I'd flunked out of
college for
the second time. I was having money
problems and nearly everyone I know had suggested I should think about the
military. (That and/or vocational training, but it still costs money.) I took enough orders working fast food anyway. Besides I've always liked marching band and
Boy scouts. Why not check 'em out, at
the least they'd probably wine and dine me trying to get me to say yes.
I thought maybe I'd check all
the different branches out, kind of shop around and see who offered the most,
but I thought about it more and decided I'd check out the Air Force first. My dad was in the Air Force; one of the
other lifeguards at the pool that was in the Air Force said either the Coast Guard
or the Air Force was the most like still being a civilian; and a big reason, though
everyone would say a stupid reason, Janet's dad was retired from the Air
Force. So I stopped by one day... No
one there. The Navy recruiters were
there though and of course he wanted to try talking me into them, I didn't have
nothing else to do anyway since I'd already blocked in some time, so what the
heck. He gave the standard spiel, see
the world, get training, pay for education.
He found out I already had some college and some of my scores, so he
tried to sell me on their nuclear propulsion program. I only halfway listened to most of it, since I was planning on
hearing out the Air Force first. He
tried to get me interested in some other programs, there was the AECF (Advanced
Electronics and Computer Field), he mentioned subs (I had already discounted
them, I figured they had max. height requirements, like I know they all do for
pilots.), and tried selling me on how the Navy was the best service to go into.
The next week I stopped by the
offices on my way out to work, mostly just planning to try to set up another
time. There was only one guy there (the
Navy office had four or five). He was
busy doing in processing for some girl and had another helping out while she
waited. I waited around till he finally
found the time to even notice me, then he came out with an attitude, asked
"How serious are you about this?"
Whoa buddy, I just thought I check things out, I had been planning on
working hard at holding him off, this was totally not the mood I was prepared
for. "What do you mean?" "Well, are you serious or are you just
window shopping, I haven't got time for you if you're not serious." Well I didn't walk in planning on just
signing on the dotted line, I just wanted to see what was what, decide whether
I was interested or not. He threw some
paperwork at me, and went back to helping out the girls. I filled out some questions and went to hand
them over and try to set up some time when he wasn't so busy. I told him I had to get to work by 4:30 out
to the base. He asked then if I was the
guy that had been asking over next door to the Navy. He asked some questions, then asked about my credit, I said I
wasn't positive, but with the money I owed and the problems I'd been having it
probably sucked. I told him how much money
I owed and was all shocked "What'd you do gamble it all up to
Deadwood?" (Right then a thought flashed, maybe I should reconsider. I mean it is a lot, but I would think
someone with a regular career, with some rank I assume to be working
recruitment, should not be that amazed.)
Anyway, he started talking about how if my credit was bad that would be
a problem. I gave him a look like you
gotta be kidding me, what does my credit have to do with my qualifications,
hell that's most of the reason I'm even considering the military. He went off on some spiel about how the Air
Force has higher standards than the other services and this and that. I'm not sure what all he listed because I
tuned him out halfway though, two of the things he mentioned were lower body
fat percentage and higher test scores.
Come on, I'm 6'3" 170lbs. I got low body skin percentage, as
for test scores, I got a knack for standardized test, that's how I got into
college at all, the Navy's preliminary test indicated I should get a 98 on my
ASVAB. I decided to hear more about
what the Navy had to offer. Maybe he
just had an off day, I never did make it back to find out.
After that test indication, they
were all hot to sell me on the Nuclear Field.
I could be an Electronic Technician and electronics was what I was
looking for, I would get nuclear specialist extra pay, sea pay whether I was
out to sea or not, and if I went subs, sub pay whether I was actually out or
not. Also I'd go in as an E-3 instead
of E-1 and get an automatic promotion to E-4 after my first school, along with
a $10,000 bonus. Catch was they wanted
a 6yr obligation, since I'd basically be in school the whole first two. I had only come looking into 4 years, that
was about how long it should take me to get out of debt, and my driving record
would be cleared up in 3 so insurance wouldn't eat me alive no more. I asked about what they had for shorter
times, but most of them wouldn't get me much training and none of them except
AECF in anything I really wanted. AECF
was still a 5 year commitment though and they couldn't guarantee me Electronics
Technician, I might get Fire Controlman or Data Systems Technician. Fire Controlman's about the same training
but its on weapons systems, and while the knowledge is similar; I wanted
something that jumped out obvious on a resume.
With what I already knew about electronics and computers, I should have
had a good job, it just didn't translate well to paper and I'm not very good at
selling myself. Data Systems would seem
ideal at first, it's working on computers, but reading the description
carefully they didn't have to have you actually doing hardware and electronics,
I didn't even want to take a chance unless it was ironclad I wasn't
going to get stuck doing data entry or something for 5 years. Still, an extra year... $10,000 extra will buy an extra year for me.
I went down and took the tests.
Scored 98 of a possible 99 on the ASVAB (take it again, I could do better, the
two speed area kicked my but), 65 of I think 85 on the Nuclear Field entrance
test (basically all physics, I wasn't too happy with that score but it'd been
two or three years). The recruiters
were all anxious to get me signed up. I
tried to see if I could make a deal for anything alse but E-3 is the most they
can get you without time in rate and $10 grand was the max enlistment bonus
then. They said I could get the full
bonus if I came in right away. I know
full well I'd get it anyway, but I thought about why I should delay. The sooner I went in the sooner I had a
reliable paycheck and started making progress on my bills. The only reason I could come up with was
giving notice at work; the base hadn't bothered giving me any notice the week
before when they fiddled with and cancelled my hours, and McDonald's is
McDonald's, the jobs not important enough to matter and from experience notice
at fast food just lets them screw you.
So I signed up.
They wanted me in by the 30th (I
suppose their quota for the month.) which was the next Thursday (This was
Saturday night.). So I spent Superbowl Sunday hanging out and saying bye to my
friends, Monday taking care of business (quitting, paying off storage, etc.),
Tuesday I went home said bye to the family, Wednesday they dropped me off at
the recruiters for the trip back down to Sioux Falls. On the way to Rapid my parents and I spent the night in Deadwood
and did some gambling till about 4 a.m.
Wednesday night in Sioux Falls my sister came over from college and said
bye, and us and the other guys that came down with me drank and stayed up till
4. Then at 5 we had to go to MEPS. That was a long day since I'd got everything
done back on Saturday, but we couldn't fly out till after 5 p.m. and you
couldn't seep anywhere around there.
They made me group leader for the 4 of us going from there; me, the
other guy who rode down with us, and two other guys. Flew into Minneapolis, ate, flew down to Chicago, then around
midnight the bus headed on out to Great Lakes.
That first night in boot camp is
pretty well agreed on as the most
miserable, longest time in boot camp.
They line you up, tell you to stand at attention and you're not allowed to
talk. Here you are in the middle of the
night, who knows how far from home, surrounded by strangers you're going to spend
the next two months with, but you can't talk to anyone and you can't sit down
and relax. You stand there for hours,
mostly for no reason that you can see, but they have to process the people
ahead of you and they have to wait for people to show up to have a big enough
group at once. About 4 in the morning
we finally got in and they did ditty back issue. First you ran through and grabbed your underwear and sweats
(better know you r sizes). Then you
strip off your civilian clothes and lay out everything you brought with out in
front of you for them to decide what you can send home and what goes in the
trash, you don't get to keep anything except maybe some toilet articles. Some staff member took my Swiss army knife
my sister gave me, I didn't argue cause I'd been told we couldn't bring knives,
I just had planned on sending it home.
Then they issued everything the Navy says you need for the next 9 weeks,
or the next 4 years for that matter, except for uniforms.