Hometown Heroes - Staff Sgt. Joseph Smith
Army “super-recruiter”
LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) - The U.S. Army has had difficulty the last few years reaching its recruiting goals. However, a Lake Charles resident is working to change that. Staff Sgt. Joseph Smith joined the U.S. Army in 2012. Last year, he arrived at the Lake Charles Army Recruiting Station and is commander says it didn’t take long for Smith to become what is called a “super recruiter.”
“A recruiter is considered average if they recruit one candidate a month,” said Ryan Meaux, Army station commander. “Which would come out to about 12 per year. Staff Sgt. Smith has done 72. You know, 72 in a matter of 12 months.”
“I can share my experience with them and show them how the Army has benefited me greatly,” said Smith. “I see them walking down the same path I was going at first, with a dead-end job. No future, no success.”
Smith proudly looks at this wall of new recruits and knows them by name.
“I might see a kid in the Walmart parking lot pushing a basket, you know, and just tell them I know you don’t want to push a basket forever, right? What is your plan? Just sit down and have a normal conversation with them. So we sit down and talk about things that they want to do. Goals that they want to do. I just tell them how the Army can help them achieve those goals.”
“We finished the eighth best recruiting station in the United States Army,” said Meaux. “That’s saying something since over 10 percent of our market moved away from the hurricane and never came back. So that’s definitely a huge accomplishment.”
The Army hasn’t met its annual goal for new enlistment contracts since 2014, but with super recruiters like Smith, things could change.
“A lot of kids see themselves in me, because I grew up in a similar environment,” said Smith. “Similar structure, similar ways of life. Celebrating Mardi Gras. I can relate to them on so many personal levels, because I’ve been there, done that. I’m a Louisianan, a native. I speak the same language.”
Smith works out of the Lake Charles Recruiting Station in the Southgate Shopping Center, next to Office Depot. You can contact him at 337-414-4000.
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