Air Force

06Sep11

(Not edited)

The last time I checked in with my blog, I dropped the fact that I was going to join the service, hinting at the Army as a possible branch, and telling some reasons why joining will be in my best interest. But it’s been a few weeks since that feeling of the big picture has worn off, and I’m wading through the thick of the actual paperwork it takes to enlist.

Believe it or not, it’s not as simple as walking in to an office and signing the dotted line. Actually, I quiet expected to have gimmicks and tricks thrown at me every step of my journey by recruiters trying to pad their stats, but the entire process has been slow and careful enough for me to double-check every one of my decisions. So far the enlistment process is nothing like I expected.

So here’s what’s changed since I last talked about this.

The biggest change would have to be that I’m joining the Air Force. Conversations with a lot of people involved either directly or indirectly with the service has led me to research and discover the Air Force is much more in line with what I’m looking for than any other branch.

The Air Force offers automatic enrollment in a community college that offers credit hours toward a degree, as well a much more supportive network for higher education. Whereas the Army -though more lucrative- seems to be a branch I’m a little too overqualified to work for. And I don’t mean that with any sense of judgment or vanity, but simply from looking at ASVAB scores objectively.

89.365_air_force_logo, a photo by ToddMorris on Flickr.

So what does joining the Air Force mean over joining the Army? Honestly, not much. The pay grades for all branches are the same, meaning I’m going to make the same as a basic Airman (in the Air Force) as I would as a private in the Army, and the G.I. Bill benefits extend to all Armed Services members – regardless of branch. What it does change, is that I’ll be wearing blue instead of green, I’ll do my basic in Lackland, Texas, and have to deal with more airplanes than any of the other branches. But until I have stripes on my sleeve, I’m just the low man on the totem poll.

The next big thing was the ASVAB. I took it, I did well on it, and I and don’t have to take it again. I spent a great deal of my time studying for it, and a caused myself a good deal of dread worrying over what this would do for my careers. But I came out of the testing station where I had sat for five hours filling in bubbles with an composite score of 84 – which qualifies me for enough jobs in the Air Force to essentially guarantee that I can find something I’ll look forward to doing.

Then came the packet, of which I also managed to complete. It housed several pages of questions ranging from if I’ve ever worked as an officer in a terrorist cell – to if I’ve ever dislocated a knee or elbow. I gathered the names of references to use for residences, my job and work history, going back to grab my diploma and getting a costly file faxed over from a previous family councilor. A word of advice to anyone thinking about joining, go ahead and start figuring out history on everything you’ve ever done. The Armed Services require a lot of personal information.

But all of that has led me to where I am now, which is just waiting on the US government to digest that packet, and send a letter back to my recruiter that says I’m fit for MEPS. All I’m waiting for, is a green light from the powers that be. For all intense and purpose, things are out of my hands.

So then comes the future of my military service career, the things I still have yet complete, MEPS being the first of those hurtles. MEPS stands for Military Entrance Processing Station, and the name alone should be a not-so-subtle hint that I when I leave for MEPS the chances are better than not that I come back enlisted.

But what MEPS is, is essentially a way for the military to protect their investments. Which means making sure I’m psychically able to handle the armed forces, and that no pre-existing conditions will or could prevent me serving my country. This means getting bussed to a hotel in Columbus or Lexington, and having the US government wake me up at six AM, stuffing my mouth with a continental breakfast, and giving me an entire day of vision, hearing and drug tests.

MEPS, for argument’s sake, is the final step of my joining that could somehow prevent me from enlisting. Which means that if they find my heart to be defective, or a previous head-trauma to be somehow unhealed, this is the Air Force’s final out for not taking me. And while I’m trying not to fill my head with all the of negative possibilities, this is my next big step.

So most people have asked me when I leave. All of the dates for me leaving for basic, and all of the details about what I’ll be doing are now dependent on MEPS. As a byproduct of a stringent medical exam, I get a definitive list of what jobs I’ll be physically disqualified for. I can’t fly planes if I’m colorblind, but that doesn’t mean I can’t do other things. So combine my list of jobs I’m physically qualified for – and ASVAB qualified for (most of them), I then take that list of jobs available and whittle that to ten. Not an arbitrary number, but a way for the Air Force to let me choose ten jobs that I would want to do, and then guarantee me one of those jobs.

But what’s a little condescending about me sitting down with a job councilor to make a list of ten jobs, is that any of those ten jobs are subject to how much the Air Force needs them. Right now, my dream Air Force job is Emergency Management – but if the Air Force is overstaffed with Emergency Managers, means I’ll leave for basic when they need a few one, which could be literally twelve months.

So the more likely situation is that in my list of ten jobs, I have a few that maybe I’m a little overqualified for, or maybe don’t offer me the dream degree credits, but are available to me now. And right now, being able to leave in the next few months is important. I’m tired of sitting around here, and I’m growing more and more excited to jump in to the service.

But if you’re worried I’ll be stuck doing a job I’m not crazy about for all four years, well, good news and bad. The bad being, yeah, kind of. I can’t name a single job that has you doing what you want to be doing in your dreams right away. Basically, you’ve gotta put in your time like anything else if it’s worth doing, even if that means putting in your time doing a job you don’t like. But the good news is that I’m only locked in with my job for three years. If I’m a fuel pumper for three years and during that time the Air Force gets an opening for a job I DO want, I’ll have the ability to cross-train into a new job. And luckily for me, the Air Force can then decide if it wants to staff that job with a new recruit still in basic, or an Airman already three years into service.

And that’s why I’m so excited and eager to jump into this commitment. Because the sooner I jump in to getting basic done with, and getting my training over, the sooner I can settle into climbing the latter to do what I really want to do, civilian or military. Every day that goes by, I’ve wished I was yesterday where I am today. I’ve learned that figuring out what needs to be done today, builds into setting yourself up for tomorrow. But I can’t think about my future until I’ve learned to build a foundation for now. And that’s what I’ve been trying to get out of this experience.

So stop me if all this talk is starting to make me sound like a college basketball coach, because I’m trying to let my actions do the talking. But as always, I want to hear from everyone in however you’re most comfortable talking to me. So far everyone’s been supportive and very caring, and it’s helped me build a foundation.

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Tags: Air Force, Airman, armed service, ASVAB, future, MEPS, military, service, test