the critical shortages are usually doctors and dentists. We have programs to create nurses, PA's, and Physical Therapists, but not doctors, dentists, and Pharmacists. On top of that, AMEDD Recruiters are generally in high demand from people contacting them about scholarships for medical, specialty, and support programs.

So, your recruiter didn't need to recruit you because you probably weren't part of their mission, you were a direct commission meaning the Army doesn't get much commitment from you, and you were working with a Recruiter who was in the middle of a PCS.

You can complain to the station commander. They may say nice things to make you feel better, but the truth is the Recruiter probably had more important priorities to recruit than you. Especially if you needed a waiver for anything.... Recruiters hate waivers.

Response by SSG Roger Ayscue made Nov 7 at 2022 5:53 PM

2022-11-07T17:53:43-05:00

Looking at your profile I see that you are an 11B in the National Guard. If I had to bet, I would say that you enlisted in the Guard for the educational benefits and took 11B as an MOS because it was near your school. Now that you have finished your Nursing Degree, you have applied to be a Nurse. But, the Army is short Infantry Soldiers, paid to train you to be an Infantryman and now needs you to deploy as an Infantryman.
There is a valuable lesson here. The last time you get to tell the Army what you want and have a real solid chance to get it for sure is right before you take that oath. After that, there is this thing called "Needs of the Army."
An Enlistment contract is an agreement. You agree to be trained in and serve in a given MOS in exchange for whatever it is you were promised; a bonus, education benefits, specific assignment, etc. If they fulfilled their end of the deal what do you have to complain about?
An application for Direct Commission is a request. Like everyone, the Army has the option to look at your request and say ... No...

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 8 at 2022 4:50 PM

2022-11-08T16:50:17-05:00

I direct commissioned and I'll tell you this:

Recruiters, Accessions, and Retention all work the path of least resistance. Of target age, medically fit, physically fit, education requirements met, and no background issues.

That's who they are going for.

Now............. I'll spare my personal drama, you can find that in many many other posts I published.

What it will come down to is there is nothing stopping you from looking up the regulations for your scenario. YOU PERSONALLY can technically compile your OWN direct commission packet for your chosen path.

You need the recruiter to SUBMIT IT, but you don't need them to COMPILE IT.

Ideally.............. just ask them for the check list, and requirements and everything they need to put together and then run with it. I presume it will be exactly what you'd find out in your own research truing to figure it out yourself. This is probably the most reliable approach to make sure you are working what is needed.

*************
I also gamed the system with my second attempt at Direct Commission.

When I originally tried there were 12 vacancies for the branch I wanted (Intel). I was not selected.

When I tried a second time, and had another year of learning how things worked I looked up the vacancy report and chose a branch that had 200 vacancies for LT's in my state alone. There was NO WAY the Army was going to fill them all even with all the different commission paths there are.

So imagine that. I was selected. But back to my point about path of least resistance. My Accessions NCO approached all of use that were non select the prior year as his priority because well, all we needed were updated letters of recommendation and current APFT cards. He hardly had to do anything.