The Lost Marines - Chapter 2

Date 20100617

Location Denver, CO, USA

Ritz Carleton Denver, 2nd floor

0430

The first phone call came in and woke up Jason and his roommate. Jason is not good with names and after 0500 would not see his roommate again. When Jason woke up his roommate already got ready and was just waiting for breakfast to start at 0445. Jason immediately started doing duck walks to stop his right knee from popping, and it took six or seven attempts to stop the popping. Then he got a shower and then put on fresh underwear and an undershirt, then gym shorts, and put on the same khaki pants as yesterday and the same shirt, because they looked cleaner than the extra clothing he brought with him. There was some dust in his backpack. Jason then cleaned his ears and brushed his teeth. Then he shaved and cut himself on the chin while doing so. Then he rushed to put on his socks and shoes and went down to breakfast. He was the last to get there.

At the hotel breakfast, there was a wide variety of food available, eggs, bacon, bananas, cereal orange juice, milk, water, sausage, and some other standard hotel breakfast items. Ssgt. Hollingsworth told Jason the day before that when MEPS does urine tests, they test for drugs and elevated protein and sugar levels, so to not drink orange juice or eat cereal or to have pancakes with syrup. Jason for his breakfast got some eggs, two pieces of bacon, a banana and some water. He sat down with the two other marine candidates Carter and Beresford, they both had similar breakfast choices as Jason and all three of them laughed watching someone drink 3 orange juices who also had a bowl of frosted flakes.

At 0530, breakfast was finished, and everyone was called over to a plastic folding table set up in the lounge, Attendance was sorted out when people arrive for breakfast so all that they did was get in a line and walk to the vans outside to the building to take them to MEPS. Once they got to MEPS they lined up into three rows in front of the building facing the street where an Army Sargent started to tell them about MEPS and while small bibles were handed around with a camouflage pattern based on military branch. They then walked single file into the compound to talk to the Marine GySgt. First, the entire group listened to a short brief on entering the building by the security guard. Then all Army, Navy and Airforce recruits started to go through security, while the Marine candidates were split into two groups one that shipped out in three days and the other that was going to MEPS for the physical. The GySgt handed out stickers and told people to take the sticker with their name on it and to put it over their heart. The GySgt called role for the Marine candidates and everyone was there, however, they were delayed because the last person in line was chewed out because he responded “Present” instead of “Here, Sir” when the GySgt was calling role. But they were not the last to enter the building. They went through security and Jason took off his belt, emptied his pockets, took off his shoes, and put his packet into a plastic box for the x-ray machine. The security guard told him to retrieve his glasses because he did not want Jason to hit his head walking through security. Jason only got his glasses recently, in the compact room he could see everything without his glasses, but he did not want to argue so he put on his glasses he waited to be told to walk through the machine. After passing through security Jason put his shoes and belt back on, put his ID in his pocket and got his packet and went to the second-floor medical area where he waited for sight and hearing tests. While waiting Jason started chatting with one of the navy guys, asking how they were doing. The navy guy said he had a good breakfast, and the Airforce guy next to him said that he drank three red bulls before coming here. Jason told him that “we weren’t supposed to eat stuff like that because they test for sugar and protein levels in your urine.” Then one of the operators chimed in “Your recruiter told you not to eat? Who is your recruiter?” and Jason replied “Ssgt. Hollingsworth is my recruiter and he told me not to eat candy and donuts because they make me fat.” The operator looked at Jason’s name tag and saw his branch of service and said “yea that’s right” then he asked “you’re from the Parker office have you run the lap yet?” and Jason replied “I ran it twice on Monday” then Jason returned to waiting for more medical exams.

A spot opened, and Jason was able to do the vision test. First was depth perception test, he was allowed to do this section with his glasses. For most of the depth perception he got the correct answers but for 2 questions he answered incorrectly but the admin of the test said “that was wrong chose again” Jason got it on his second and third tries. Then he was told to sit down to wait for an eye exam. It was to test if his eyesight could be corrected, and it could. When Jason was finished he was sent to go to the Medical Brief where he filled out the paperwork that he looked at in the recruiting office. After he finished that Paperwork he took a breathalyzer and tested negative for alcohol. Then he was sent on his way for the rest of the tests. Jason the did the urine analysis with no problems, he had been drinking water for the entire morning. Then Jason took the hearing test, the administration of the test was strange. It started with the left ear using ten sounds then went to the right ear for ten sounds, after that it went back to the left for higher pitched tones, but at that point in time, the sound of Jason’s heartbeat was all that he could hear until it got to a lower decibel. Jason then waited for forty-five minutes to take a blood test, then waited another forty to get to the doctor’s interview. Waiting for the underwear Olympics only took twenty-five minutes. Everyone in the group of five candidates took off all their clothes except their underwear, got their height measured and weighed. Jason weighed 206 pounds and was 72 inches tall. He was the last to go to do the doctor for a physical inspection, the observer chimed in “someone got pizza and the only thing standing between us and it is this kid so get through him quickly”. The doctor asked Jason a few questions and inspected his body, Jason then put on his clothes and went to the medical control desk to make copies of his paperwork.

After the copies were made it was about 1200 and Jason immediately went to the Marine office where they gave him more paperwork to do. Jason was interrupted several times during the completion of the paperwork first to do crunches and pull-ups in the office. He did sixty crunches in two minutes and two pull-ups but was told to do pushups. Then he did thirty-five pushups and the Marine told Jason to stop. Jason’s entire body was shaking. From the change of eight hours of doing tests and waiting to physical exercise. Jason returned to his paperwork but was then called for contracting. Jason’s contract said that he would join the Marine corps for eight years, four years active duty and four years inactive duty, with a ship off date of September 20, 2010. Then he finished his paperwork and returned to the Marine office where the marines told him to wait for the others to get through contracting. That took an hour and a half. Then Jason swore in. Jason grabbed his backpack and waited outside the Marine office until the Marines took them out of the building. The Marine candidates followed behind a Marine as they walked to the Marine recruiting headquarters three blocks away. There was a quick brief because it was 1600 when they got to the Marine recruiting headquarters. There was a quick brief about the DEP and about the responsibilities it has for all people in the DEP.

After that was finished Jason got a Marine shirt to work out in and a roll of posters. Then he followed Ssgt. Mercado to the car where they drove back to the Parker recruiting station. They stopped for Wendy’s on the way. Once they got back Jason said a quick hello to Ssgt. Hollingsworth before he went home to start his six-hour closing shift at Mc. Donald’s. It was a long shift, and Jason was able to get home and asleep by 0200 the next day.