U.S. Army National Guard SFC Dan Murphy is back in the area as a recruiter. “I came back into town March 1. I cover Kosciusko County, Warsaw Community High School, Wawasee High School and Tippy Valley High School,” he said in an interview Tuesday at the National Guard Armory. He originally started recruiting in this area in January 2006 until 2009. He returned in 2010 until 2013. He then left and recruited in the Elkhart, Plymouth and Kokomo areas until this month. He has over nine years of total experience as a recruiter. He served in the Guard a little over nine years, joining on Sept. 23, 2005, and served on active duty for eight years as well. As a recruiter, Murphy said his job is to fill the ranks of the Army National Guard. “We target an age group of 17 to 35 years old. Anything from a 17-year-old high school junior through a high school graduate, a college graduate. We fill approximately 200 different jobs throughout the entire state of Indiana,” Murphy explained. Some of those jobs include military police, infantry and combat engineer. In looking for Guardsmen, Murphy said, “We have to make sure they fall in accordance with Army regulations. That they meet the height, weight standards; can pass the Armed Forces Aptitude Battery Test. Physically fit always helps. And, of course, we also look for those kids who otherwise have no other means to pay for college themselves because we can pay 100 percent tuition assistance for a state-funded school.” The tuition assistance is through the National Guard Supplemental Grant. It’s 100 percent assistance for state-funded schools like Ivy Tech, Ball State, Purdue, IPFW and I.U. “One of the big things is we’re here to help the area kids,” he said. For the kid who wants to join the military but get an education, too, “We can show them how they can do both at the same time, and get their schooling paid for. If you look at what the average kid probably has in college loans each year, we can help them alleviate some of that debt when they graduate with a bachelor’s degree.” To recruit men and women to the Guard, Murphy said he spends a lot of time working with the area high schools. He goes in and does lunchroom displays, classroom presentations and works with the Junior ROTC program. He also goes out into the community, talks to people on the streets and lets them know what the Guard does and how it can help them. “The National Guard is unique in that we are a branch of the active-duty Army. The difference is we’re state funded as well as federally funded, so we’ll still uphold our end of the deal on the federal deployment such as Iraq and Afghanistan. For instance, the unit here in Warsaw deployed to Iraq twice,” Murphy said. “And then we can respond to state emergencies as well – floods, tornados, hurricanes. Every so often, if we have a big snowstorm in the forecast, they’ll bring Guard soldiers in to help stranded motorists throughout the state as well.” Training is one weekend a month and two weeks annually out of the year. The location of the training depends on what’s in the schedule, he said. “Normally, they’ll try to do two drills here a year in order to take care of all the mandatory training that the government says we have to do,” Murphy said. “Then they’ll go to Camp Atterbury and work on range density training, qualifying on the weapons.” Guardsmen also will train to qualify for their specific job skill. As for length of service in the Guard, Murphy said, “Normal enlistment that we try to do with most people is what they call a six-by-two enlistment: six years in the Guard, two years in the Inactive Ready Reserves or the Individual Ready Reserves. Everybody who enters the military comes into a eight-year service obligation, whether it’s four years of active duty and four years in the Individual Ready Reserves; three years in the Guard, five years in the Individual Ready Reserves. But the standard six-year enlistment gets all the assistance for educational purposes.” To find out more information on the U.S. Army National Guard and recruiting, contact Murphy on his cell at 574-226-1476 or email daniel.h.murphy2.mil@mail.mil
