Part I - Beginning

Hey all,

I got the idea the other night on how to keep everyone updated on things that I've been doing so far in the Air Force and to sort of keep some sort of journal for myself to look back on in a few years. My mom thought it would be a good idea as well because of all the questions people ask her about me and what I'm doing, so in the long run, I guess this could be beneficial for a lot of things. I'm not much of a writer and english wasn't my strongest class in school, so I apologize before hand for the typos and the punctuation mistakes. Zell has probably already found several mistakes (because she is a VERY good teacher....good save right?) So I guess I'll dive right in and tell my story of how I got here. I'll try to keep this updated as much as I can. A lot of the things I've learned I can explain at a minimal level, not because its top secret or anything, but just because we are only taught the base level of everything in basic training and technical school. Throughout ANY military career you are always learning and training, AB's all the way up to Chief's are constantly training. So please feel free to ask any questions and I'll try my best to answer/explain better.

Well, to start out it has pretty much always been my dream to be in the military. At a young age I knew what I wanted to do when I "grew up" I can remember watching Top Gun and wanting to be one of the guys who ran around on the deck helping get the jets in the air. I did want to be a pilot at one point (Bridgewater) but I guess deep down I loved being behind the scenes and wanted to be a part of the big picture rather than the picture itself. I was at one point set on going into the Air National Guard after I graduated high school, but at the time swimming was becoming a big part of my life at that point and I also really felt like I needed a formal education to continue my life, so I paused my trek on the military path, planning on joining the military after I graduated, and went to school, first at Bridgewater in Massachusetts for a year and then back up to UMaine for the next two years where I bounced around in majors from New Media, to Communications and then to Mass Communications. I was really frustrated in the fact that I felt I was learning things that I really had no interest in and that I was basically throwing money down the drain. I even tried taking military classes at Maine only to find out that ROTC only could take them. Finally last year around this time I was sitting down at the table with my mother trying to figure out loans for next year when I finally flat out said "I don't want to do this anymore. I don't want to go to school." I don't really remember what my mom said to this, but I can remember perfectly me making that decision in my head that I needed a new direction. I thought about it for a few days and then called the United States Coast Guard recruiter down in Portland. I had looked into the Coast Guard and liked what it had to offer, not really a flashy glamorous job, but I liked the fact that it was into helping people and protecting the United States. I was nervous as hell calling the recruiter and I remember him picking up and me telling him I was very interested in joining. He asked me a few questions about myself and that got the ball rolling from there. I had to get pictures of my tattoos taken and sent down to the recruiter so they could be "approved" along with a bunch of other medical papers/issues. To make a long story short, I started this process in mid-June with that first phone call. I found out in late August that I was denied recruitment to the Coast Guard. I'm sure Zell remembers that phone call pretty well and the look on my face when the recruiter told me "Sorry but we cant recruit you, good luck with whatever you do." It was pretty discouraging to wait that long just to be told no. I called my parents and told them the news and then I called my best friend Jimmy who is in the Air Force. He knew about everything up to that point and then I asked him "So you think I could get into the Air Force?" He assured me that I would get in no problem. Like I said before, I had planned on going into the Air Force before I went to school, I had thought about it before, now I seemed destined to go there. My other best friend Billy, had been going to see the recruiter in Bangor so I asked him for the number that night and the next morning I called the recruiter. 

The morning of September 2nd I called the recruiter and he asked me the same set of questions the Coast Guard recruiter asked me and then asked if I could stop by any time that week, I told him I could go see him that minute. I went to the office and met Sergeant Peebles who would become my recruiter and get me into the Air Force. The next few weeks I went in regularly to ask questions and to get as much information as I could. I was approved initially by the Air Force and then I got my first date for MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station) which is basically a building in Portland that does all the processing for military recruits of all the branches. The first time I went to MEPS was for a physical, I had already taken my ASVAB (basically an IQ test for the military, it tells them what jobs you qualify for) for the Coast Guard back in July, so they used those scores and I didn't have to take the ASVAB again. The next few weeks in September and October dragged out as medical paperwork had to be approved by high ranking people and doctors and I had to visit MEPS a total of 3 times (Usually you go twice, once to process in and then again the day you leave for basic training), finally on the 3rd time I was approved and sworn into the Air Force on October 24th. A few weeks later I received my reporting date of February 3rd to go to basic and that I was going in with an open mechanical job. At MEPS along with physicals and paperwork you pick out a few jobs you'd like to do in the Air Force along with an aptitude area (those being Administrative, Electrical, General and Mechanical) Jobs in the Air Force are classified under those 4 areas. The jobs I liked the most were mechanical jobs so hence the reason I picked it. This basically guaranteed me to get a job in the mechanical area. The next few months involved me just gathering as much information as I could and working out to get into shape. I've told a lot of people this, but the worst part is waiting to go to basic. Not knowing what it would be like and how you would react to it all wasn't fun at all. Saying goodbye to people wasn't fun as well. Finally February 3rd came and it was time to leave Maine and civilian life.