Alright, so here's a quick timeline of how my attemps to join the Armed Forces have gone up to this point.
Sept 09: First contact with AF recruiters. Talked for a bit, and was told I would have to take care of all my speeding tickets (I had like, 6) before anything else could happen.
Sept - Dec 09: Paid off all the speeding tickets (Just barely short of $2000 worth). Went back to the recruiter (to his surprise), and found I needed to get a bunch of paperwork together for him. Birth Certificate, SS Card, Marriage Certificate, and the like. Started gathering paperwork.
Dec 09: In my search, I found I lost my social security card, so I had to wait 2 weeks for a new one. Finished gathering paperwork.
Jan 10: Received replacement SS card in the mail. Brought it to the recruiter. Was advised that I also need medical records from all past ear surgeries. Okay. Would've been nice to know earlier...but okay.
Late Jan 10: Turned in medical paperwork to recruiter. Recruiter turns paperwork over to MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station...or something like that.)
Feb 10: Heard back from MEPS about the medical documents. They requested additional medical documents about the surgeries (not unusual). Went back to the doctors office, told them I needed a letter saying that they didn't have any additional documents, which is S.O.P.
THREE (3) WEEKS LATER
They still didn't have it ready for me. After repeated phone calls to the office asking the status of the letter, and saying it was not ready, I finally went down to the office myself, and bam, 5 minutes later, they had it for me. Gave it to the recruiter, sent it to MEPS, and they (finally) CLEARED ME FOR PROCESSING! w00t!!!
Now, that's exciting for a few reasons. The Air Force put a freeze on ALL processing for new recruits NATIONWIDE, effective 22 Feb 2010, so the last day to process would have been 19 Feb 2010. I was able to process on 18 Feb 2010, so I was stoked. I had just barely made it.
EVERYTHING WAS GOING PERFECTLY.
AND THEN..
During the physical evaluation, the Chief Medical Officer said that I have tubes in my ears. I had tubes put in my ears when I was a baby, but they were supposed to fall out after like, 6 months. I didn't know if I did or not, but assumed the Doc knew what he was talking about, so I didn't argue. The problem is, tubes are an automatic disqualification. Which means I can't join any branch of the military, the CIA, or the FBI. BUT! A waiver can be had for them. Which basically means they send the paperwork to the Surgeon General of the Air Force, and composes a letter saying "We know this kid has tubes in his ears, but we're going to let him in anyway." And THAT process takes awhile, which would definitely push me past the freeze date for processing. But! I was already processed, so I should be able to get the waiver (in a month or so), and then continue on with processing and job selection. Riiight? Well...I guess we'll see.
Still Feb 10: In the meantime, I decided to pay a visit to my regular ear doctor, an ACTUAL otolaryngologist, and he took a look and said "nope, no tubes". Ran some tests (timpanogram) to show that I, in fact, don't have tubes, or any holes in my ear drum at all, and composed a letter to any branch of the military that'll listen, saying as much. Brought the letter back to the recruiter, and he told me that he'll submit the letter, but I'm on hold, so I can't move on to job selection. I'm frozen. lol wut, right?
That's what I said to the recruiter, and he informed me that the AF is not going to finish processing anybody who didn't finish processing before the cutoff (me), they just have to wait until processing is opened again. And no one knows when that'll be. F.
So...because a practicing physician of 40+ years THOUGHT I had tubes in my ears (when I obviously don't), I now can't join the Air Force until they start processing people again. Which could be a month or two, or as much as 6 - 12 months from now. So...
March 10: Talked to the Navy. They advised me that all they would need to do is send me up to MEPS for job selection, as soon as the Air Force hands over my paperwork. Piece of cake, right? Well...the Air Force already sent the paperwork to the Surgeon General, and they can't just get it back. I have to wait for that process to finish, which could be until mid-April before its done. And THEN I get to go to the Navy and go to MEPS, and all that. And that's how March got filled with doing nothing.
More to come later, I assure you.
