Army still a big part of Sinclair's life
Staff writer
Roger Sinclair still does what he does best: "Be all that he can be — in the Army."
A native of Omaha, Neb., he graduated from Benson High School in 1984. He has attended Butler County Community College and Kansas State University.
In 1985, he joined the U.S. Army and served 11 years in active duty. He was stationed at Fort Riley for most of his career. He served three overseas tours — one and half years in Germany, six months in Saudi Arabia, and one year in South Korea.
On May 12, 1994, he and his wife Stephanie were married.
"The first year we were married, I had to go to South Korea for a year," Sinclair said. "That was hard."
He decided that being overseas was too hard on his family, He received an honorable discharge and got out of active duty.
In 1996 he transferred and started working part-time in the Army National Guard. He worked in the infantry as a squad leader and a platoon sergeant out of Wichita.
While working part-time for the National Guard, Sinclair also worked for Countryside Feed, LLC in Hillsboro, making deliveries. He worked there for three years.
In December of 1999, a position as a full-time recruiter became available at the Army National Guard post in Newton. Sinclair got that position.
Sinclair said his first year as a full-time recruiter, he felt pretty overwhelmed, but now he really enjoys it.
Some of Sinclair's duties as a recruiter include visiting the 15 high schools in Marion, McPherson, and Harvey counties.
"My biggest emphasis when recruiting is that I want to give the National Guard a good citizen-soldier," Sinclair said.
"I try to stress to young recruits the benefits of joining the Guard — free job training, paid job training, and free schooling — all for a commitment of one weekend per month and two weeks per summer for as little as three years.
"I tried to get my two oldest children, who are now in college to join, but I think they've always seen me in uniform and they said that it is not for them," Sinclair said.
"That's OK, part of the reason that I serve is so that others don't have to," he said.
Sinclair has four children from a previous marriage: Cara, 21, Kyle, 18, Jaime, 16, and Jordan, 12.
He is responsible for the preliminary work that needs to be done on each recruit and also the paper work.
Sinclair also recruits prior service people to get them to re-enlist. He gives school programs, attends civic events, such as county and state fairs, setting up booths with other recruiters.
He goes through a screening process with each recruit to make sure the recruit meets the standards set by the National Guard.
Some attributes of the screening process for recruits include meeting medical standards, passing a military written exam, meeting educational requirements, having acceptable moral qualities( e.g., any law violations).
Sinclair said that his philosophy of life is pretty much what his parents taught him: To trust in God, to work hard, be the best you can be, to take care of your family, and "don't sweat the mall stuff."
Hard work has paid off for Sinclair. Last year, he earned Rookie of Year for recruiting and received second place for his recruiting efforts. This year he received first place, which will allow him to travel to a conference in Washington, D.C. and to have a five-day vacation there with his wife.
He and Stephanie are active in the community and in church.
Stephanie has taught at Hillsboro Middle School for 14 years and has served as middle school volleyball and high school softball assistant coach.
They are members of Ebenfeld Mennonite Brethren Church and have been affirmed as a deacon couple recently.
They both play softball in a summer coed league in Wichita and fall coed league in Park City. Roger also plays in a men's summer league.
He has been a member of the American Legion for two and half years.
They have two children, Lucas seven, and Juliana, five.
