Today I completed some of the BTTL items: military time, drill and ceremonies, general orders, rank structure, and phonetic alphabet. The marching was the hardest part, the rest was just memorization. Land navigation we did a few weeks ago. On Saturday SFC Danache will go over first aid and do the fitness test (which I am not capable of passing at this point). I also have to setup direct deposit with my bank.

So the only tough part is the fitness test. If I don't get signed off on it this Saturday, I'll just have to try it later. I have to do a 2 mile run in 17 minutes, 45 sit-ups in 2 minutes, and 39 push-ups in 2 minutes. The push-ups I am definately not ready for, the run and sit-ups are pretty iffy at this point.

Today I went to the monthly Army DEP (Delayed Entrance Program) function. It was at a local martial arts school. We did about an hour each of Jiu Jitsu, Judo, and Mui-Tai. I didn't really care for the Mui-Tai but the other two were really fun. I'm thinking of signing up for classes for the two months I have left before shipping out.

Met a guy who's going to be a Cav Scout (19D) and is leaving for Ft. Knox the day before I am. I'm hoping see him around or even be in his company/platoon.

Next month's function is a Christmas party, if they can get enough money for it. It's not nearly as cool as what we did today. Hopefully I'll be able to attend the function in January, and that it will be fun too. Sgt. Danache said last month they went and rode Karts, that would have been fun too.

Sgt. Danache wants me to come see him sometime this week, I'll probably go on Tuesday.

Well, I'm finally sworn into the U.S. Army. My ship date is Janurary 19, 2006 as a 19K with a $4000 bonus. At the moment I'm not feeling so much excited as crazy (as in I must be crazy).

As usual, the day at MEPS was long and boring. The first 7 or so hours were spent just sitting around waiting. Not much to say after that, signed a few papers, swore the oath and got out of there. It was another couple hours waiting back at the recruiters, first for Sgt. Danache to show up then to go over stuff with him.

Until I leave, I have to see him twice a month. Once a month they do something with all the future soldiers, this month it's a Jujitsu class.

Here is the letter I wrote, edited by Sgt. Gerber (I believe). The day I wrote it (by hand) I had been at MEPS for my physical and wanted to get home, plus the CO was doing an inspection so I didn't want to wait to edit it myself. It's pretty close to what I wrote though, I had it broken up into another paragraph and some of the grammar could use a little work. It seemed to work as is though, so I guess I can't complain.

To whom it may concern,

For as long as I can remember, my dream has been to join the U.S. Army and to become a Tanker. When I was a child I had toy soldiers and toy tanks. My father would take mt to work and let me sit on his lap while he drove tracked construction equipment. I read "On the trail of the desert fox", a story about Field Marshall Rommell when I was ten years old. Through it all I knew I wanted to be a solder and a Tanker, to go to war to defend the United States when I got older. When I reached the age of enlistment I had to put my plans on hold and get a job to help support my mother. Once my obligation lifted, I started thinking of the Army again. I watched every documentary about the Army and tanks as I could, including "Off to war" about the Arkansas National Guard, "Top 10 Tanks", "Anatomy of an Abrams tank", and many others. On "Anatomy", A TC was interviewed saying how much he smelled because he hadn't showered in 45 days, but he is crew didn't care because they were closer than brothers. I saw that and realized I too wanted to be a part of that type of brotherhood. I collected every piece of information about the M1 Abrams and the Army I could. I bought and read books including, "Enlisted soldiers guide" and the "Squad leader's guide". I found Army field manuals on Ebay and purchased the Abrams Operators Guide Volume Two. I look all the time for Volume One but have yet to find it. I also printed the Tank Platoon field manual and read it.

I scored a 99 on the ASVAB and have pased my physical exam, the only problem is my height, I am 75" tall, 2" over the maximum requirement. I respectfully request that my request for a height waiver be reviewed at the highest possible level. I understand that hte height limit exists for a reason but want to make sure there is absolutely no chance before I give up. I hope that this exception may be made for my dream to come true. I thank you for your consideration in this matter.

Respectfully,
Jesse DeFer

Talked to my recruiter a few minutes ago, and it looks like I'm going to get an exception for 19K! He said they had to take it all the way to USAREC (US Army Recruiting Command) to get the approval. They want me in tomorrow at noon to update the letter I wrote and probably to talk about a few things. I'm not sure when I'll be shipping out, though I'm sure they want me to go in sooner than January after all the strings they pulled. I'm hoping they'll give me a month or two, maybe I can go in right after the Christmas 'break'.

I'm scheduled to go downtown on Wednesday at 0545 to actually sign so until then it won't be totally official but I'm fairly confident at this point.

Today I had my physical! Up at 0415, Sgt. Danache picked me up and then we picked up a girl at Desert Sky Mall. Once at MEPS we got a folder with our medical forms.

The first thing I did was the hearing test, which took about 15 minutes of actual testing, but at least 10 minutes of waiting. They put 6 of us in a soundproof booth and we had headphones and a button to press if we heard a sound. Pretty standard stuff if you've ever taken a hearing test. That started at 0615. A LOT of it was waiting, just like everybody tells you.

Next I got my blood pressure tested, but it was high so they had me come back later in the day. My third attempt at blood pressure finally passed, it was a relief! They give you 10 minutes after your second failure and then the next two tries they'll give you 15 minutes. The 10 minutes did the trick for me, I closed my eyes and calmed my breathing and I passed fine.

I went to the vision testing room next, but they told me to come back later because my vision was over 20/50.

After that I had my blood sample taken. I thought I might feel a little woozy because the last time I had a needle stuck in me I almost passed out. However, I just didn't watch him stick me and didn't have any problems. I think the needle they use for taking blood is smaller than they use for shots so it's not as painful. I was the first one to get my blood taken, and yet I was probably one of the last ones to leave from our group of 21. Almost everybody was Army, a couple Navy, a couple Air Force, with 3 prior service.

Next was the urine analysis. I had some problems with this one, I drank some water and waited 10 minutes. I knew I had to urinate, but it just wouldn't come. I stood there trickling for about 5 minutes before I had enough. A doctor was in there with you watching, but not really looking at you. He was a character, an older chinese man he didn't say anything to me when I first went in. He pointed at my forms which have a sticker you're supposed to put on the bottle. Then he mimed peeling the backing off and putting it on the bottle, finally he pointed to a urinal. It was pretty amusing but weird at the same time. He turned out to be pretty cool and joked with us later, but at first I thought he wasn't one of the 'nice' doctors. That was the first big hurdle, the next was the 'turn your head and cough' test.

On to the personal interview/physical with the doctor. All the doctors were nice and a few of them were real jokers so it was mostly enjoyable. My doctor went over my forms and asked me the same questions I've been asked about 10 times already, at this point it was pretty routine. Then he had me strip to my boxers and checked my heart, lungs, foot arch, , hernia's, and spine. Finally he had me drop my drawers and turn my head and cough, it was over pretty quick but it was still weird. Then he had me bend over and check for hemoroids, another weird one but over fast. That was the last big hurdle and the rest of time I actually had fun.

After that was about an hour wait for the movement/joint testing. They waited until 8 of us were ready after our personal physicals which is why we waited so long. The chinese doctor had was in here doing this with us. When I was in my personal physical, I could hear him through the wall, it sounded like a martial arts class. 'Kick! Hard! Like this!' They had us do all sorts of weird stuff, swing our arms around, walk on our toes, heels, and knees, and checked our spines again. They also weighed and measured us. I was right in the middle of my weight range, I was 180, the range was 143-220. Oh, and they had us do all this stuff in our underwear. I was glad I bought a pair of boxers just for this ocassion, doing it in briefs would have been a tad embarassing as evidenced from the guys who were wearing them.

Next I went back to the blood pressure testing, which I failed again. They gave me 10 minutes to relax and then I passed it. I was relieved.

Finally back to vision, where I scored 20/100 in both eyes, somewhat as I expected. The doctor for that test was another character, he made all sorts of jokes about how blind I was and the birth control glasses I will get in BCT. My vision is correctable to 20/20 so I'm all good there.

Finally, back to the doctor where he grades you in 5 or 6 areas. I passed all with a 1, the highest score. He then signs off on it and you get to see the job counselor. I was nearly the last one out of there, there was a guy after me who couldn't do the urine analysis and he was trying all day long.

I went to the the job counselor and he glanced at my forms and told me to call Sgt. Danache. He must have seen something or known that my MOS was still being decided. This was about 1130. I called Sgt. Danache and he was at lunch so I told him I'd wait. About 10 minutes later one of the other recruiters shows up, apparently he was in the neighborhood and Sgt. Danache asked him to pick me up.

We went back to their office and I talked to Sgt. Wan, Sgt. Danache's boss. He'd been trying hard to get me 19K. He wanted me to write a letter saying how much I wanted it and all the research and stuff I did. I don't have a copy right now, but when I get it from him I'll post it here. It seemed like every recruiter in the office wanted to talk to me about what MOS I was going for and when I was signing up. It kinda bugged me because I know what I want and I don't really care about their favorite MOS or what they think I should do.

I did learn a few things talking to them, one is that you can go SF after you join with a regular combat MOS. If you go SF from the beginning and you wash out, you become regular airborne infantry, which I don't particularly want to be (not that I would wash out). SF training is 2 years, which requires a 5 year enlistment. I'm thinking I won't enlist as that but if I want to I'll switch to it later.

I hung around for a while, had lunch with a private on TDY with the recruiters and got Sgt. Danache to take me home. The commander (a female Major) showed up and was talking to all the recruiters so that delayed me a while. I got home at about 1530. It was a long day but not nearly as long as I was expecting, only 21 applicants really made things move at MEPS.


If I can't get 19K, I'm still leaning towards 19D, but now with SF later on. SF sounds really cool, but I'm definately not ready to tackle that right now.

After another trip to the recruiter to reserve my job, I find out that there are no waivers for the height qualification for 19K and that I am out of luck. The recuiters told me I could enlist as something else, then possibly reenlist as a 19K when that time comes. Apparently they don't do the same qualification checks during reenlistment and you get brownie points for already being enlisted. I guess I'll see if that's true because I'm still committed to joining. It is a big disappointment although I knew it was a possibility since I had seen the height requirement before.

Now comes the hard part, what else do I want to do? It seems a job related to the Abrams would give me a better opportunity to change my MOS later. Cavalry Scout (19D) seems the likely canidate at this point, but being an Abrams mechanic seems like it would be a good foot in the door too. Cannon Crewmember (13B) would also be a possibility, a Paladin would be pretty fun too though it's definately not an Abrams. At this point, I'm leaning towards 19D because it's closely related and still combat/direct fire.

I told Sgt. Danache that I needed a month to decide. I still have my physical scheduled for tomorrow, I just won't be picking my MOS for a while yet.

I thought I would post my unverified CAT-ASVAB scores here, so I have a record of them beyond the piece of paper they give you.

Test date: 2005/09/19

Standard Scores:
GS=72 AR=65 WK=70 PC=68 MK=64 EI=81 AS=80 MC=77 AO=59 VE=70

Composite Scores:
Army:
GT=138 CL=141 CO=153 EL=153 FA=152 GM=155 MM=161 OF=154 SC=150 ST=149

Air Force:
M=99 A=99 G=99 E=99

Navy/CG:
GT=135 EL=282 BEE=265 ENG=144 MEC=222 MEC2=201 NUC=276 OPS=258 HM=206 ADM=134

Marine:
MM=161 GT=147 EL=147 CL=137

AFQT Percentile: 99

Yet another visit to the recruiter, this time apparently because I needed to initial something. That something turned out to be every yes/no question on the medical form (like a hundred of them). Every one had to be initialed. Then he pulls out another form, one 'battalion questionnaire' that asks all the same medical/legal questions and you again have to initial each one. This one was over 100 questions long. Then I got to go over the whole mess with Sgt. Danache's boss. All told it was another 3 hours at the recruiters!

Recruiters now have the ability to reserve jobs dirctly from their office, instead of you having to do it with the counselor at MEPS. The system is web based and makes you enter all your information again, schooling, ASVAB scores (including composite scores), but at least no medical stuff. One of my ASVAB scores was higher than the web site allowed, it was 161 but apparently the max the web site takes is 160 so Sgt. Danache put it as 160. I'm wondering if the 161 is a result of a rounding error and 160 really is the max you're supposed to be able to get. Their databases aren't even integrated, it sounds like they have at least three separate DBs with the same info in them. Ugly. Anyway, the only jobs that game up for me in my preferred time window were 13P and 13M (MLRS stuff). I'm guessing because they don't forcast their requirements farther than a month or so off. Anyway, they tried to get Ft. Knox on the line for help with it, but they didn't answer the phone. So I'm off again tomorrow at 8:30 to hopefully get my 19K (M1 crewmember) slot reserved. I'm not holding my breath.

I took another trip to the recruiter (Sergeant First Class Henry Danache) today to give him some documentation (birth certificate, high school diploma, ssn card) and fill out some more paperwork. Called my dad to get his address, and since he was at Noah and Amanda's so I got their address to use as a reference. Everything takes so long, I spent an hour just doing that.

They had me do a UA (urine analysis) today as well, apparently they want to make sure you're not on anything before wasting the MEPS guys time. Needless to say, for those who know me, it came up negative. They didn't watch me like the guys at MEPS will do either, which was nice.

My next visit to the recruiting station will be October 26th. I need to get my ASU transcripts before then in case they want them, which means I have to remember just when it was I went there... I'm thinking spring/fall of 1997 but am not sure yet.

On the 27th I go in for my medical and get to see the job counselor. That's also the no turning back day as they'll swear me in if all goes well.

Today was my last day of work at Choice Hotels International, Inc.

It was also the first time I told any of them except former employee John Hibner. I'm sure he leaked it to somebody because a couple of them guessed right on the money. Chuck was spreading the 'shrimp boat sailor' rumor, some thought I was going to work with my dad or wind up on the FBI most wanted list. In reality I'm joining the U.S. Army as an M1 Crewmember (the Abrams tank). Not a whole lot of them were surprised by the Army, but most of them seemed a bit surprised about the tank part (they figured I'd be doing computer stuff).

I realized as I was walking out the door that I was going to miss some of my friends there. I'm definately going to have to visit a few times before I leave for BCT.

Now, I have to find stuff to do for the next 4 months...