So I finally went to the recruiter for the first time today. Just to see what kind of qualifications are needed and how the enlistment and officer systems work. It was an interesting experience.
I went with my father who spent twenty-eight years in the USMC, I wasn’t planning on it but he was there and I knew it was then or never. I hadn’t been putting it off or anything but I didn’t have a chance before then (and no one took me seriously) and since we were there I figured his input in the very least would be helpful.
We had just gone to the Navy Federal Credit Union nearby when I said I wanted to go in the recruiter office and he was looking at the stores around it thinking I couldn’t possibly want to go there or be serious about it. Well I was and as soon as we went over I walked to the USMC recruiters’ door and he mentioned that the Air Force door was on the other side. I said “OK, that’s nice.” then opened the door to the USMC office.
The entire career center was small, just a rented out section in a strip mall. Apparently they were having their lights worked on for some reason because just inside the USMC office were two guys, various tools, and a ladder just under a sizable hole in the ceiling. We had to wait for them to move their stuff before we could get into the room and it was slightly cramped but I didn’t care.
The recruiter asked me what he could do for me and I wasn’t really sure what to say but I managed to force out something along the lines of ‘I’d like to explore any possibilities I might have here.’ He said exploring possibilities is good and we started talking. He asked me the general questions of my name, age, address, all that stuff; when he asked what my highest level of education was, sadly I had to tell him I didn’t even know. Long story short my education and placement was just one big mess after another and I’ll just leave it at that. He told me to my surprise, there was a recent change to requirements to join the Marines; he said that you now need at least fifteen college credits minimum due to a surge of people wanting to join due to the economy. This didn’t really bother me much because it’s easy enough to start classes and get those credits. On top of that to be a pilot you have to be an officer and you need a degree.
At this point he handed me a card for the Army recruiter saying their requirements were lower to which I said un-eagerly “I don’t know about that…” My father then said jokingly “He doesn’t want a baseball cap, he wants a real hat.” (the joke being that US Army hats are more or less typical baseball style hats whereas Marine hats actually have a crest and tips on them. See here). The recruiter was trying his best to avoid any kind of cross-branch rivalry and I can completely understand his position. He said that it might be something worth looking into but I wasn’t really interested. I was exactly where I wanted to be.
One thing I was curious about was the DEP (delayed enlistment program). As far as I understood it the program is for when you can’t pass the initial strength test and you spend time getting physically prepared for the test before you get sent to boot camp. Since I was going to spend time getting college credits anyway I figured that I’d also start getting exercise and the like concurrently; killing two birds with one stone so to speak. Since that’s the case the DEP most likely isn’t something I’d have to bother with, which is good I suppose. He then gave me his card after writing something on the back of it, which I assumed was one of his phone numbers (since he actually had three cell-phones because he got so many calls from different people) and I placed it into my pocket.
Another thing I was curious about was in fact how I should prepare physically. There’s no sense in wasting time after all, it only delays achieving what I want most; to be a pilot. I’ve always considered myself underweight since I’m 5’10” and roughly 130 pounds but he said I was fine, and when I asked him what I could do to prepare he said to look on the back of his card that he had handed me. I pulled it out and saw that he had written three times and days of the week on it. It turns out that he does PT three times a week and welcomes all potential recruits to join him.
This is where I really started to like the guy because he began talking about how he starts people off at what they’re capable of doing and works them up from there. He was saying how he wouldn’t make it easy but also wouldn’t ask the impossible. He would give you something you’re capable of doing but challenges you at the same time. He started talking about a few examples and was saying how he’d have people start running at one point at the strip mall and have others start running near the end of it and tell them that they had to pass the first group. He says he does this because he doesn’t want to send anyone to boot camp who isn’t prepared or can’t handle it and that he wants to make certain the people he does send can physically withstand it. This gave me a lot of respect for him because I’ve heard a lot of stories about recruiters who just don’t care.
He then looked at me and said “Don’t ask me about the minimum, if you’re asking about the minimum you're probably in the wrong office.” to which I thought to myself ‘Ha, a fun poke at the other branches.’ He continued and said, “I’m gonna give you the maximum. Expect the maximum.” At which point I nearly lost it and tried very hard not to laugh. This’ll take some explaining for most people. I didn’t want to laugh at him, how he said it, or anything like that; what was so amusing about it were the words ‘expect the maximum.’ If you’re a Gundam fan you might already see why. You see in one of the many Gundam shows (Gundam Wing specifically), there is an episode about two characters using overly excessive force in their duties and when confronted by the very main characters who instructed them one of the two (named Walker) says, “I’m expecting the maximum as you always taught me to do.” This has since become a popular inside joke in most of the English speaking Gundam fan-base and was the very last thing I was expecting to hear. I know it’s kind of nerdy of me but I don’t deny that I’m a huge Gundam fan.
He began talking about other people who had successfully prepared and enlisted through him; he even had a board on the wall with pictures of what I would assume to be everyone he has recruited. One of the people he pointed out he said wasn’t even able to do a single pull-up upon first visiting him. He said one guy was currently at Paris Island right now (a Marine boot camp) and pointed him out on the board then he said in the last letter he received from him he wrote that he was enjoying boot camp, and with a slight laugh he said, “That’s the only letter I’ve gotten saying someone enjoyed Paris Island. I need to check up on him.” The reason he said that is because boot camp is hardly a pleasant experience.
At this point (and countless times in-between everything up to now) is about when my father started talking, which made the entire process last about three times longer than it normally would have. You see, he’s the kind of person that can go practically anywhere and find people he knows. He’s also the kind of person that can talk forever. Even I can ramble from time to time but he can talk for hours. Eventually I managed to break back into the conversation with a few questions I still wanted to ask.
Afterwards he told me that if I ever had any more questions to write them and call him because he didn’t want me calling saying I had a question and then saying “I forgot.” Apparently that happens a lot, but I was planning on doing that anyway. He also told me that I could go online and look at a mock ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) test so I would know what to practice for when the time came. Feel free to try it out and test your aptitude here!
Overall he seemed like a really nice guy, I’ve heard a lot of people say that recruiters are only interested in quota’s and don’t really care about people wanting to enlist or if they’re ready or prepared. I don’t know how true those stories are but I can see the possibility, so I think I was really lucky to meet the recruiter that I did. Though I’m going to try and get advice from as many people as I can to try and find the best path for me.
Only time will tell. (Wow that was a lot to type!)
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