Tomorrow!

[KC]

After 4 MEPS visits and piles of paperwork, my waivers are cleared and I'm swearing in tomorrow!

[DK3]

Congrats! Which rate?

[thelittlesignal]

Congratulations! You must be so so so excited! Good for you!

[VaBchMom]

That's great news KC!!

[KC]

I got AG!!!! Just signed today!!!!

[DK3]

Congrats KC!!!!

[VaBchMom]

:woohoo:We're getting another AG here! Can you tell we don't get a whole lot of AG's around here? So happy for you!!

[KC]

Thanks! I'm so floored that I got my very first choice. I keep looking at my DEP card to make sure it still says AG. I can't believe it! So happy.

[VaBchMom]

After BC you'll be heading to Biloxi, MS for A school. When do you head to Great Lakes?

[KC]

I'm shipping on Nov 29.

Every time I talk about it, I feel like I'm still dreaming. I just can't believe I got AG!

[Craig]

Nice! Congrats! That's one of the rates I want. I heard they are pretty overmanned...did you have to wait for an opening or did it just happen to be open? If you don't mind me asking, what kind of waivers did you have to get?

[KC]

AG is very overmanned. I got soooo lucky, it was the first job that popped for me. I'm still floored at my luck. I had completely given up on that rating, even though it's the first one I wanted.

Re: my waivers. I had a broken bone in my foot that required surgery and a couple screws. MEPS sent me to an orthopedic surgeon to take an x-ray, poke and bend my foot, have me do some exercises. That cleared. The other waiver was for a possession charge I had when I was in high school. Those waivers require a bunch of paperwork and an interview with the XO of recruiting command. They are a pain in everyone's ass, and from what I hear usually the XO will chew you out pretty badly, make sure you know that's not acceptable, and that he and the Navy are doing you a huge favor by granting the waiver. When I went to see him, the XO came out of his office, didn't even have me sit down, said "I'm not going to rake you over the coals for something that happened 10 years ago. It's obvious you're pretty squared away, and looking at your qualifications I really want you in the Navy." I was shocked, all I could squeeze out was thank you sir, and he shook my hand and wished me good luck and congratulations.

I don't know if anyone can admit to having a good day at MEPS, but that was a dream day for me.

[Craig]

The other waiver was for a possession charge I had when I was in high school.

I was dumb enough to get 2 underage drinking tickets early in college about 7 years ago. I'm sure I'll have to explain that to somebody at my recruiters office in the near future. I think enough time has passed since then to chalk it up to being young and dumb. I'm a family man now with a wife and daughter, hopefully that counts for something.

[KC]

Yeah, that will probably be a waiver. But it was years ago, so as long as you take responsibility for it, and show that you've turned around, it should be no problem.

[DK3]

I don't know if anyone can admit to having a good day at MEPS, but that was a dream day for me.

I can!!!! My father was the supply sgt (Army) for the MEPS I went to. I already knew all of the people there, so I just sat in my Dad's office and they came and got me when I was needed for something.

I had a blast at MEPS both instances I had to go (Army and then Navy).

[KC]

I can!!!! My father was the supply sgt (Army) for the MEPS I went to. I already knew all of the people there, so I just sat in my Dad's office and they came and got me when I was needed for something.

I had a blast at MEPS both instances I had to go (Army and then Navy).

That is great! I didn't realize you were both Army and Navy.

I just have to say, I'm really glad you are here sharing your experience on the tubes. It makes a huge difference when most of what you can find about the military online is people ranting about how terrible their command was, what a bad idea it was, and don't join ever, the military will screw you, etc etc etc. News covers horror stories about bad recruiters, soldiers coming home with injuries and PTSD, family problems, it's all doom and gloom. I know there are far more positive than negative experiences, it's just that the internet provides a forum for the complainers to have louder voices and whine more than the people who served well and proudly.

DK3 (and the others here) I'm not only grateful for your service, but for your willingness to talk about it candidly and honestly to help other people make an informed decision about whether the military is right for us too.

[DK3]

Yep, I was in both. Have far more experience with the Navy than I did with the Army.

Yep, the whiners usually are the ones that get all of the attention. I had my share of negative experiences in both branches, however, on a scale of 1 to 100 with 100 being outstanding, I would rate my experience around 90.

Typically, when things were going bad, it was because of my own bad attitude or I was just being lazy, so in both cases the bad things were of my own inducement, not someone elses. You reap what you sow!!!

Thank you for wanting to serve!

[thelittlesignal]

KC that is exactly what attracted me here. I wanted positivity about what my man is going through, not just horror stories. It's a wonderful place thus far! You must be super stoked!

I can say that the Navy helps you strengthen yourself, in my opinion. It allows you to know that you can accomplish feats that you would not have thought yourself capable and opens your mind so that your boundaries, of what you can stand and not stand, are not so narrow. I am excited for you. :-D

[VaBchMom]

AG has been overmanned for a good while. Michael originally went with another rating as it was going to be several months longer of a wait for AG. It turned out that an opening occured a lot earlier than expected and he grabbed it and was off to boot camp sooner than he thought he would.

[KC]

AG has been overmanned for a good while. Michael originally went with another rating as it was going to be several months longer of a wait for AG. It turned out that an opening occured a lot earlier than expected and he grabbed it and was off to boot camp sooner than he thought he would.

That's sort of what happened to me. I was expecting to sign for AECF and wait until next year to ship, but AG just happened to pop up, even on a day when 3 people left QNJ. Lucky us!

KC that is exactly what attracted me here. I wanted positivity about what my man is going through, not just horror stories. It's a wonderful place thus far! You must be super stoked!

I can say that the Navy helps you strengthen yourself, in my opinion. It allows you to know that you can accomplish feats that you would not have thought yourself capable and opens your mind so that your boundaries, of what you can stand and not stand, are not so narrow. I am excited for you. :-D

Me too. I'm going to do what I can for anyone who is in my place in the future, so I'm going to continue to write on my blog and here. I'm definitely looking forward to the character building experience of being in the Navy, as tough as it will be. And of course working in science! Yes, I am SUPER stoked!

It's also awesome to see that you are positive and supportive about what your man is doing. Sometimes we underestimate what military families go through, but it's just as tough (maybe more) as for the person serving. I'm very thankful I'm going through this while I'm still (relatively) young and single.

[VaBchMom]

Yuppers - agree with what you've said! Do you like the weather or the oceanography side of AG? He likes the weather portion much more and every time we get severe storms coming through here, I email him and tell him to check the radars for VB/area and he's always jealous since the weather is pretty consistant out there for the most part.

[KC]

I took a paleoclimate class in college, that's what sparked my interest in atmosphere and ocean science. Before that I was studying mostly just rocks!

Working in the day to day atmosphere/ocean system will be a new perspective for me, because in paleoclimate it's all about trying to figure out what was going on millions of years ago. For example, drilling Antarctic ice cores and then extracting the trapped gas out of bubbles, and analyzing it for oxygen isotope ratios to determine ancient sea surface temperatures. Tree rings and lake sediments can show seasonal variations in rain and temperature. Ok. I digress. I was geeking out on science there for a minute. Unrelated.

As an AG I'll be looking at actual real time weather data and trying to figure out the conditions in advance of a couple hours or days. The contrast of scale, while climate is long term changes over hundreds or millions of years, and meteorology is so immediate and dynamic, yet they're interrelated in ways that we don't even yet understand, just rocks my world.

So I guess after that little rant I could say that I don't have a favorite yet, since all the knowledge in my head is just theoretical, I haven't actually worked in meteorology yet. I'm also totally juiced about seeing all that theory in practice.

[thelittlesignal]

Me too. I'm going to do what I can for anyone who is in my place in the future, so I'm going to continue to write on my blog and here. I'm definitely looking forward to the character building experience of being in the Navy, as tough as it will be. And of course working in science! Yes, I am SUPER stoked!

It's also awesome to see that you are positive and supportive about what your man is doing. Sometimes we underestimate what military families go through, but it's just as tough (maybe more) as for the person serving. I'm very thankful I'm going through this while I'm still (relatively) young and single.

I think it's hard to look outside of ones own reality. That's natural. And it's all I can so it's not that awesome lol.

It's good that you chose to do it now! I'm excited to hear more on here about how you are doing. :-) And it's tough but as long as you keep at it you will make it, I am sure. I think the most important key to success is to have faith in yourself.

[hcaryan]

Hey congrats on getting the rating you wanted. I know how that feels, it's exciting to the point that you think there must be some kind of mistake. I know how you feel about talking to your XO. I had to get a waiver from the CO and had a long talk with him on the phone. He was a very respectable man who seemed to be less concerned about anything in my past, and more of someone passing on the wisdom of a person who has seen too many people needlessly mess up their careers. I really took away from that a person I never want to disappoint.

[KC]

Yeah, I got the same feeling yesterday when I interviewed with a Senior Chief and the Recruiter in Charge of my recruiting station. They complimented me as far as my attitude and qualifications, but their focus was definitely on the future--providing training and education for Future Sailors to succeed. They were very encouraging and set an excellent example of leadership. It's awesome to have people like that as superiors.