The Air Force and What to Know Before Joining

I was recruited into the Air Force when I was still in high school and did not have much prospect at college. I knew I wanted to get a college education but my parents could not afford it. The next best thing to me was the military. And I knew that I was not interested in other services. The Air Force was for me and I knew it before hand. I had a cousin who was in the service as a Security Police and she said it was great, she was station at Okinawa in Japan and was having a great time there.



While still in high school I talked to a recruiter and got extremely lucky, he was honest. Later in basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas I found out just how honest he was. I signed up at a MEPS station in downtown Chicago were they gave me a very thorough physical and did some other things. The physical was very dehumanizing, you did a lot of things that doctors usually do but in groups of fifty guys or so. The hernia check and such was the worst, lined up around a room as a couple of doctors, or at least I hope they were, checked us there and then had us turn around and bend over. Yep, to look from one guy to the next for whatever it is they look for there too.


During this whole time and on into my military life, one thing that is probably the most accurate thing about the military is the standing in line and waiting, as someone said in a similar article on the Army, it is a favorite sport in the Army and the Air Force is no different. The hurry up and wait ethic has become a fine art in the U.S. Military and every branch of service uses it. I found myself even before getting into that big room and swearing my allegiance to the flag and constitution hurrying up and waiting. My recruiter had done me very well though, I made the military wait on me.