Daniel, Genesaret, Alejandra, Karina, Débora and in front of all of them First Corporal Alejandro Castro Quintana. This man from A Coruña by birth and from Laguna by adoption boasts of his team. Formed entirely by canaries and with parity between men and women. But, above all, for its didactic capacity when it comes to informing, a technique that they learn from the time they start doing this work. They are the faces of the Army by forming the Information Unit of the Command of Canary Islands in the province (there is another in Las Palmas). They explain to anyone who requests it, especially young people, how and why to join the Armed Forces. The offer for this year on the Island is 41 places, 41 from Tenerife who will join the Army.
Castro specifies that “we belong to Earth but we also give information about the rest of the Armed Forces.” He has been working for 16 years, reporting on the benefits of joining the Army, which he likes. He can tell by the enthusiasm he puts into talking about her. He is a troop commander and was previously assigned to peace missions such as the one in the former Yugoslavia.
He values that “last year, we gave 205 conferences in educational centers in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The majority in Tenerife but also quite a few on La Palma». This year, he adds, “we are on our way to equaling and even exceeding that figure because since September we have already held 150 talks.” They are offered by all the members of the team because, he explains, “for that we are a unit.”
The work begins with a visit to the town halls, the agencies of Employment and Local Development, as well as the Youth Departments. The journey takes them through the entire geography of the province, through the 31 municipalities of Tenerife, the 14 of La Palma, the six of La Gomera and the three of El Hierro. Last year they carried out 31 official visits.
The annual balance specifies eleven mobile information points throughout the Island. From Meridiano, an already classic – thanks for his good predisposition to address – to the south, north, Santa Cruz or La Laguna. To this must be added professional, employment days such as the Empleoland island fair or open doors, exhibitions, official visits… A huge task.
Useful, close, modern and decisive. It is the motto of the Armed Forces that the Information Unit tries to explain and they lead by example. Castro emphasizes that “we have always been highly valued by the Canarian people.” In this regard, he emphasizes: «It is very gratifying to go to a place and that people invite you to coffee and tuck you in as if you were from there». He believes that this has always been the case, although he acknowledges that the positive work of units such as the UME in fires or the eruption of Tajogaite.
Remember that «the minimum to join the Army is to have 4th of ESO. The established cutoff, for example, for non-commissioned officers from the Baccalaureate is 8.3 in Sciences and 8.9 in Social Sciences and Humanities. Only 3% have 4th ESO and 24% are university graduates. To be official, the cut in the EBAU note is 12,271. The prejudice ended, when the compulsory military service ended in 2001, that the Army was the drawer oftailor of untrained generations. The Armed Forces claim the opposite.
In the case of Troops and Sailors there is an annual call with two cycles: January and June. For career military it is in May. In the first cycle, 3,410 places have been summoned. Castro calculates that there may be an average of 35,000 applicants. “We are the autonomous community, the Head of the Unit proudly values, – that in proportion more people incorporates into the Armed Forces and the one that has more people outside the islands.”
The point of the Army Information Unit will be this week until Friday on Álvaro Rodríguez López de Santa Cruz street, at the entrance of the Meridiano Shopping Center. It is enough to get closer to obtain all the information and resolve doubts to know how, when and why to access the Beloved Forces. They, and they, are the faces of the Army.
