So I am in the middle of finishing up some final steps in preparations for drill tomorrow aka battle assembly. Honestly I am nervous about the APFT tomorrow morning because my doctor had me on rest from running for like a month and half while we awaited approval of my MRI that I took a little while back. Since my results came back with no major issues, apart form needing to do some special stretches and exercises regularly, I have been slowly getting back into the habit of running to re-condition my body. I have to admit that it's been difficult this time around because May and June is the busiest time of year for Broward teachers, as were finishing up the school year with a seemingly endless list of things to complete before summer vacation. So no, the APFT won't count against me or anything like that, but it just really bothers my ego that I have been set back so far in my Future Soldier Training. My pushups and situps have plateaued where they were last time--I'm still squeezing out the minimum counts for passing.

Anyway I will remain positive and do my best as after all I am hearing more and more often that a lot of the challenge to being a soldier is getting out of your own head and just giving it your all. Make sense? And besides, I am still a civilian and not a soldier. Speaking of...

Current Enlistment Status:
Here is the news about my reserve enlistment, and my switch-over process to active duty. It has been an excruciatingly slow process that I have been recently informed will take months just for my packet to be reviewed. Furthermore, I was given word from the brigade level that the likelihood of approval without having any training or at least having started basic training is slim-to-none. The Plan:
So the next plan of action is to do a (fill in new acronym that I don't know) that basically allows me to ship off to basic training earlier than my contract stipulates, meanwhile a course of action will be taken to send me to active duty.

All of this was discussed and explained to me by the active duty recruiter two days ago, who told me he'd get back to me on this. There has been no feedback as of yet. I'll see what news I next week...HOPEFULLY next week. More importantly, I hope it's good news!

So that's the update. Otherwise, I'm still schedule to report to back to MEPS as an 88N (Transportation Management Coordinator) on 2010 Aug 4 for basic combat training.

As an aside, I have to get out of the Reserve Army and into Active Duty. I'm at half-time or unemployed next year, while the former is indeed favorable, it still leaves me in very dire financial straits that I won't have time to deal with until I get back from BCT and AIT. I can't hang my livelihood on a gamble.

God I need a miracle!

This vlog catches you up on what happened since I attended my first drill weekend, some unfortunate news about my civilian job and how I ultimately came to the conclusion to join the active duty army, among other things.

 

Facebook:  http://facebook.com/godavidstrong

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/godavidstrong

YouTube:  http://youtube.com/godavidstrong

Here are the videos that took me a month to get done, only because I'v been busy and I had to sort through and organize a lot of the footage and make sense of it.  Let me put it this way...I literally rambled and had to turn my crazy talk into a cohesive whole for a viewer to follow.  lol  So if it still seems like I'm talking a whole lotta nothing...well sorry.  I tried. eh :/

Anyway, here is both parts one and two.

Part 1

 

Part 2

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?