Halfaker & Associates

News

February 21, 2008

Halfaker and Associates' CYBER Recruiters Intervene for Suicidal Youth in Chat Room

THE NEWS-ENTERPRISE
By WALT KLOEPPEL/Recruiter Journal Magazine

U.S. Army Recruiting Command

A 15-year-old male sent an e-mail to the GoArmy Web site Feb. 7, stating that he either wanted to join the Army or he would commit suicide because of things going on in his life. Jamie Rogers, a cyber recruiter (cyber recruiters chat with prospects on GoArmy.com) with the U.S. Army Recruiting Command at Fort Knox, found the first e-mail and notified his shift supervisor, Patti Hainer.

Michelle Wilkerson, another cyber recruiter, received a second e-mail from the youth and was able to trace the IP address to a town in Massachusetts. Hainer immediately notified her supervisor, Tom Folsom, who is the onsite manager for Cyber Recruiting.

Folsom contacted the Command Operations Center, which was able to get a Massachusetts police department to dispatch an officer to the young man’s house before he caused himself any harm.

“When we received the first one in 2001, it caught us off guard, but we were able to bring a successful conclusion to that situation,” said George Silva, the Cyber Recruiting Division chief.

“Since that time training has been routinely conducted to all personnel who work in Cyber Recruiting. Our goal is to identify a situation, trace back to where the individual is while staying in communication with them. I believe that the actions of these three employees are a testimony that we may be on target with this training. We are not trained counselors, and we explain that to them, but we will stay with them until there is someone present with them and report it through the chain.”

According to Silva, this was the 18th suicide threat to come to Cyber Recruiting in the past six years. “Unfortunately, this is not the first situation of this nature and I am proud of all the individuals who have handled the previous 17, as all ended safely,” said Silva.“Our cyber recruiters’ training has been refined through the years and we continue to train to recognize these and other situations. We have a responsibility not only to represent the United States Army and its values on the World Wide Web, but also practice them, so we continually prepare to ensure as much as possible the safety and welfare of our fellow citizens. I believe that this was accomplished here today by the actions of these former Soldiers who are now Army web ambassadors to the world.”

The attention to detail and quick action by the cyber recruiters may have saved the young man’s life.