How I am Progressing!

National Guard Weekend

We took a crappy old school bus style bus up to flagstaff, the bus would not even go the speed limit up the mountain so it took us 3 hours to complete a 2 hour drive.

 After we arrived they had all of us fall into formation and the instructed us on where we would be staying, by the time we arrived it was already really cold probably around 60 degrees Fahrenheit and a large part of the platoon was shivering, but I wasn't.

 We all got beds to sleep on which was nice because David told me that we would either be on cots or on the floor. Despite having an actual bed to sleep on and a sleeping bag designed for the temperature up in flag I slept like shit the first night. I have not spent a night away from my wife in ten years and I have not spent a night away from my kids since they were born.

SATURDAY

I woke up at 4:45 am, 15 minutes before we were required to be up, I took that time to shave and brush my teeth.

During first formation we did warm-up PT(Physical Training), followed by the 2, 2, 2 which is 2 minute push-ups, 2 minutes sit-ups, and a 2 mile run. At which point we had one person pass out.

PT in flagstaff sucks. We were at an elevation of over 7300 feet and the air is thinner up there and no matter how hard you try you can not get enough air in.

My scores on the Personal Fitness Test were horrible

32 push-ups
19 sit-ups
> 22 min 2 mile run

We all thought that once we were done with PT we were going to get shower time but we ended up going straight from PT to breakfast

OMG Breakfast... So Delicious!

Scrambled eggs with bacon, hash-browns, and toast. served by a local diner.

We spent most of the rest if the day in classes.

• Land Navigation
• Sexual Harassment Prevention
• Suicide Prevention
• Drill and Ceremony

In the middle of the classes they had all the enlisted people go get there uniforms issued and the five guests in my class all had to stand in formation and wait for them to get there uniforms and change into them (about an hour). I got really badly sunburned

After the last class we did some actual drill and ceremony and we did not move fast enough for the Sargent so we ended up having to do a bunch of push-ups and flutter kicks on hot asphalt. At which point our second person of the day passed out.

Our lunch sucked... We had and MRE (Meal Ready to Eat) and while they are not as horrible as I remember from the ones I had when I was a kid they are not as good as fresh cooked restaurant food.

Dinner was just as good as breakfast, we went back to the same restaurant and had Spaghetti and meatballs.

After dinner we were free to do as we pleased as long as we stayed in the barracks. So me and David and a few other guys decided to play poker but we did not have any chips so we had to play PT poker.

30 second dead cockroaches

Sunday

After more scrambled eggs we drove up into the mountains and went hiking.

Land navigation was fun I was the only person in my group that did not have to have map reading and point plotting and compass reading explained to them over and over.

After land navigation we were issued another MRE and then we were sent home.

Summary

I had so much fun despite being yelled at constantly and forced to do more push-ups then I have ever done in one day. I want to go back next month but I had a very hard time getting the time off this month and no one seems receptive to giving me the time off again.

Rest of the Week

On my day off I went to the eye doctor and failed my eye exam

I bet you are wondering how you fail and eye exam. Easy the Navy Seals require no worse then 20/70 vision without glass and it must be correctable to 20/20. I have 20/100 correctable to 20/20. So I failed the part of the requirements to get into the SEALs that I can not do anything about.

After my eye exam I went to talk to the navy recruiter and they told me with my family and debt there is a 50/50 chance that I will get a enlistment waiver approved.

So I went and talked to the Army recruiter and they said that I need to lose 5 lbs and gain an inch in my neck and lose an inch in my waist.

My Measurements

National Guard: 

• Neck - 17.5 
• Waist - 39

Navy

• Neck - 17.5
• Waist - 41

Army

• Neck - 16.5
• Waist - 39

Need

• Neck - 17.5
• Waist - 38

So basically at this point I am looking down the barrel of a loaded cannon. I can never do what I want to do in the military. The branch I want to go into I am locked out of because I have two kids, my second option has a 50/50 chance of being locked out of, and my third option needs me to be 22% body fat to pass MEPs.

We will see how the next 30 days go and see what my body will let me do.

Have a happy and Healthy week

Thoams Gould