Points!

My wife's family has a certain game they like to play. If you run into someone that you know unexpectedly, then you get points. The more obscure the person or location, the more points you get. My sister-in-law Heidi is great at it, because she knows so many people. She could fly to the Russian space station and run into someone from cheerleading camp 15 years ago.

I've run into a few people here at Camp LSA, Kuwait, so I get some points as well. One was a captain I put into the Guard a few years ago, who worked for me for a year in recruiting. Then I ran into a fellow from Bureau who has no memory of me. That's fine, he was just a guy I saw in the hallway, we never worked together on anything. I had a nice conversation with a colleague from the State mobilization office, serving in Afghanistan with an engineer unit. My happiest encounter is a former Soldier from my command, named Stephen. His big distinction was that he enlisted on 9-11. Yes, on the 9-11. He didn't plan it, of course, it was a complete coincidence. This distinction did earn him a human interest segment from the local news when our unit mobilized in 2002.

Some people have watched too many old movies, and think that an applicant can show up at the recruiter's office and be on a bus to Ft Benning that afternoon. Not so. It takes at least a week to put someone new into the Guard, and at least 30 days to get them to training. These are minimum times, most people experience it even longer.