Introduction

Greetings one and all,

          This blog is designed to keep friends & family updated throughout my time with the United States Air Force, and possibly in the future serve as a resource for future Airmen who are starting the recruiting process. 

            My journey into the military has been somewhat unique, so I shall give a brief overview of what led me to this point.

          Upon graduation from college in May of 2011 and unsure of my future I decided to look into joining the Air Force. After several false starts, I was able to set up a meeting with the local active duty recruiter and begin the enlistment process. The process consisted primarily of filling out many pages of paperwork to ensure I was qualified to join the military. Aside from any financial or medical issues that could prevent someone from enlisting, Uncle Sam also wants to ensure you aren't connecting with anybody or any organization that is not on friendly terms with the United States. 

        When all the paperwork was completed and approved I was assigned a date to take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, or ASVAB for short. Simply put the ASVAB is the military's version of the SAT or ACT. Every person who is wanting to enlist in the US military takes this test, regardless of their branch of service as your score is used to help determine your job. I took the test in August of '11 and received a score of 76. While not an outstanding score, it was high enough to qualify me for most jobs in the Air Force. After the ASVAB, it was mainly hurry up and wait until I could get in for a physical which didn't occur until late October. 

 

The night before the physical, I was put up in a hotel near the local MEPS. Standing for Military Entry Processing Station, it is where most recruits take the ASVAB and take their physical. The process is the same for all the branches who then interpret the results based upon their individual standards. If you are Active Duty, you will return to MEPS the morning you depart for Basic Military Training. The morning of the physical they gave everyone breakfast before we left for MEPS. Most of the people took the shuttle that was provided. However, since the local MEPS is only about an hour from home I drove myself to the hotel and then from there to MEPS. That way, once I was finished I could go straight home without any waiting.

 I was finished with the medical portion by 12:30, but that was not the end of my day. Once cleared by medical, I met with the Air Force liaison who gave me a list of jobs I was qualified for. My ASVAB scores were good, but since I'm color blind it greatly reduced the number of jobs I qualified for. From the master list of jobs, I wrote down seven that I was interested in. This list would be forwarded up the chain and compared against the needs of the Air Force. Once everything was finished with the liaison, I had one more task to complete. That task was to take the oath of enlistment. The oath was administered by the General who was in charge of the local MEPS. From that point on, I was in the DEP program.