EPTSo right now I'm sitting at a hotel just waiting. In two days I'll be sent to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri to start my basic combat training in the US Army. I'm kinda bored so I figured I'd just write out some of my experiences in the last few months.
Sometime in the middle of September (can't remember the exact date) I went to my nearest army recruiting station. I'm not entirely sure why I chose the army. I figured marines would be too tough for me (I'm not the most physically fit person), air force seemed... boring (no idea why) and navy is just... boats. I still am not sure why I chose the army, but here I am. So I walk in the recruiting station and there were a lot more people than I expected. There was also a large black man, who I would later know as SSGT Brown, yelling at a group of people. Amid the chaos a SSGT sitting at the back of the room, who I would later learn was SSGT Escalera, asked me what I needed. I basically just nervously said "Uhh... I was thinking about joining the army." I then went and sat down at his desk and we talked for a little while. I don't really remember what we talked about, but after about twenty minutes he gave me a practice ASVAB. It was pretty easy, I ended up scoring in the 97th percentile. After this my recruiter asked me if I could come in tomorrow and go down to San Jose (I'm in the bay area) to take the real ASVAB. I agreed and left.
The next day I arrived at the recruiting station and was driven down to the San Jose MEPS (Military entrance processing station) where I sat around for a few hours and finally got around to taking the ASVAB. It was basically just like the practice but longer. I got in the 97th percentile yet again, I guess the practice test is really accurate. I walked out of MEPS to meet the recruiter that drove me to San Jose and I showed him my ASVAB score sheet. He then gave me some advice in what my MOS (military occupation specialty), essentially my job, should be. He told me about the job 35W. It's a military intelligence linguist. Essentially I would be sent to Monterey, California after my basic training where I attend the Defense Language Institute to learn another language. This job also has top secret clearance, which I think sounds fucking awesome. In order to qualify for this job I would have to take the DLAB. So I got my recruiter to schedule me to take a DLAB in San Jose a few days after I took my ASVAB.
The DLAB is the most fucked up test I have ever taken. It is so weird. It's a test designed to see how quickly you can learn a foreign language. In order to do this they take the English language and make up new rules and shit. I can't really describe it, if you are really curious there are a few practice DLAB tests on the internet you can take to get what I am saying. Once I finished the DLAB I was pretty certain I had failed so I was thinking in my mind what other MOS I wanted while I waited for the score sheet to be printed out. In order to qualify for the job 35W a score of 105 or higher is needed. I scored a 117. I was really confused since I was positive I failed the test... but I guess I didn't. After that I got a reservation for my MOS and everything to make sure I could get the job.
A few days later I went back to MEPS for the third time to finish up all my paperwork, get a physical, and swear in. Everything at the MEPS is pretty boring and this day was one of the longest of my life so I'm not really gonna talk about it. It was boring, long, and it definitely sucked.
After that I was officially in the army and I had to start going to future soldier training every Tuesday and Thursday to be prepared for basic training. It was pretty fun, although I only got to go to a few of them since my ship date was only a month after I actually joined (most people are getting them in like January-March).
I dunno what else to say, I left out a lot of stuff because I felt like writing a short-ish blog and I'm really hungry now and I'm using a public computer at the hotel I'm staying at. So I'll be here for two days and then I'm off to basic training. Thanks for reading.
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