A long road to the top: Trio of command’s best recruiters have their roots in Ecuador Published April 3, 2019 By Master Sgt. Chance Babin When Master Sgt. Gabriel Silva won Air Force Reserve Command Recruiting Service’s Mike Mungavin Award for 2018, given to the top recruiter in AFRC, it completed a long journey for him. As a 12-year-old boy, Silva and his family immigrated to the United States from Ecuador. He didn’t speak a word of English, but he was excited about his new country and the opportunities it offered. “I had no instruction in English, so the learning curve for me was big,” Silva, currently an officer accessions recruiter assigned to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, said. “Kids in the ’90s were a bit harsh. They made fun of the way I spoke and how I dressed a lot. But I learned a lot of resiliency and adaptability early on. I worked really hard to learn and to fit in. It took me about six months to start communicating effectively and about a year and a half to be fully proficient.” He said learning the culture was the easy part. “I was young and easily molded by my environment,” he said. “So, as my knowledge grew so did my assimilation to the new environment.” He began his education in the United States at a Catholic school and credits his teachers with helping him make the transition to a new country. “All the education I received was great,” he said. “Surprisingly, there were not a lot of nuns, but I remember my first teacher, Mrs. Talty. She was very patient and caring and she was a big help for me. I do feel I was ahead because of the education I received in Ecuador, so school was never hard for me academically.” Silva’s introduction to the military came when he was in high school and saw a recruiter for the first time. “Thinking back, a big part of my childhood was spent adapting and trying to fit in,” he said. “I saw this recruiter walk into the school and he was able to easily speak and navigate through any environment. He commanded attention and respect. I was hooked.” After high school, Silva joined the active-duty Air Force. He was assigned to Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado, working as a heating, ventilation and air conditioning technician. “I was on active duty for six years,” he said. “I was an average troop, young and dumb for the most part. I wasn’t very serious about the job so I didn’t have a whole lot of success. I figured I’d do six years and grow a little, go to college and get a job in the civilian sector. I didn’t want to drown in debt.” In 2008, Silva left active duty and moved to Florida. He found a job at the Caribe Royal Hotel doing HVAC work. “Working at the Caribe Royal was fun,” he said. “It was a normal service industry job where I did HVAC, so I was comfortable doing what I learned to do in the military. I also witnessed an AFRC Recruiting conference during my time there and thought it looked like a lot of fun.” When he got laid off from the hotel, he went to a local recruiting office and met with a recruiter who put him into the Reserve at Homestead Air Reserve Base in Florida. Working as a traditional Reservist in civil engineering at Homestead, he started to look for a way to wear the uniform full time again. “To be honest, I missed the uniform and I felt like recruiting would be a cool job to have since I like to socialize and talk. But I had no idea I would become a recruiter until I met the recruiter at Homestead,” he said. “He gave me the initial information. At that point, I was already looking at some options to go back on active duty. He laid down the process and then I went to interview with the chief in Tampa who did my ‘recruit the recruiter’ package.” The rest is history. In addition to winning the top recruiter award for 2018, Silva has also been a member of the Century Club for six consecutive years. To earn Century Club status, a recruiter must attain 150 percent of his or her classification goal. “Early on, I interacted with individuals who invested in my ability to aim high, whether I did or not,” he said. “That created a habit, then it evolved to see if I could be better than the year before. I competed with myself a lot. I had no focus other than self-improvement.” While Silva does appreciate the awards and acknowledgement, he feels it is an obligation to continue working at the highest level and set the bar for others. “The recognition aspect is always a confidence booster,” he said. “But Century Club for me is a responsibility. It is a chance to motivate and bring other recruiters up to my level. You can’t ask anybody to go to a place where you have not been yourself.” Mungavin is a legend in AFRC Recruiting, having been its commander for eight years and being honored with the Order of the Sword upon his retirement. Silva said it was extra special to receive the Mungavin Award from the man himself. “It was tremendously humbling to be in the presence of such a historical figure in recruiting,” he said. “I was honored to be on that stage and I felt a great sense of obligation to my peers to continue to be a good follower and an effective peer mentor.” Mungavin said being back with the recruiters was a great experience. “It’s always an honor to present the award and fun to be with recruiters,” Mungavin said. “On stage I congratulated him and afterwards I found him and told him how proud I was of him and I believed he would make an outstanding leader. I also sent him a congratulations card the next day. I think it’s great when you look at his background and all he has had to do to get where he is now. It makes it extra specials.” One of the things that helps AFRC remain on the cutting edge is their recruiting efforts are strengthened by the broad array of backgrounds and experiences of its Reserve Citizen Airmen. This diversity is not only seen with Airmen at the units, but also cuts across the ranks of recruiters in AFRC Recruiting Service. “In recruiting we seek out and find only the best people to fill vacancies throughout the command. Diversity ensures that we accomplish that mission,” said Chief Master Sgt. Jean Vargo, AFRC RS manager. “When we are hiring new recruiters it’s the same thing. We want the best people to do the job. Having recruiters from diverse backgrounds makes us the best recruiting service the military has to offer.” Silva is not the only AFRC recruiter who hails from Ecuador or has family there. Master Sgt. Geovanny Govea, an instructor at the Recruiting Schoolhouse, has ties to the South American country. His parents migrated to the United States in the 1970s seeking a better future for their kids. “My dad was sponsored by Caterpillar as a mechanic and I was born here in the U.S., the first citizen in my family,” Govea said. “As a child, we went to Guayaquil, Ecuador, for the summers and it was life changing for me. We boiled water to drink, slept with mosquito nets, had no plumbing or AC and we walked everywhere. It definitely makes you think about the luxuries we take for granted here in the U.S. Going to Ecuador and witnessing life in an underprivileged country humbled me. I could have lived in that environment but my parents wanted something better … the American dream.” Govea said he works hard to prove his parents were right in their decision to move to the United States. “Throughout my life, I have strived to bring merit to my family for migrating to the U.S.,” he said. “I’m so grateful to be an American and an Airman.” Coincidentally, Silva and Govea’s paths crossed while they were on active duty at Peterson. “(Silva) is a hard worker and a go-getter,” Govea said. “We met on active duty when I was security forces and he was CE. We later went through the recruiting evaluation course and then tech school when we became recruiters. We work well together.” Master Sgt. Jose Escorza, an officer accessions recruiter at March ARB, California, is also originally from Ecuador. “I have known Master Sgt. Silva for about three years,” Escorza said. “I have never worked with him but we bumped into each other during the 2015 deployment for training in Orlando. We started talking about our backgrounds and found out we are both from the same town in Ecuador. In fact, His grandmother lived in my same neighborhood.” Escorza said Silva was the first person from Ecuador he met in the Air Force. “This was very exciting for me to see somebody so successful in the recruiting organization who came from my background,” he said. “Master Sgt. Silva also introduced me to Master Sgt. Govea and let me know his family is also from Ecuador. Even though I have never worked with him, I admire his passion for the job and for helping others reach their goals. He simply sets the example for others to follow.” Silva said he finds great comfort in having fellow recruiters with his similar background and love for the Air Force. “I come from a small country and to find two more people who share the same ethnic background is highly unlikely,” Silva said. “But to find two great friends who have your same values, work ethic and ethnic background is incredible. I went to recruiting school with Master Sgt. Govea and he has become a longtime friend and mentor. He’s one of the bravest dudes I know. And I met Master Sgt. Escorza because we were in the same squadron. He has been a great friend, always willing to help.”