Navy Stories Episode 2: MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station)
September 11th, 2008 by Ben Moreno
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The Final Month at Home
After I graduated from high school I only had 1 month of freedom until I started my military career. During that month I basically just partied and built up the anticipation. I met a cute girl during that time which I could not be with because I was going away. That sucked. At least she agreed to keep in touch while I was gone and maybe one day we could see each other when I came home on leave.
MEPS
The first place they sent me was a place called MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station). The one I went to was located in LA. This building is the very first of a series of processing stations you will encounter. There I went through a rigorous screening process. They process many potential candidates for the navy here, one at a time here.
I did the following and more of the following:
Endless Paperwork
I did tons of paper work. Some of the forms seemed like I filled them out many times. I remember feeling frustrated to have to stand in line after line, to fill out form after form. The whole time I was treated with a lack of customer service. There is a phrase used in the military called, “Hurry up and wait.” You will learn what this phrase means on the day you get processed through this facility.
If you never used a signature before you will be a pro by the time you leave that facility. You had to sign dozens of forms. The recruiters even had me start practicing writing my signature from day one.
The forms that you fill out go into what they call a service record. This is the record of your whole military career. Along with the service record you will get a medical and dental record as well. These three folders pretty much are the proof of your military career and health history. If you lose one of them you will have to do all the paperwork again and all of the medical examinations, dental examinations, etc.
I remember hearing that if you pissed off a Corpsman on a ship he would simply throw your medical record over board and you would have to get all the shots again.
So basically it is in your best interest to always make copies of every one of your records.
Physical Examinations
The paper work is just one piece of the puzzle. They have to make sure you are physically fit to perform your duties as a United States Sailor. So they made us go through a series of physical tests. First they gave us a full body physical where they checked every part of our bodies and took many specimens of blood and tested it for everything imaginable.
Next they made us perform a series of odd physical movements in our underwear. For example, we had to fall from a standing position directly onto our knees on the hard tile floor. I remember how, not cool that felt! Then they had us doing things like, crawling around like a monkey, waddling like a duck, various stretches, walk across the room slowly so they can check for flat feet, etc.
Another noted thing was this really old man with warts all over his face was the one giving the rectal exams. Not the most comfortable of situations, let me tell you.
The final parts of the exams involved an actual psyche evaluation, a criminal background check with interview, and swearing in ceremony.
Mental Exam
The mental evaluation was basically to find out if we were crazy. We wouldn’t want to hire crazy people to defend the country, would we? They asked us a whole lot of interesting questions and I think we took a written test too. I wish I could remember some of the questions; they would make for interesting content.
Background Check
The background check and interview was frightening. The first thing they did was put me in a private room with a counselor or something and he asked a lot of personal questions about my past. He asked me questions about crimes I committed, drugs I tried, secrets I had, and more.
They kept telling me, “Don’t lie to us! If you do, we will know anyway on your background check!”
I am pretty sure it was a test of honesty as well. I remember they kept making sure that I was sure that I never, ever smoked marijuana in my life. I knew that they wouldn’t find any drugs in my system so but I told them I tried it once as a teenage for experimentation. They of course recorded that in my service record. I bet that by saying that it disqualified me from certain top secret jobs.
Swearing In (The Oath of Enlistment)
The Navy is all about ceremonies. They have ceremonies for everything! It makes things count for more. Like when I got promoted to E-4 (Petty Officer Third Class), there was a ceremony for all to see that I now had more authority. It was a lot more effective that way.
Anyway, at the very end of MEPS processing you are required to go through a swearing in ceremony. It is basically an out-loud promise that you will defend the country, etc.
Here are the exact words you must say with your right hand raised.
I, ___________________, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.
I remember feeling very proud during this time and feeling like part of a great thing. At the time I really meant what I was swearing.
Job Selection
Sometime during the process you will sit down with someone and decide what job you want to do in the Navy. There are many jobs to choose from and you must be qualified for them. They base your qualification on the ASVAB test (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery). This is a comprehensive test of skills in math, language, reading, problem solving and more.
My only focus was to become a SEAL so I didn’t really care what my job was. I just figured it would be SEAL. They said, ”If you happen not to make it as a SEAL what would you want to do?” I told them that I wanted a job that had to do with computers. They told me about these 3 apprenticeship programs. They are Fireman, Airman or Seaman.
The things I read about each one sounded pretty good. The Seamen Apprenticeship program was the only one that had mentioned the use of computers at all. I guess I didn’t score high enough on the test to get any other jobs. So I chose the Seamen Spprenticship program. I would be in for a rude awakening later on. We will go into that in a later episode.
Scare Tactics
It was amazing the amount of scare tactics they used on you during the process. They basically convinced you that the most important thing was to pass the screening to become a member of the military. The whole time I felt scared that I was going to fail on something and they use that against you. They tell you things like, “Maybe you are not cut out for the Navy.” Or “If you fail at this you will be disqualified.” They make you feel as though there is nothing else you can do but join the Navy or else you will be a failure.
They use tactics like this for many things in the Navy. They use fear of the unknown and your insecurities against you. Over time you will realized what you can and can’t do.
Conclusion
The whole process takes about 12 hours to complete. You will be there from real early in the morning all the way until the evening. It is a very long and stressful day and you will learn things about yourself. Shortly after the prcessing you get a plane ticket and a date to fly over to Illinois where you start Navy Boot Camp. This will be the subject of episode 3. Boot Camp is eight weeks long so it will be broken up into different episodes. I wrote this post based on how I remember it. If you are strongly considering the Navy as a career you should review the actual MEPS site for further details.
The next episode will talk about the first 3 days in boot camp.
Tags: ASVAB, MEPS, military entrance processing station, navy
