First I need to say when I first enlisted into the Army was out of high school in 2000, so it may not even apply to recruits nowadays as much then, but I'm just saying what the process that I went through was.
Like any job before you get hired it is the interview process, which exactly what the time with the recruiter is. Except they were out prospecting to find people to join, so it wasn't hard for them to get recruits that were curious about the military. I grew up with a few of the members in my family having served in the military at least for a time, so I was always told how it was a good thing to at least put in a few years of serving my country. Since I was little.
I need to be serious though, I had no desire to talk to a recruiter. When I graduated from high school I started receiving phone calls a few weeks after from different recruiters wondering if I wanted to set up a time to talk to them. I was initially hesitant because I knew I would be wasting my time and theirs. Eventually I decided that I would talk to the recruiter, but it wasn't even thinking that I would sign up, I was honestly thinking that if I talk to them at least I can tell my family that I tried but it just wasn't going to work out.
Recruiter Visits
Now there is really no other way to say that, I set up a time to initially talk to him, and he even came up to my parents house to sit down and talk with everybody the first time. So I didn't see the recruiter at the office the first time, I talked to him at home. There were a lot of questions, and a lot of different answers that were given, but all very basic questions about jobs, money, basic training and things like that. While he left he set I needed to fill out some paperwork, and I was set up a time to go to the office.
During this time it was a few different times of seeing him where not much happened, because there is a test that is required for new recruits to take called the ASVAB. It isn't like a normal test, because if you get a low score you don't fail, and if you get a high score it's not like you have aced anything. The score ends up deciding the amount of choices you will have while your looking at the different jobs your interested in looking at through the military.
There can also be some physiical training done, because the recruiter may evaluated your physical performance level to see how well you would look during a PT Test. Physical Training Test that consisted of push-ups, sit-ups, and a 2-mile run. There were changes being made to the PT Test when I got out in mid-2012, so as I said things will be different in the requirements.
While I did all of this, I had scored enough score with my ASVAB that I had a pretty good selection of job choices to look at while I was considering joining. (Admittedly for not actually wanting to join at all I was pushing the boundaries of how much I was trying to do).
I never really thought about what type of job that I wanted to join, because I never actually thought talking to the recruiter would go that far. There was a talk about many different jobs, what I was interested in, and what was expected within the job and everything else whether it sounded interesting. One job actually caught my eye that sounded like something I would like. It was a Small Arms Repairer (45B, now a 91F, but that is military lingo there)
With a contract in the military you have a couple of choices of what to look for, whether it be a signing bonus, station of choice, Montgomery GI Bill, and other things. I knew that I wanted to be able to choose where I wanted to go, and go to school so it was the GI Bill. From there it was just getting all the paperwork straight at the recruiter office to get everything ready.
So now that all the paperwork is done at the recruiter with I want, a day is set up to go to the MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Command) Center.
MEPS Station
From here as a heads up, because this was a long process to go through back in 2000, and it hasn't gotten any easier or quicker for this process. You will need to have patience at a MEPS Station, because be ready for this to be at least a full one day process. Also I was signing up on a delayed entry, so I wouldn't be leaving when I was finished with the contract that day, but if you do not do delayed entry when you are finished in processing you will be leaving from there to your basic training station.
My recruiter came to pick me up at the house, and I am talking really early in the morning, arriving at my parents house at 430 in the morning, so we could be there when it opened. With other potential recruits we are put in a formation outside, and told of what to expect and a run through and what was expect of us while we were in the MEPS station.
Now I had a first issue during my first visit while I was there, because they are incredibly thorough on everything when you are signing up for the military. During one part I told them I had a fractured skull when I was a few months old (and yes they are this picky but you need to tell them). Didn't make getting in impossible, just delayed trying to get in.
When I was in my second MEPS visit this went a lot smoother. Visiting all the stations that I needed to. There are a lot of them, fingerprints and background checks, medical checks (the longest of the day), briefings, and the list goes on.
Everything was going fine, I was passing all the tests (turn your head and cough and a straight line of recruits peeing while someone makes sure it is the persons urine going into the cup) So you can't be shy during this process, because it will only make the time longer. After all of those and the background checks, waiting is also another thing you will find yourself doing through all the day. Patience was defintely a key for me, because it was extremely boring there. Nothing to do except twiddle my thumbs waiting til I could do the next thing.
The Contract
By no means was this a quick process, because it is signing your life into the military. It isn't meant to be. While I was here I picked the duty station that I would be assigned to after basic training and AIT (Advanced Individual Training) school for the MOS (Military Occupational Specialty), which for me was the small arms repairer.
I had picked to go to Fort Stewart, GA. Now I had to have an idea of where I wanted to go, but without doing research I knew absolutely nothing about the duty station I was picking (a story for another time). I was also signing for a delayed entry of two months so I could take the summer off completely before heading into the Army.
After everything was done in the contract, there wasn't much more for me to do that day, because since I was doing delayed entry there wasn't much more for me to do there. I was going to raise my hand and give the oath the day I was leaving. The only thing that meant was another MEPS visit the day I was going to leave to finish swearing into the military and heading out from there.
After leaving, it was the bus drive to head out to the next part of the journey, basic training.....
