Just for your information, MEPS isn't one of the best memories you will have of your military career. In fact, it might be some of your worst.

MEPS stands for Military Entry Processing Station or something to that affect, but you will meet every branch of the military that has just enlisted here. And to pass time, you will probably chat with them and become good friends with them while you are there, only to never see or hear from them again. Plus, you will be highly embarrased in front of them. Don't worry, they get embarrassed to. YOu are all in this together.

You visit MEPS several times before you actually leave for Basic Training, or Boot Camp, which ever branch of the military you got suckered into joining. The first time is to take the infamous ASVAB. Warning here, that I might have repeated. The military uses acronyms like none other. You will know so many acronyms by the time you leave the service that your brain will want to explode. There are a lot of Acronyms that I use that I don't know what they stand for.

It just so happens that ASVAB stands for Armed Services Vocabular Aptitude Battary, or something like that. I'll look it up.
Edit - Somebody looked it up for me. Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery. I was close!

Well, the ASVAB tells you what exactly you can and can not do in the military. And you have to score a minimum score on it if you are even remotely interested in joining. If you are serious, believe me, you will want to get as many points as you can on this test. That way, you can have your pick of the MOS's out there.

Anyway, after the ASVAB, I went home, praying that I scored above eighty, because you get bonus incentives the higher you score.

I won't disclose my score here on the internet, but I got the pick of any MOS's I wanted. Except for Combat of course. Damn.

My recruiter gave me the one with the largest incentives upon my enlistment. 91S, Preventive Medicine Specialist. The MOS really doesn't fit me at all, but I took it. I was only signing up for the reserves after all, right?

Well, I am going somewhere with this. At MEPS, you do your physical, which is total hell, let me tell you, as you are completely humiliated in front of the doctor as you do the duck walk in your underwear.

As I continue to ramble, my personal experience had me going to MEPS five times. Yes, that's right. Five. This was in account of my personal stubbornous to actually sign the dotted line and swear in.

The first time was when I took the ASVAB.

The second time was a saturday. I was going to get my physical done and out of the way and do the rest another day, because I had to work. I had to be at work by eleven, or some such insane time. Turned out that it wasn't going to work out. I got to MEPS at 6 in the morning (I am not compatible with the military in such a way that I am not a morning person). I wouldn't be done with the physical until like one or something like that. So I left early.

I still hadn't told my family about my military aspirations at this time, and I was getting cold feet. I didn't talk to my recruiter for a while. Then he recontacted me and I finally talked to my parents. They went balistic.

The third time I came on a day where I actually didn't have to work. I think I skipped school instead, I'm not sure. And I got that damn physical out of the way. Of course, I was going in with the idea that I was going to be a 91 Sierra. But my MOS wasn't there. Hmm.

Because my MOS wasn't there, I either had to pick out another MOS or come back another day. I didn't really want to come back another day so I skimmed through the MOS's that they had available, looking for one that appealed to me. 91 Sierra still offered the best incentives so I decided to wait on it.

The fourth time I went to MEPS, I came in at the wee hours before school started (which insanely enough at the time, I had a 7:30 Biology class. Note to self, and anyone else. NEver take a 7:30 class when you are in collage. IT is a very, very, very bad idea). My MOS was there so I took it. And I swore in, by myself. I have seen all these pictures of a bunch of people swearing in at once. NOt me. I felt somewhat alone.

The fifth time was a repeat physical, just to make sure I hadn't contracted AIDS or gotten pregnant since my last physical. That would be kind of hard for me to do, for personal reasons, if you get my meaning. That was also when I got the information of which flight I would be taking and what to do the next day, which is when I would ship off to no man's land in Fort Leonard Wood Missouri.

Needless to say, I was nervous.

Posted by Erickson on 16:56 : (((