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By Charlie Spiering
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
As a National Guard recruiter, Sergeant First Class Charles Griffiths understands that people want to make an informed decision about the military before signing on. When people speak to him about the dangers of being shipped off to Afghanistan or Iraq, Griffiths responds simply, “It’s a job,” he said, “You can’t expect to get a job at McDonald’s and get paid without flipping burgers or running a cash register. Sometimes you have to do what you signed on to do.”
Griffiths, a recruiter from Warrenton, Virginia who has as his territory Fauquier and Rappahannock Counties, makes it his mission to inform people about the choices they have with the Guard.
“Some recruiters turn it into a used car sale, doing their best to sell an object,” Griffiths said disapprovingly, “I approach a candidate telling it like it is: a serious job.”
He admits that the stakes are high. However, he said that the National Guard is now offering up to $20,000 as a signon bonus for six years and programs that offer to pay 100 percent of college tuition.
Employment
to deployment
The Armed Forces draw heavily from its part-time civilian army for the Iraq War, as Virginia guardsmen are no strangers to combat. In 2004
92.1%