Casual Friday (Pre-Basic Training) 3 Days until Basic

Checked in with my recruiters for the last time today. I was able to sleep in and enjoy a cup of chocolate macadamia nut Kona Coffee. I just love both the chocolate and the vanilla macadamia nut coffees they make. The stuff is just plain awesome. I threw on some sweat pants and a t-shirt and then drove over to the recruiter’s office. I knew I was supposed to take a quick physical fitness test as well as get any last minute paperwork taken care of.

I arrived and to my surprise the recruiters had on jeans and some very modern-hip-graphic looking army t-shirts. Now this is a casual Friday! They said later on they were heading out to some businesses and they are much more approachable when not in full uniform. After going through a checklist to make sure I had all my forms in order the recruiter said the fitness test consists of a timed one minute push-up test, followed by a one minute sit-up test, and then finally a timed one mile run. The recruiter knows that I have been running quite a bit, so he said we were not going to do the run. Normally we would have done it outside, but it actually started snowing today….in April!! It was pretty crazy there was snow all over the place and it was continuing to fall. So he asked me what I could comfortably run a mile in and I asked what‘s the maximum? He said 8:30 for one mile. I said I’m sure I could run an 8:00 mile pretty easily, so he marked down 7:55 for my score. After that he proceeded to show me how to do a correct push-up according to Army standards. He said I would need to be able to do at least 13 in one minute. Since there was nothing given for extra credit I wasn’t going to strain myself. I quickly did 14 (just to be sure all of them counted). He then did the same for sit-ups showing me the standards and then saying I needed to do at least 17 in one minute. I quickly did 18 (again just to be sure all of them counted). So I passed my first official Army Fitness Test! LOL

Later on in the day we cleaned up the house and I finished packing my “basic training back pack” crossing off the final items on my checklist. We threw everything in the car and headed off to pick up the kids for the last visit I’ll have with the family before I leave. The drive through the Cascade Mountains was a little crazy. It was almost white out conditions and the snowplows hadn’t been out yet. Luckily I drive an all wheel drive Subaru, so we didn’t have any trouble getting through. We just had to drive a bit slower than usual. Much better than some of the other poor suckers that were on the side of the road. One car looked like it slid right over the edge of the road with its rear end sticking straight up in the air. After taking it slow and steady we made it to my sister’s house without incident.

Future Soldier Activity Day (Pre-Basic Training) 17 Days until Basic

Practicing the salute...one of our recruiters in the front

with me in the orange shirt in the back.

I got an email from my recruiter telling me to meet at one of the local parks instead of the recruiter’s office this Friday. When I emailed back and asked what we would be doing. The recruiter responded: “Frisbee golf, horse shoes, basketball, marching, eating pizza!  Yes, seriously”

I thought that sounds a little more interesting than hanging out in the recruiter’s office. Also I haven’t had pizza in a while, a day with pizza is always a good day! It was pretty cold when I got up, so I put on jeans and a t-shirt with a sweatshirt on over the top. I drove to the park and waited for a bit. At first there was nobody there, but after a few minutes I realized that everyone had parked on the other side of the park. Hey...I followed the directions and parked exactly at the point it showed on Google maps. No worries though, they all headed up towards my car anyway to play some basketball since the court was located in front of my car. I wasn’t really planning on playing any basketball being in my jeans and all, but I couldn't help myself and did end up playing anyway. We played half court 4 on 4 and it wasn’t long before I was getting warm and wishing I would have brought my shorts. It turned out being a lot more fun than I thought it would have. Everyone there was pretty cool and even though nobody could really play basketball that well, I think everyone had a fun time playing.

Straighten That Pinky (Pre-Basic Training) 31 Days until Basic

Today we were asked to come in at 10AM to the recruiter’s office for some Future Soldier Training. 6 of us showed up ready to go. Ironically the gal who is going into OCS (going to be an officer) showed up 15 minutes late. The recruiter initially focused on the two recruits who were shipping out next week. These recruits have the ability to get a promotion (up to E3) if they can pass a test issued at MEPS showing they understand and have memorized all the stuff that we need to learn before going to basic. This is stuff like the rank structure, the general orders, and some of the military movements (i.e. right face, attention, saluting etc).

The recruiter then had us all stand together and practice the movements as he sounded off. It had to be pretty comical for him because we must have looked like a bunch of idiots. He would say “Right Face” and half the people would turn left with the other half turning right. As I was saluting the recruiter said, “straighten your pinky finger”. I said, “I can’t...it’s broken, it doesn’t straighten”. So they all laughed, then had me lift it up slightly so it doesn’t stand out as much. I’ll take any suggestions and help I can get before basic. I think it got even funnier when the recruiter took us outside to practice marching. Picture one guy in uniform marching around a bunch of people dressed in civilian clothes. We marched all over the parking lot, taking random lefts and rights at his command...by the time we were done I think it started to come together. Just have to remember quick snappy movements and keep my pinky slightly lifted when saluting.

A Commander, A Chihuahua, and the McDLT (Pre-Basic Training) 54 Days until Basic

 The McDLT was sold in a novel form of packaging where the meat and bottom half of the bun was prepared separately from the lettuce, tomato, American cheese, pickles, sauces, and top half of the bun and both were then packaged into a specially designed two-sided container. 

The recruiters asked me if I could come in today at 4PM. Their boss, who is the commander of the region was coming in and needed to meet with all the future soldiers. I arrived to the recruiter’s office and after a few moments all the other future soldiers where there. There were 6 of us total, 5 guys and 1 girl all ranging from 19 to me. The commander came in and I saw she was a captain, following her was a little Chihuahua dog with an army sweater on. (it had the rank of a sergeant major on it… lol). I expected the recruiter and everyone to be a little tense because there was now an officer in the room, but it was all pretty laid back. We each introduced ourselves and when it was the youngest guy’s turn, he introduced himself and what his interests were. The recruiter chimed in “and he likes gay porn”. That got a chuckle out of everyone.

Next she went over a question sheet that each of us needed to fill out and sign. It had a number of questions like “Have you become pregnant?”, “Do you have any new injuries?”, “Do you have any new tattoos?” etc. A number of questions to make sure there nothing to delay us shipping out. She also asked if we had any questions about anything. She wanted to make sure we were all progressing in our learning before basic. She asked what a couple of the ranks were. When asking what one gold bar is a guy stated correctly that it was 2^nd lieutenant. She let us know that we should always call them mam or sir… or depending on the situation LT, but never butter bar. The recruiter then added “or we can just call them McDLT.” Only me and one other recruit even knew what he was talking about. I had to explain to the captain that it was a McDonald's hamburger back in the day “where the hot stays hot and the cool stays cool” because it was served separated, and the customer put it together. Nobody knew what the heck I was talking about. They all looked at me like I was crazy when I was explaining to them how it was served in two pieces. Funny how things change as time goes by and new generations arrive.

Recruiter Check In (Pre-Basic Training) 59 Days until Basic

It was time again for my bi-weekly check-in with the recruiter today. When I arrived at the office there was a guy who was hoping to join, but he was just too heavy according to the charts. They did some measurements on him to check his body fat because you can be over the weight limits as long as your body fat is under a certain percentage. This makes sense because a guy who is all muscle may be over the official weight limit, but that shouldn’t stop him from joining. So they sent this guy off and told him to start losing weight.

It was now my turn. They first quizzed me on military time with a few questions like how would you say 3:45 at night… 15:45. That was fairly easy, but it’s not automatic yet. I still have to think on a couple of them.  Next quiz was on ranks. I would say I have them about 90% down. I get tripped up with a couple of the sergeants, but that is about all. Last thing they quizzed me on were the army’s 3 general orders. I have number 1 and 2 down, but number 3 always gives me trouble. I can never remember the whole thing, I may have to write it down a few times until it gets ingrained into my head.

Army General Order #3

“I will report violations of my special orders, emergencies, and anything not covered in my instructions, to the commander of the relief.”

The last thing we went over was how to stand at attention, saluting, parade rest, at ease, right face, left face and about face. Those will all take some practice for it to feel normal. It felt a little funny standing there in the middle of the office in my civilian clothes saluting and standing at attention. Even the recruiter kept smiling as he was giving me the orders. 

They also asked how my fitness training was going and they seemed pleased with the progress I’ve made so far.

Recruiter Check In (Pre-Basic Training) 73 Days until Basic

I forgot to mention the first time I checked in with the recruiter, so I’ll combine it with this post. After I swore in at MEPS I found out that I am supposed to check in with my recruiter twice a month. This works out fine since I have Fridays off and it seems that they are not very busy on Fridays.

My first visit was two weeks ago. During this visit they gave me my direct deposit slip to fill out as well as some items to start memorizing. This included the rank structure, general orders, the phonetic alphabet, and the soldier’s creed. They also showed me how to access AKO or The Army Knowledge Online website. The recruiter described it as a facebook for army recruits. The whole process was not that long and took about a half hour.

My second visit was today. I arrived and the recruiter asked how the memorizing was going on the sheet he gave me last time. I have the phonetic alphabet down, now I need to get all the rest memorized. I gave him my direct deposit form and then we went over how to read and navigate a map. He let me know that an army map consists of 5 major terrain features and they can be remembered by using the phrase Hidden Valley Ranch Salad Dressing, which equals Hill, Valley, Ridge, Saddle, & Draw. We went over how to find each of these features on a map and also how to find coordinates and how to state coordinates. That was about it this time around. I will continue working out, studying, and see him again in two weeks.