So what's happening with that Army thing?

A few weeks ago, someone suggested that I look into the National Guard.

I've heard the comercials, "one weekened a month, two weeks a year".

I decided to give them a look.

Their web-site wasn't very helpful. I was hesitant to click "send me more information" because I didn't want to be hounded by recruiters.

But it seemed like that would be the only way to get the information that I wanted.

So I took a look at the form.

Besides all of the normal contact info, they asked "Do you want to be a linguist/translator?"

Yes.

Wait, what? They didn't ask "Can you fly a helicopter" or "Do you like shooting guns?" They asked "Do you want to be a linguist/translator?".

Okay, I'll bite.

Moments later I recived an automated verification e-mail.

Instead of saying "click here to register your e-mail address" or "click here if you didn't request info", they said

"IF YOU WISH TO PROCEED WITH PATH TO HONOR:

please click on the link below to verify your information."

and

"IF YOU WISH TO CANCEL THE PATH TO HONOR PROCESS:
please click on the link below to remove your application from the system"

They got me again. Of course I'm going to proceed with the "path of honor"! How could I not‽

Eventually I managed to find an e-mail address for the local recruiter which eventualy resulted in my taking the ASVAB.

I got an 84. He seemed very impressed. He said that basically any job the military had was open to me. He suggested Military Intellagence.

Then there was a stack of paperwork to fill out.

They needed the last 10 years of my life. Where I worked, where I lived, people that knew me at each of those places.

Medical details, financial information.

They're the military, can't they just do a search?

I was given a list of the current openings in the Army.

Oh, I've decided to go "active first". Basically that means that while I'm signing up with the Guard, I'll be active Army.

So I looked through the list of openings and picked MOS (think "job") 25S. I'll be working with satalites. Cool.

And then came MEPS. It was to start with a physical and end with swearing in.

I'll spare you the details, 'cause I'm sure you don't want to know.

I'll sum it up, though.

Monday.

I had two problems. I have wax in my ear (doesn't everyone?), and I have a pectus excavatum.

Apparently the Military started caring about the whole chest thing this past May (or was it March?).

Anyway, it's a recent thing.

I didn't qualify.

However I can get a waiver. The Doctor even recommended it (then why'd he fail me?).

So Monday afternoon while I was not swearing in, I was informed that we could get a waiver on Thursday.

That's today.

Turns out while the waiver has been gotten, it has to be sent off to Virginia for approval. It'll take a week or more to process. Nice.

But they don't see any problems with it being approved.

So yes, I'm going in. No I don't know exactly when anything is going to happen.