ARLINGTON, Va. — An Escanaba-based recruiter was one of the U.S. Army’s top 13 recruiting station commanders recognized by Sergeant Major of the Army Daniel A. Dailey at the Pentagon’s Hall of Heroes April 17.

Staff Sgt. Johnathan Wood is in charge of Escanaba Recruiting Station in the Escanaba, and led a team of recruiters who helped seven individuals find careers in the U.S. Army between January and March 2019, making him one of the top station commanders in the region.

Wood has served for 14 years and says he joined the Army because he felt it was his duty to serve his nation.

“I enlisted because I knew there was a job to do,” he said. “This recognition is proof that when you do not place limits on yourself, there is no limit to your possibilities.”

While he reclassified permanently to an Army recruiter in 2015, Wood served his first 10 years in the Army as an Integrated Family of Test Equipment Operator Maintainer at Hanau, Germany, Fort Drum, N.Y., Fort Wainwright, AK and Fort Campbell, Ky. He has deployed two times to Iraq.

Dailey, along with other Army senior leaders, has made accessions a main priority and is working to ensure recruiters have the resources they need to connect with qualified applicants.

“These ladies and gentlemen are responsible for building the Army every single year,” said Sgt. Maj. of the Army Daniel A. Dailey during the ceremony. “What they do is irreplaceable. It requires young men and women who have lived the life, who have served the cause, who have sacrificed on their own, to go out and look a group of people in the face, those people being mothers and fathers of America, look in their eye and say, ‘I’m going to make a better woman or man out of your daughter or son.'”

As a station commander, Wood leads a team of recruiters helping potential applicants understand the education and certification opportunities, leader development programs and 150 career options the Army offers.

He also recruits and screens applicants to ensure they meet the qualifications to serve. Currently, only about 29 percent of youth meet the Army’s cognitive, physical and moral requirements for service.

“We are facing the toughest labor market we have seen since the all-volunteer force was established in the 1970s,” said Maj. Gen. Frank Muth, who leads U.S. Army Recruiting Command, based at Fort Knox, Kentucky. “Our station commanders and recruiters are working hard to connect to today’s youth to ensure they understand how military experience can benefit them in the future.”

Wood and nearly 10,000 other recruiters around the world helped the U.S. Army hire more than 80,000 individuals for full-time and part-time careers in the active Army and Army Reserve in 2018.

For more information on Wood or Army recruiting, please contact Pat Adelmann with U.S. Army Recruiting Battalion Milwaukee Public Affairs at (414) 577-2520 or patrick.j.adelmann.civ@mail.mil.