Letters From A Recruiting Leader Serving In Iraq

Today I wanted to introduce you to a very special and gifted talent acquisition leader who I am proud to know and now call friend.  His name is Fred Hockett and I wanted to share his story with readers of this blog as well as launch a new series of posts that are all about him.  Fred's story is, in my opinion, so important that I am creating his own category on this blog called Fred Hockett.  As I think you will agree after reading this, he deserves it. 

So who is Fred and why is he so special that he warrants his own series of posts, you ask?  Well, Fred is a recruiting leader who learned late in January that he was being called back to active duty and would be deploying to Iraq to serve his country.  Now if I know anything about Fred and the kind of citizen, soldier and leader he is then he will likely take issue with my comments about how special he is for serving us and his country.  You see, as a West Point graduate his sense of duty is inextricably linked to who he is.  General Douglas MacArthur, in address to the Corps of Cadets at West Point on May 12, 1962, stated this more poignantly then I ever could:

Duty-Honor-Country. Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, and what you will be. They are your rallying points: to build courage when courage seems to fail; to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith; to create hope when hope becomes forlorn.

Fred and I became acquainted as I was working on a search for a client to identify a director of talent acquisition.  It turns out we shared some common interests, ideas and thoughts as it relates to talent acquisition, coaching and leadership.  It wasn't long until we figured out that our shared experience at West Point might have been a reason for how quickly our relationship developed and how well we identified with one another.  Fred was an excellent match for our client and the opportunity but in the midst of helping him with this career move he was called back to active duty.

Fred headed off to Fort Benning in late January to await orders and prepare for a possible deployment in Iraq and we continued to stay in touch.  I wanted to keep in touch with Fred for many reasons but most importantly to support him with friendship and communication as he likely faced deployment to a war zone.  He was sacrificing for me, for all of us, and the least I could do is offer to be a friend and another connection to "home".  It then dawned on me, what if I could somehow serve Fred by sharing his story?  Better yet, what if I could help him to communicate his experiences in the Army and in Iraq with the talent acquisition community at large?  I spoke with Fred about this, he cleared it with his superiors and here we are - sharing Fred Hockett's story with the talent acquisition community.

Going forward Fred will write to me about what he is experiencing, what he is seeing and what work he is doing (within reason and without jeopardizing his role and security of course) and I will pass that along to you right here.  I will try to do very little editing of his material so everyone can get a real sense of what he is experiencing.  If you have any specific questions for Fred just email them to me (link over there on the right) and I will attempt to get them answered for you. 

Thanks for your service Fred.  Thanks for answering the call to duty and for defending the freedom and liberty we all hold so dear.  Thanks for helping to make the world safer for our children and grandchildren.  Thanks, most importantly, for your personal sacrifice; for putting yourself in harms way so we do not have to.

That said, here is Fred's first email to me dated back on March 7, 2008.   

Hi Michael,

I hope all is well and that you are not getting too much snow.  We’re having a pretty mild winter – the low today was 57 degrees and the high tomorrow supposed to be 86.  I thought I’d let you know how my reception has been here to this new unit.  I’ve used the four step process for reception: Welcome, Orientation, Training, and Transition.   I’m happy to say that so far, the Army personnel system has done a pretty good job in all of these categories.  Everyone coming into the Middle East processes through our base in Kuwait.  Our plane landed and, after a short bus trip, we arrived at Ali Al Salem airbase in Kuwait.  Our destination unit had a Liaison Officer waiting for us and escorted us to our first briefing and got us quarters for the night while we completed a few pieces of paperwork.   

We spent a couple of days in Kuwait getting acclimated and oriented to the unit while we waited for a plane into Baghdad.  The process repeated in Baghdad with a unit representative meeting us and giving us the information we needed in the event of a mortar/rocket attack or any other type of enemy contact.  Trust me when I say that it was very comforting to have them tell me, because I was about to ask. We bedded down for the night and then started our Orientation program.  It’s been a few days of briefings by all the primary staff and even the Commanding General.  It is abundantly clear that everyone cares about having all of us here and they are concerned about our well being. 

I’m heading to my final destination in a couple of days where I’ll do what we call a “right seat ride.”  Basically I’ll be shadowing the person currently in my new job so that he can pass on the institutional knowledge before leaving to head back home to his family.  Then the reigns are all mine.  This should take about a week.  I’m going to be serving as the mayor of a Forward Operating Base (FOB).  Basically, I’ll be managing the force protection, room assignments, and contractor relationship for between 1500 and 2500 people.  Overall I think it’ll be a very rewarding assignment. 

Next time I’ll write about my unit and the incredibly important work we’re doing here. I need to make sure what I can and can’t send due to security reasons.  If you have any questions, please be sure to ask.  Make it a great day and I look forward to hearing from you.

Warmest Regards from the desert,

Fred Hockett

Baghdad, Iraq

Comments

[John Sloan]

Go Army
Beat Navy

[Michael Homula]

Thanks John! My sentiments exactly.

[Joshua Letourneau]

Michael, please give Fred my best and tell him to stay safe. If he comes under any fire, tell him to find the nearest Marine infantry squad . . . which I can assure you will be the safest place to be!

If I may, I'd please ask that you communicate the following to Fred: On 3/19/08, the U.S. Army formally ordered all troops to stop posting to blogs or sending personal e-mail messages, "without first clearing the content with a superior officer." Specifically, this is per Army Regulation 530--1 Operations Security (OPSEC).

Here's the link: http://blog.wired.com/defense/files/army_reg_530_1_updated.pdf

This makes sense because, as you may know, the new war is fought as much using Internet intel as it is on the streets in Baghdad and Fallujah, etc.

Just a word to help keep him and his troops safe while keeping out of any hot water with command center brass that you won't find patrolling the hot spots alongside the infantry and special ops . . . but rather sitting back in a cool tent publishing mandates and regulations to justify their pay grade.