A Local Recruiter’s Success Story—

Bergquist Brothers Are Committed To Service

By John Voket

On any given weekend, Newtown High School seniors may be occupied with part-time jobs, driving around, hanging out with friends, listening to music, or gearing up for college. But on a couple of recent weekends, NHS senior Matt Bergquist has kept himself pretty busy firing machine guns, running obstacle courses, and riding around in helicopters.

Matt is the next member of the Bergquist family who has committed to serving as a Connecticut National Guard recruit with career plans that include providing technical support to Black Hawk helicopter crews. He joins older brother Carl, who enlisted last year with hopes of pursuing a criminal justice degree.

The brothers Bergquist told The Bee during a recent visit at their Newtown home that they were inspired to join the Guard thanks to what they called an “impressive” array of educational and financial benefits. They also had several good examples reinforcing the positive benefits of serving their community and country.

Older sister Jennifer Walker served in the Army Reserve, mother Karen has 28 years in with Connecticut’s Department of Social Services, and their dad, Carl, Sr, is a career law enforcement professional working in Fairfield County. A generation earlier, their grandfathers were setting a precedent.

One served in the signal corps at the end of World War II and the other saw active duty on a Navy destroyer during the Korean Conflict.

Matt and Carl, along with Mr and Mrs Bergquist, all expressed unanimous praise for the work put in by local National Guard recruiting officer Sergeant Mark E. Spencer. For 13 years, Sgt Spencer, a Newtown High graduate, served the National Guard in various capacities including work in a field artillery unit, combat engineer, and chemical specialist before accepting his current post as the local CNG recruiter.

Despite recent nationwide reports of recruiting scandals in several branches of the armed services, Sgt Spencer is proud of the fact that his branch of the Guard here in Connecticut has remained free from controversy.

While he admits news of daily military activities and the resulting casualties abroad combined with the recent bad publicity on recruiters has made his job more challenging, he believes the military has diversified its opportunities and enhanced benefits to a level where service remains a very attractive alternative for young people.

In fact, he is still turning away potential recruits who do not measure up.

“I think the public still sees military service as something like a last resort,” Sgt Spencer said. “But we are so far to the opposite extreme.”

He said difficulties facing local recruiters are not so much a result of ongoing military conflicts. Sgt Spencer sees the pool of qualifying recruits that can meet higher standards being set by every branch of the armed service shrinking.

“I have been averaging about five interested applicants per week, but more than 90 percent don’t make it through to enlistment for various reasons,” he said. “There’s a misconception that everyone or anyone can just join up. But you have to be prepared to serve both physically and academically. I’ve had a few college graduates who can’t even pass the tests to join.”

Better Benefits,

If You Use Them

Sgt Spencer said the recently enhanced battery of benefits speak for themselves. And he makes it his mission to keep track of every recruit, following up regularly to ensure each one is taking full advantage of the benefits they are earning through service.

“A lot of times people sign up with a definite plan, and a year or two later I catch up with them and they’re not happy,” he said. “But it’s almost always because they aren’t taking advantage of all the opportunities available to them in terms of training, promotions, education, and other financial incentives.”

Benefits for those with service experience are even more generous, Sgt Spencer said. The CNG currently offer a three-year/$7,500 bonus and six-year/$15,000 bonus payable at 50 percent at the beginning of a recruit’s contract and 50 percent after a set period of service.

In addition, those who have been deployed in the past will receive a written guarantee of being nondeployable for two years.

“For anyone with at least 60 college credits you can enroll in the Officer Candidate School, earn a federally recognized commission in 14 months and receive a $6,000 bonus plus $350 per month kicker while in college, on top of an original bonus, GI Bill benefits, and the GI Bill kicker,” he said.

A three-year enlistment earns recruits a 100 percent tuition waiver at all Connecticut state schools, plus up to $10,000 bonus. A six-year enlistment will earn the college tuition waiver, plus bonus, plus $4,500 per year in federal tuition assistance, plus a $288 per month tax-free GI Bill benefit for college students.

Placement in select jobs after training pays an additional $200 per month kicker with GI Bill qualification.

“We can even help current or former college students by paying up to $20,000 in outstanding student loans,” he said. “This is all on top of your base monthly pay, as well as pay from your training. Students interested in ROTC will only be required to attend ROTC during junior/senior years with increases in pay plus additional kicker of $350 for juniors and $450 for seniors each month tax-free,” he said. “And these individuals are nondeployable while a member of ROTC.”

Today, Sgt Spencer said, service benefits are so prolific that many recruits cannot keep track of them all. But this was not the case with the Bergquist brothers.

“First and most importantly, these guys want to be in uniform,” he said. “But these guys came in knowing what they wanted to be and where they want to go.”

Carl said he came in to the Guard during a split training program where he served his basic training the summer between his junior and senior years at NHS. He departs next week for advanced training at Norwich University Military Academy in Vermont.

There, he will remain in a nondeployable ROTC unit until the end of this next phase of training.

Matt enlisted in March of this year with enough school credit to graduate this June; however, because of his strong commitment to the NHS football team, he will remain in school through the end of this year and graduate into basic training in January 2006.

“I didn’t want to give up my senior year playing football,” he said. “But in January I’ll be going to Fort Jackson in South Carolina. I’ll be specializing in UH60 repair with an option to become an on-board crew chief on a Black Hawk.”

Karen Bergquist finds it difficult to contain her pride, saying her office is decorated with pictures of her children all dressed in uniform.

“Sometimes people see the pictures and look like they’re feeling sorry for me, but look what opportunities the armed service is providing them,” she said. “There’s nothing to feel sorry about, I’m very proud of all of them and support their goals completely.”

Despite completing four years in the Army Reserve, sister Jennifer admits she has concerns about her brothers’ future safety. But she also knows from personal experience that service can promote positive, life-changing direction.

“I joined because I was looking for a positive change in my life, and was attracted to the idea that I could earn money for school,” she said from her Ansonia home. “Today I’m sure I’m better off for having served. For me, it’s changed my life for the better.”

If Jennifer has any regrets, it has to do with the recent changes in benefits that make the option of service even more attractive.

“These two definitely have better access to benefits,” she said. “Look at the enlistment bonuses, the degrees they can earn, the GI Bill programs — these are all better than what I had just a few years ago.”

Serving on the local front lines as a police detective provided a viable alternative for Carl Bergquist, Sr, who came of age during a time when there was comparatively less need for military recruits. But the hard-as-nails attitude he must adopt on the job does not diminish mixed feelings Carl, Sr, has when he considers what the future could hold for Matt and Carl, Jr.

“Pride and fear characterizes it pretty well,” he said. “But above all, I can’t think of any greater honor than giving of yourself in the service of your country.”

Mr Bergquist said he appreciates the fact that Sgt Spencer has worked so hard to stress the financial and educational benefits of service to Carl, Jr, and Matt.

“They are both taking full advantage of the tremendous opportunities to further their education, but I know from talking to both of them about it, that their main goal before all others is serving,” he said.

When it comes to the Bergquist brothers, Sgt Spencer’s mission is far from over. But he said he continues to be inspired by families like the Bergquists, despite the escalating challenges to field quality recruits to the CNG.

“It’s fighting a public perception, especially with many of the parents, that I’m coming to take their sons or daughters away from them,” Sgt Spencer said. “I understand completely where they are coming from, but I have to keep pointing to the incentives.”

He said he can usually find a way to respect most of the parents who flatly refuse to support their children when they broach the idea of possible armed service.

“The only ones who really get to me are the ones who hang an American flag on their porch, and greet me with an obscene gesture and a slammed door when I come to meet with them and their children,” he concluded.