In step with my strong spirit of inquisitiveness I started thinking even more deeply about the incentives and benefits of my present contract of service as a future reserve soldier.  I started getting the feeling that I might want to be on active duty and not reserve.  The simple truth is I really am unhappy with my present surroundings and just want to go.  I failed to say this earlier, perhaps I only subtly implied or alluded to this fact.  But I'm gonna stop beating around the bush and be straight, first, with myself about why I enlisted into the US Army.

Here are the real reasons for why I joined the army:

1. To make a career change, as I am not happy in my present civilian occupation.  

2.  True to my nature I crave change, room for spontaneity and adventure almost always.

3.  I want to get out of my home town of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.   I'm not happy with my surroundings and welcome something new, however challenging the path may be--and boy did I choose a challenging path, as basic training looks tough enough. lol

So having said all that...

For the past few days I've been spending hours trying to understand fully what I've signed up for and what options I was juggling around in my head before I enlisted.  Furthermore, I started doing searches online about voluntarily going active duty later on after Basic Combat Training (BCT) and Advanced Individual Training (AIT).  While I was doing this it hit me like a ton of bricks, "Why not just see if I can switch to active duty since I'm literally 5+ months away from current shipping date to basic training."  And since I haven't gone to BCT, I am literally still a non-prior service recruit.  I can probably,HOPEFULLY, still gain incentives greater than what I've already been contracted to receive as a reservist.  Why not go all the way?  The biggest question I asked myself is, what was stopping me from doing this in the first place?!  And then "WHAM" I realized that this means I have to face my recruiter with this plan I've hatched.  Moreover, it means leaving one recruiter I've grown to trust and befriend, to gaining another I'm actually quite sketchy about.  This literally scares me as I've truly adjusted to my current recruiter--who is INCREDIBLY kind and patient.  But before I go any further into this, let me go back to my other question of what was stopping me from going active duty to begin with.

What stopped you from enlisting into an active duty component?

1.  Student loans....a HUUGE amount of them.

2.  My civilian job pays more than what I would earn as an E-4 Specialist on active duty pay at first glance--$38,000 versus rough $21,000 (I'll come back to this).

3.  The very idea of active duty to my mother...  'Nough said.

4.  I'll have to quit my civilian job, love it or hate, it puts bread on the table, by and large.  Or in the very least, ease out of the job by taking a one-year leave of absence, then quit.  Don't ask, it just makes sense in my head, okay! lol  Two words:  security blanket.

At the moment I feel really, REALLY guilty for even considering this plan.  In fact, I have this crazy comedic daydream in my head of my recruiter hulking out, he pulls an M16 out of nowhere and shoots up the place with me as his number one target because of the sheer amount of paperwork that has been required in ADDITION to what is necessary to change me to active duty.  Plus the military isn't a place where you say, "Oops, I changed my mind!"  Contracts in the military are similar to, if not exactly like, Biblical covenants--bloody exchange potentially included. >_<

Now if you've read this far, you're probably incensed by what I'm saying and probably believe that I should have thought this through more carefully prior to enlisting--and you'd probably be justifiably correct in your outrage.  But sir/madam I'd be lying if I said something other than what has been spoken in this post.  The truth is the truth, whether realized early, during or later.

My least bit of defense for my potential plan to pop this request on my recruiter is due to recent developments in my information search that don't seem jive with what I was told by the counselor at MEPS while working to place me for an MOS and the incentives therein.  I had a strong sense of suspicion and skepticism at the time while choosing my MOS (Military Occupational Specialty; job), but foolishly I think, I didn't follow my gut feelings.  And my gut simply whispered, I feel like something very important is being withheld from me--a lie by omission.  Somewhere along the way I was toying with going in as an Active Duty soldier but was distracted--long story, don't ask.

See, I originally planned to just enlist as an officer for Officer Candidate School (OCS), MOS 09S as an active duty soldier.  But through what I've discovered online there may have been a change in policy where officer candidates CAN enroll in the Student Loan Repayment Program (SLRP) while in OCS (based on some of my findings, the SLRP alleged IS and is NOT an option for officer candidates; in others words, there's a lot of conflicting information out there).  Nevertheless, this was not mentioned to me, at all.  The option of going to OCS was mentioned, but I was told in so many words that my students loans would make me an unlikely candidate.  

Does this not sound backwards to you, or is it just strange to me, assuming the SLRP option is open to OCS folk?  But I accepted the counselors guidance at face value without question.  How could I question it?  I had no other information to cause me to say, "Hey, wait a goshdarm minute there bub!"  If what I've learned is true, then I feel hoodwinked, dooped and made a fool out of.  I am financially responsible; my credit score is fabulous and I pay my bills on time above the minimum payment amount (FYI:  The army does intricate credit checks for certain types of MOS; namely secret and top secret jobs that require security clearance, which includes a thorough investigative background check).  Yes, granted all my student loans are deferred at the moment, but that's because I was recently enrolled at an Art School.

Come some time next week, I have a lot of questions for my recruiter.

P.S.  I still feel fearful and guilty.  Irrational, yes...no?

On Thursday evening I met with my recruiter and we drove down to Miami MEPS to get me physically qualified and enlist.  The overall experience almost goes without saying for those who are familiar with how most things work in the military, "hurry up and wait".  It was lot of rush, rush, rush, and wait, wait, wait, and then some more.  

Anyway here is kind of a blow-by-blow of my experience.

Thursday Evening Feb. 4

I arrived at a very nice Marriot hotel where I stayed one night.  The dinner was awesome.  I had rotisserie chicken with vegetables, which is what I needed at the moment.  When I went to my room my roommate was already there.  He was a nice guy, young, but looked deceivingly older.  This kid was 18 and I was shocked when he told me that.  It was hard to tell who else at the hotel were there for MEPS until the next day, but I'm getting ahead of myself.  That evening was relatively low-key.  I watched television the rest of the night until I fell asleep.  Curfew was 10:00pm, but that wasn't an issue for me as I was tired and I didn't really know anyone save my roommate whom I had just met.

Friday Morning Feb. 5

Breakfast was pretty good too.  There were red potatoes, eggs, bacon, fruit and cereal as breakfast choices.  Since we had a wake-up call of 4:30am and breakfast at 5:00am--ahead of the rest of the hotel visitors--I could now see how many people were there for a MEPS visit.  The group was fairly large, maybe about 30 people or little less, that is until we arrived at the MEPS station.  We were brought over by a small shuttle bus where a number of others had driven down for the day.  This was a concern for me because all I knew is that I was a walk-in and had to get to the front of the line as soon as I get off the shuttle.

Fastfoward:  After standing outside for about 15 minutes, we enter and line up to get our name tags.  Turns out I was "projected" (scheduled) properly and was no longer a walk-in thankfully (in general there is a lot of military lingo that I've been catching on to and you'll notice me breaking this down as you read along).  We were briefed on the rules, such as no going outside without permission, no cell phones (this part was funny because after he said that more than half of us, including me, went back to the cubby room to put our cell phones away.  It was funny, although the gentleman briefing us wasn't pleased).  Bypassing the rules, we were divided up into two lines, checked in and sent to Medical on the second floor.  My turn comes up to check in and I'm told that they don't have my ASVAB scores and I was LIVID because I worked hard for that 92 percentile score!  However, since I have a bachelor's degree they allowed me to continue to Medical based on scores from college (as an aside my scores were found later on that same day).  

Medical Physical

I get to the second floor where I was directed into a room with wall-to-wall desks.  I'm told to sit down and take off my jacket.  Now the woman that told me to do so was very unduly short with us (I'm trying to be euphemistic).  My name tag was on my jacket and I figured I'd better move it to my shirt.  The tag rips, she looks up, and sternly says, "I TOLD you to take off your jacket, not your name tag, 'cause you're gonna put it back on."  I felt a little stupid and afraid this would now delay me, but it was no biggie.  And for the record, I slowly began to pick up that this woman was all hot air, but nevertheless I followed her directions closely.  In fact, everyone on the medical floor were stern and seemingly expected perfection when following their directions, but I digress.

My blood pressure was taken shortly after sitting down in the room.  Quick easy and no problems.  I moved to another chair in the room afterward where I was given my blank medical papers.  The papers that I received would be completed as I go from place to place through the process of getting physically qualified.  The breathalyzer test was supposed to be next, but it was delayed I think.  So I was told to go for my eye testing, where I would read through a short book that had pages filled with dots of different sizes and colors to see if I can pinpoint the numbers made up of a different color from the rest of the dots on the page.  Passed.  Next I read lines of letters and numbers.  Passed because I only need a mild prescription to correct my vision--which I knew ahead of time.

Next was the hear exam.  This was very interesting because six of us recruits were told to enter this large booth with partitions and head phones and a "buzzer" like device.  Sounds ranging from loud to deafly subtle were played in in one ear at a time and we had to stop or "cut off" the sound the moment it's heard by pressing the "buzzer".  The lowest and highest pitches were incredibly soft, but I passed.

After hearing, we returned to the first room where our blood pressure was taken and given an introduction about the entire process.  This intro was given late it seemed, but it was all good. The sergeant presenting was very low-key and funny.  He made us very comfortable and thus the rest of our time on the medical floor was quite comfortable from that point on.  In short, he talked about the different things we'd be tested on and the remainder of our tasks to be completed before enlisting later on. 

The intro was over and we were directed to a large room for weight, height and orthopedic exams (joints and what not).  This part of the physical is where we undress down to our underwear and are directed to do various movements to check our limbs, joints and flexibility essentially.  Also while there we signed A LOT of additional paperwork including explanations for tattoos, scars, missing parts/limbs (toes and fingers), and allergies. We were to reveal any important conditions at this point as well.  After all of that, we stripped down to our underwear and stood in rows.   We had to bend our arms repeatedly, bend over touch our toes whereupon the physicians checked our spines for scoliosis.  We had to squat then fall to our knees (gently), then get up without assistance from our hands.  There were many more movements that I can't remember.  The last thing was to privately show our privates to the MEPS physician aka the "cough test".  It lasted all of two seconds. No biggie.

Our breathalyzer, urinalysis, and blood test were next--all of which were to check for substances and diseases in our body.  I was fine, OBVIOUSLY! lol  While I was waiting on the urinalysis--great topic, right? lol -- we all heard this really loud thud on the floor.  I don't know who it was, but apparently someone got up a little too quickly after having blood taken and collapsed.  The guy was fine afterward, but it made things interesting for a moment.

Once all of this stuff was completed we all were sent to have our medical papers reviewed by the Chief Medical Officer to give approval on our physical condition.  I passed my physical.  Next I had to visit my counselor to choose my MOS (military occupational specialty or "job" in civilian terms).

Choosing an MOS

This is the part where the waiting was painstakingly slow and torturous, no lie! Somewhere around noon we were given a box lunch; sandwhiches, fruit, and soda/juice/water.

Before lunch I gave my papers to my counselor and waited for the Security Interviewer to call me into his office as I was trying for a Top Secret MOS--didn't get it.  Have great credit, but a lot of deferred student loans, so I was told to just hold off on trying for a Top Secret MOS about a year from the start of my reserve service.  For now my MOS is 88N (pronounced "eighty-eight november"):  Transportation Management Coordinator.  At the moment this doesn't appear to be a job with immediately transferrable skills to any specific high paying civilian jobs.  But as I've implied, approximately a year from my start time I will be changing and trying to apply for Officer Candidate School (OCS).  For now, I'm satisfied.  My signing incentives are good and I am set to ship for basic training on August 4, 2010 and AIT (Advance Individual Training) for my  specific MOS will follow after basic training for six weeks.  I will basically be done with my training close to or in January 2011.

Enlisting:  Oath of Enlistment

Taking the oath was quick and easy.  We entered the room where we take the oath of enlistment and were arranged in rows and given a crash course on standing at attention and at ease.  Then were quoted some of the finer, dare I say scarier, parts of the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice).  Once we were briefed on all of this, the person to swear/affirm us in arrived and we took the oath.

That's the long and short of my enlisting experience.  If you have read this post, and would like to know more about anything you've read, you are definitely free to ask me any questions about this experience by leaving a comment or you can email me at godavidstrong@gmail.com.

By the way, I'm gonna start trying to do some video blogs too on YouTube very soon:  youtube.com/godavidstrong  At the moment there are no videos there, so watch for them on here and Twitter (twitter.com/godavidstrong).

I hope this is helpful to anyone looking to learn more about the day of enlistment.