Marie's Blog: 2008

Well after about 9 months of thought and tons of paperwork it looks like I will be joining the Army Reserve. I go up for my physical on Tuesday and if everything goes well I will be swearing in as well. I am so excited and nervous at the same time. It is super crazy when you think about it. I have wanted to join the Army since I was a little kid and now it may be coming true. The kids are excited and a little apprehensive about it. They are proud and sad because I will be gone for a while at basic training.

October 21, 2008 Well I left at 2am to go to Spokane for my medical stuff. I could not sleep because I was so ramped up. We get there and the other guy who was going up to do medical, sign his contract, and swear in. Well he forgot to bring his licence. Hello you need your ID to get into a federal building. So the recruiter took me up and got me started with the never ending paperwork shuffle. The recruiter got him in and got his process started.

I did not know what to expect and I soon found out. We were like cattle going though the shoots. It starts at the Army Liaison checking in and then going to the main desk checking in and turning in the forms for lunch and picking up my medical file. Of course I knew it was going to be a big file because I am not 18 and have had my fair share of medical problems. I in fact had the largest file there. So then we get told to sit down and wait to be called back. We are all taken into a room where all the waivers about the privacy act, the aids act, and a bunch of other stuff is read to us out loud. Then we are walked line by line through the medical questionnaire (over 200 questions) and instructed to explain all the questions that were answered yes. Well needless to say I had a bunch of yeses and I had to request an additional piece of paper to get it all written down while all the other recruits were sitting there waiting for me.

Well during this whole process we have been instructed not to drink or chew gum because we will be taking a breathalyzer test prior to leaving the room and going to the next stage. Well they finally started letting the other recruits move forward to the next texts. Me and one other guy are still there filling out all of our yes portions. I am the last one done and go out and check in and let them know I am done. They ask if I can go pee so that they can do the UA I can so I go and get followed into the bathroom so that they can watch me pee in a small cup. I am instructed to give a sample and NOT wash my hands and carry it to the lab after which they do a quick drug test and pregnancy test and ship the rest off for what ever other tests that they do. Which was gross. So with that done it has been decided that the two people with thick files will be seen by the male doctor and everyone else by the female doctor.

So now I am sitting waiting for the male doctor to get done with the "other thick file" he went in while I was giving my UA. They finally decide that I can do a couple other tests while I am waiting. They take my blood, check my vision, check my colorblindness, and check my hearing. I finally go into see the doc and explain exactly what my yes answers were from. I finally get done with this interview and was then sat back down to wait for the physical portion with the female doctor.

She is finally ready for us we are instructed to get down to our bra's and panties (I had to wear granny panties) so they can watch our bodies while we are doing exercises so they can see how we move to include doing the duck walk. The female doctor wants to talk to me (she is the boss) since the other doctor is the one who interviewed me. So I go through the interview with her and low and behold I am done with all the stuff I can do during this trip.

So I go and sit down to wait for the other guy that came up with me to finish. Well he forgot to disclose a fight that he got into during high school so now they have to find all his court records from Walla Walla so we have to wait for all of this. I was finished with all my stuff by 10:30am he does not get done until around 3pm and remember I have not slept yet since the night before and we are not allowed to even close our eyes.

Well now that part is done now I need to wait for my dependency waiver to get signed by everyone before I can go back up for the rest of my stuff. Picking my job, signing my contract, and swearing in.

November 2, 2008 WOW what a week I went to Spokane on Sunday night to stay the night to sign my contract on Monday and be a member of the Army Reserve. I got to stay at the hotel this time. I checked in and ate some dinner and went back to my room and low and behold I had a roommate. Her name was Peggy and she was shipping out and joining the Coast Guard. We chatted and got to know each other she was pretty cool.

November 3, 2008 So we woke up at 4:30am Monday to eat breakfast and then get on the shuttle to MEPS to be there by 6am. When I arrived I was put in the holding pen and told to wait while they got all my stuff together. Well shippers get processed first and they called me in around 10:30am. We were going over all my stuff to make sure that everything was correct on my forms. We did not have my children's birth certificates in my packet and I need those to sign. Well so my recruiter had to drive my kids birth certs to Spokane (3hr drive) from Pasco so that we would be clear. We got that taken care of and then moved forward well there were several minor typo's and some addresses that needed to be changed.

Then we got to the police stuff and I had a minor offence when I was 15 and my recruiter did not have it in the system so back to the holding pen I go so my recruiter can go and request all my juvie records. Well by now it is about 1:30pm and they don't swear in people after 3:30pm so we are on the clock and at the mercy of the courts in Central Oregon to return all my doc's from when I was a kid (which they had no records of)

Around 3pm the SST called me into the office so we could go over the contract and get all forms signed so when my juvie stuff showed up we would be good to go. Well we went through everything including me getting fingerprinted by now it is past 3:30pm so they ask if I want to stay the night and finish up in the morning. So I had the choice I wanted to just stay and get this done so that I did not have to come back to Spokane. So back to the hotel we go.

This time I am more comfortable and know what to expect so I sit down to eat and join a couple other people going to enlist in the morning. We chatted for a while and decided to play some cards. Well we ended up having about 5 people for several hours and they rotated out so I think I met everyone who was at the hotel. I got a new roommate this time a girl in high school getting ready to join the National Guard. She was up half the night studying for the ASVAB (test for entry to the military) she ended up getting a 29 (you need a 31 to join) and kept me up.

November 4, 2008 (Election Day Obama was elected president) The same routine as before up at 4:30am only now it is Tuesday. Well we were thinking that my day would go fast of course I can't do anything till after the shippers are done. So in the mean time my recruiter is still trying to get something from the Juvie courts to prove that the records are gone. So around 1pm we get the paperwork back and then the SSG said that I can't join because I have 4 dependants and as a single parent I am only allowed 3. They called JAG to see if an exception can be made. Well about 3pm I was called in and told sorry you can't join but take a couple backpacks for your kids and we are sorry.

HOLY CRAP!!! you have to be kidding me this is my 3rd full day at MEPS now they are saying sucks to be you go home and come back when your daughter is 18 and no longer your dependant or get married (hell to the no). So as you can image I am so upset but I will be damned if these guys would see me cry so we hit the road to go home. We are almost back to the Tri-Cities and the First Sargent of my recruiting station called and said that him and SGT Major (Big boss of all the recruiting stations in WA, OR, and ID) are both pissed and think that this is a bunch of crap and will be making some calls to see what they could do for me.

So now I am like JESUS people I am sure I now have about 100 gray hairs from all of this and the roller coaster ride that I am on. So now I have hope again and told to wait and see what develops. So I went from shipping out on Nov 18 (in 2 weeks) to not shipping back to possibly shipping out. I am so drained emotionally and don't know what to do.

November 5th, 2008 I am happy to be back home in my own bed even though my future is still up in the air. So I spent the day (Wednesday) just feeling sorry for myself and stressing out. I finally got a call from my recruiter and I got an exception so now I am good to go again he is going to check and see if I go Thursday or Friday. I am super excited and now it is a go again of course if my job is still available. There were only 11 openings on Monday afternoon so the sooner the better. At around 5 pm I get a call that I will be leaving at 3:15am to go and swear on Thursday.

So now I am excited again but I still don't know if my job will still be there. (A little history about my job I am going in for an 68WM6 LPN that is not normally available for entry level only people who are normally eligible for it are re-enlisting. The schooling is also very long so they don't start very often and it is highly sought after) I finally get to sleep and 3am comes very quickly.

November 6, 2008 We are now driving back to Spokane (didn't I just leave) we get there and now everyone knows me and are all rooting for me to get the job and get sworn in already. Well the same rules apply the shippers go first so here I go with the waiting game again. Now they tell me that I have the exception for the dependants but my dependancy waiver has to be dated after the exception so now we have to wait (big suprise there) for everyone signs off on my waiver again only now with the new date on it.

Around 3pm we get the notice that everything is a go and I will be swearing in for sure today but I still don't know if I still have my job. I go in and we don't need to go over the paperwork again because I remember it all. The job is still available (YIPPEE) only now the ship date is Feb 04, 2009. I was very upset that I wasn't leaving right away but this will be better because now I get to spend the holidays with my family before I leave.

Finally I sign all my forms and go to swear in. I will now be reporting to my unit in Spokane and starting to drill (the weekend a month) right away.