Joining the Army

Those of you who know me will probably already know that I have accepted a commission to the US Army. This is, of course, a major change in our lives, and is part of the reason that I haven't blogged since January. When so much is up in the air, it is hard to know what to write about.

But now we know for sure, and we are getting ready for this new adventure. Since I have never done anything like this, I figured it would be interesting to keep a record of it. Think of it as An Army Newb's Diary.

The first thing that I learned in this process is that the Army is a very, VERY large organization. And like any very large organization, it is common for one office to not know what the others are doing. We got a lot of quazi-conflicting information during the recruitment process, and a lot of soft commitments that didn't quite work out as advertized. Most specifically, we have learned that "by the end of the week" is Army code for "sometime in the near, or almost-near future."
We also learned that, like other large organizations, they can be worked with and are succeptable to horse-trading.

My recruiter was a trooper. I think he suffered more from the changes in plan and misinformation than we did, because he had to be the bearer of bad news when time-lines changed. He also had to do some damage control, because a few of the perks that he said were a virtual lock turned out to no longer be offered by the Army. All in all, though, he did right by us and it was clear that he was doing the best that he could to represent a complex and constantly changing organization. I felt bad for him, since we were intentionally picky and made him double-check on a lot of things.

So now we are experiencing what we have been told is standard practice for the Army: Hurry Up and Wait. We have put in all our papers, my commission has been approved, and I have been assigned a spot in the Officer Basic Leadership Course. The only thing we don't know is where we will be spending the next few years of our lives. I am currently exchanging emails with the Career Specialist who makes those assignments, and she keeps telling me it will be done by the end of the week. Of course, she started saying that three weeks ago.

My training will start on Aug 30. I will be training at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. Based on what I have read from other bloggers and from the official site, the training sounds like it will be a lot of fun. I will get some basic training on several types of weapons (possibly even a 50 caliber machine gun, WOOT!) as well as some other practical field training. To me it sounds like an awesome two week adventure camping trip. To Dana, it sounds more like the third ring of hell.

The only thing I am worried about is the Physical Fitness Test. Right now my running times are, well, less than ideal. So I am on a program now to get in shape before I report. I have two months to get my 2 minute mile times below 17:00 minutes, which is the minimum. I am shooting for 15:00, but as long as I pass I will be excited. The push-up and sit-up portions of the test should be less of a problem, but I am training on those as well. I will keep track of my times on this blog, mostly as a way for me to track my progress over time.

More thoughts to come later. Signing off for now.