One Step CloserOne Step Closer 2003-06-20 - 3:38 p.m.
Friday! and what a wierd day its been. In fact the week's been pretty odd, all in all. Yesterday, I stopped over at the Naval Reserve office on my way in to work to pick up the form for the Medical. Up to this point I had been getting more and more concerned that I would get called into action and we would go bankrupt, and my darling princess would be out on the street peddling her wares while I painted ships in the South China Seas.
Not So! I was informed by Steve Recruiter that I can get this insurance policy for $16/month that, in the event I got activated would pay the difference between what I make in civvy street, and what I would make while on deployment. Awesome. He also told me that if I had my citizenship I would most likely get a commission because I got such a high score on my AFQT. I got 90 out of 99.
So this is great news, but now I've got a problem. Time for some personal honesty here now, gentle readers. I had not done the exercises I planned to do because I was concerned that I would PASS the medical. Now, all of a sudden, armed with these new revelations from Steve I'm concerned I'll FAIL the medical!
All-bran, and starvation last night may have helped a little, I can't be sure. This morning, I was up at 3:45 am and in the shower, then away and at the federal building in downtown dallas by 5:00 am. A long with about 50 teenagers, aged 17/18. And there I spent the next 6 1/2 hours peeing into cups, being blood tested, audio tested, vision tested, measured, remeasured and made to jump, crawl and hop through just about every conceivable hoop they could come up with. Some of them I think they just did to wind us up. Wearing nothing but boxer shorts, they made us put our hands on our hips, stand on tip-toe and walk across the room, and back. That's right, they wanted to know if we could MINCE.
Can you read the number 45 in the circle on the left? Well I can't. That means I'm color blind. Don't even get me started on that crap. I can tell the differences between colors, and the only reasons I screwed up the FALANT test was because they told me they would show me red, white and green lights, and the white light was actually yellowish in color, which made me second guess myself, ya-de-ya-de-ya-da.
Nevertheless, I failed the color perception test and now it was on to the blood pressure. The Air Force Corporal who tested me seemed to think I failed that too, but said he'd leave it up to the Chief Medical Officer. After weighing my blubber in at some number I won't repeat, I was able to nail the fat requirements (I'm a 22). I still need to exercise and diet because I am seriously pushing the envelope on this stuff. But the Chief Medical Officer PASSED me! Now comes the tricky bit - finding somewhere to go that doesn't require me to have good color perception, or to be a US citizen (which will come later). Here's what I've found, but if you know of any others, let me know:
Aircrew Survival Equipmentman PR
Aviation Storekeeper AK
Boatswain's Mate BM
Builder BU
Construction Mechanic CM
Disbursing Clerk DK
Engineering Aid EA
Engineman EN
Hospital Corpsman HM
Machinary Repairman MR
Machinist Mate (Advanced Technical Field) MM
Machinist Mate MM
Mess Specialist MS
Personnelman PN
Photographers Mate PH
Religious Program Specialist RP
Ship's Serviceman SH
Steelworker SW
Storekeeper SK
Utilitiesman UT
If you want to look up these or any other Navy jobs, you can do so here: