Post date: Nov 10, 2011 1:53:59 PM
(Original Date: Saturday, February 6, 2010)
It was time again for my bi-weekly check-in with the recruiter today. When I arrived at the office there was a guy who was hoping to join, but he was just too heavy according to the charts. They did some measurements on him to check his body fat because you can be over the weight limits as long as your body fat is under a certain percentage. This makes sense because a guy who is all muscle may be over the official weight limit, but that shouldn’t stop him from joining. So they sent this guy off and told him to start losing weight.
It was now my turn. They first quizzed me on military time with a few questions like how would you say 3:45 at night… 15:45. That was fairly easy, but it’s not automatic yet. I still have to think on a couple of them. Next quiz was on ranks. I would say I have them about 90% down. I get tripped up with a couple of the sergeants, but that is about all. Last thing they quizzed me on were the army’s 3 general orders. I have number 1 and 2 down, but number 3 always gives me trouble. I can never remember the whole thing, I may have to write it down a few times until it gets ingrained into my head.
Army General Order #3
“I will report violations of my special orders, emergencies, and anything not covered in my instructions, to the commander of the relief.”
The last thing we went over was how to stand at attention, saluting, parade rest, at ease, right face, left face and about face. Those will all take some practice for it to feel normal. It felt a little funny standing there in the middle of the office in my civilian clothes saluting and standing at attention. Even the recruiter kept smiling as he was giving me the orders.
They also asked how my fitness training was going and they seemed pleased with the progress I’ve made so far.