MEPS

So I FINALLY went to MEPS to take my commissioning physical. I drove to Metairie, LA the night before and stayed at the Sheraton New Orleans with all the other MEPers. I was the only officer accession candidate. Everyone else was either shipping out the next day for basic, or they were in the delayed entry program taking their enlistment physical. So they woke us up at 0415 to be up and ready for breakfast at 0500. You better believe that I ate none of that breakfast buffet. After working this hard to lose all that weight, I wasn't about to ruin it over some greasy bacon and eggs. So at 0530 the busses arrive. Luckily for me as an officer candidate, I had the privilage of driving myself to and from MEPS. So I followed the busses, who conveniently don't follow traffic laws, over to the Naval Base in Bywater where the MEPS station is located. If you are unfamiliar with New Orleans- it's in the HOOD!! So I get there, the guy at the front gate is a mega douche and informs me that I need to scrape my expired base id sticker off the windshield, although the USAF no longer issues base stickers or requires them as long as you have valid military ID.

So I go park and line up with the other cattle, I mean kids to go into the MEPS building. As we stand in line a man comes out and gives us the low down on what's acceptable and what's not as far as conduct and behavior in the building. He also informs us to leave all weapons before entering the building. We get inside and are hearded to our respective branch liasons. It's me and two other kids: 1 AD enlisted recruit, and 1 Reserve recruit. I'm basically told my day will be very short in comparison to theirs, so I get to leave early. I then line up in yet another looong line and get my name tag and medical records to take with me to the medical area.

I check in at yet another desk, and they take my picture- DMV style. They send me to station 5 where I go and sit in this little booth to take my hearing test. It's a series of sounds on your L and R side, and you are supposed to press a button as soon as you hear the sound. Easy.

I'm then filed out of that room into an adjacent classroom where the temperature was literally 55 degrees. It was FREAKIN' COLD!!!! The MEPS command first sergeant comes into the room and gives us another spiel, and the famous scare tactic to be honest and completely forthright with all of your medical history. Otherwise it is the "clink-clank" for you. Umm, ok. Then a civilian nurse comes in and proceeds to tell us the same thing as the first shirt, she then begins the briefing. She reads the papers that are in our medical records one at a time, and we are directed to sign them acknowledging that we have read and understand the material. We are also told to make corrections to the records if necessary. We then get to our medical history. It is a long form with a bunch of yes/no questions and we are to fill them out accordingly. We are directed to explain any yes answers, and fill out information for an emergency contact. On the last page we fill out a form that describes why we are at MEPS that day. Under the type of physical we are here for we check one of several boxes. It is at this point that everyone becomes aware of the fact that I'm an officer accessions candidate. She says, "everyone check Enlisted, unless- Is anyone here to be an officer?" I raised my hand, and you could hear freakin crickets chirp as everyone turned to look at me. I got lots of questions the remainder of the day as a result.

So out of the classroom we go and back to medical world. I'm sent over to get my blood drawn, and because my recruiter used to be the USAF liason at MEPS, the techs are pretty cool to me. It was nice being picked first and treated with some respect. From there I went to get my eyes checked. I did the color test, and then she had me read the letters in a stereoscopic machine much like the ones at the DMV. Then she has me do the depth perception test. I am proud to say I failed that with flying colors. None of the circles that were supposed to appear further foward looked any different than the others to me. No big deal, I won't be flying, so who cares! She then has me read a paragraph. It's truly sad that the only branch of service that is concerned with your capacity to read is the USAF. I then go to the refraction machine and it has that swirly looking star, and then a cross hatch pattern that I look at. When I'm done she says, "did you know your right eye was the worst one?" Um, yeah... DUH. Why do you think I wear glasses?

They check my blood pressure, and then I head over to the next station for my urinalysis. I pee in the designated cup, they check for protein, sugars, and to see if you are pregnant. They save some to ship off to be tested for prescription and illegal drugs. All 5 of us girls that were there that day were then herded into another room that says "FEMALES ONLY" and directed to strip down to our bra and undies. We then stand in front of a mirror and are weighed. We then step over to the wall to have our height measured. Fortunately for me I was under the max-weight for my height so all was well. But for two girls, Navy and NG recruits, they were over their weight limit. The NG recruit was to ship out within 30 days so they measured her BF% and it was 39% when the max was 32%. The Navy recruit was in the DEP so she had time to lose the extra weight. After that we lined up and went through a series of ortho/neuro tasks to ensure flexibility and to guage the range of motion of our extremities. This of course included the lovely duck walk which every person that goes to MEPS has to do. We are then directed to put on these awesome paper gowns and strip completely underneath. We are again put in a line (me first) and our eyes, heartbeat, breath sounds, lymph nodes and our ears are checked. Being an AF recruit, I had to also pop my ears. Not sure why. Then one by one we go into another room and we are visually examined to make sure we are indeed female, and we have a brief breast exam. Fortunately, having had a child I'm not terribly shy when it comes to that. So it was quick and painless for me.

I then got re-dressed handed my records off to the people at the front desk. After about 10 minutes, they call my name (Bradford) and I pick up my new medical packet. They tell me to head back to my liasons office. So I get in the office and it's my recruiter and another TSgt who is the new liason at MEPS. We shoot the bull for a little bit, and they tell me I passed my exam. The only thing we have to wait on are the results of the UA and my blood test.

We then filled out my BOP for overseas and stateside, go over my health professions application workbook, fill out paperwork for a credit check, and discuss a new timeline. My recruiter will pick up my results next wednesday (Sept 24) and schedule my interview with the consultant for this coming week, and will hopefully have my application submitted by the end of next week. YAY!

Hopefully we will make the next boards (October) and then have a decision relatively quickly, and be eligible for the 09COT02 Class which starts Jan 12.