Trip #1 to MEPS

Over the next few days, we did our homework: research all over the internet, and talking to anyone and everyone with military (especially Navy) experience.

Now, I know this can't be a universal truth, but we spoke with a LOT of people, and do you know what we found?  Not a single person regretted joining the military.  Sure, there are tough spots and it isn't necessarily entertaining, but the people we spoke with had no regrets.  That was incredibly encouraging to me.

Pretty much by the following week, Chris had made her decision to join.  She was driven by the recruiters to MEPS in Denver to take her ASVAB test.  (I will say one thing - the recruiter guys aren't the best at offering information and Chris is not particularly proactive at asking questions.  She went to the recruiting office not even knowing this was an overnight trip!  The family and I had to put together a quick overnight bag for another recruiter to come along and pick up on his way to Denver that afternoon.  Apparently the plan was for her to take the ASVAB that afternoon, stay overnight, do the medical processing and take the DLAB the next day.)

On our end, it was a long day of wondering what was going on.  I have since learned that the "hurry up and wait" proverb is particularly true of the military, and especially of MEPS.  It was several hours before someone picked up her bag (we rushed because we thought he was on his way at the time), and it was several hours before we heard from Chris.

By the time we did hear from Chris, it was to briefly tell us that she did well on the ASVAB (84th percentile), that she had a female roommate who was joining the Marines, and that she was in a panic because she could not get the cartilage piercing out of her ear.  She had gotten it a year before for and had never removed it, and at this point, it wasn't going anywhere.  She couldn't have any piercings in her body in order to do the medical processing.

A short time later, we began to become anxious as well, as we found out she was wandering the area of downtown Denver (it was night, ya'll) looking for someone to get this thing out of her ear.  She tried to find tattoo / piercing parlors, tried a regular ear piercing place ~ no success.  She even asked a hotel employee in the lobby to try to cut it out of her ear with scissors!  Bad idea!!!

Around 9pm, we got a call that her recruiter was bringing her home.  They simply wouldn't process her the next morning (and the wake-up call was like at 4:30am) with the piercing in her ear.  It didn't matter that she'd already checked into the hotel, that she'd had dinner there (on their dime) ~ she was coming home.

And when she arrived home, we spent about thirty seconds hugging her and being excited for her ASVAB score before her Aunt Deb walked in the room with a couple pairs of pliers.  And about 30 seconds after that, the piercing was out ~ quick and painless.  Maybe we should have simply driven down there and taken care of it ourselves...