The US Army Life Timeline

08/10/2007 - At the age of 29, I got married to my perfect wife.

08/10/2007 - Fired from my job (Turned out they didn't want to give me the night off. Apparently your own wedding isn't a good enough excuse to miss work, no matter how far ahead you requested the time off.) Of course, my wife was totally supportive and understanding.

09/30/2007 - Began receiving unemployment compensation. For the next few months, I looked for work and took whatever odd jobs I could find along the way (run to the grocery store for the neighbor with the broken ankle, mow grandma's lawn, help mom paint her house, stuff like that). Again, my wife was understanding and patient with me through this process.

06/15/2008 - After nearly a year with not so much as a nibble on the job line, but no shortage of free time, I proposed to my wife an idea that I had formulated about starting up my own business. No surprise. She was 100% behind me in support of my idea.

06/15/2009 - Started actually playing with the notion of joining the Army. But as understanding and supportive as my wife had been all along, how understanding and supportive would she really be when I said "Hey honey. I'm going to leave you with a son and a daughter for god knows how long while I go run off to the Army." And still, she was 100% supportive and understanding. I'm a very lucky man.

I get asked alot, "What made you want to join the Army?"
"I'm too old to join the Marine Corps," I tell them. I'm just kidding, I don't seriously say that.

The truth is, I don't usually know quite what to say. It's not like I just woke up on June 15th, 2009, turned on the laptop, poured a bowl of Cap'n Crunch Berries, even sliced up some bananas in there, starting eating, and then halfway through breakfast dropped the spoon and went "HOLY FUCKING SHIT! I WANT TO JOIN THE ARMY! HOOAH!!"

What made me want to join the Army? Life, I guess. Hard to explain why I wanted to join really. As a kid I always loved the good action flicks. The quality of a movie was based on the number of bullets that flew and explosions that went off, size of explosions, etc. Storyline? Yeah, when I wanted a good plot, I read a book... usually books with guns in them. I would run around the house with my plastic guns drawn, leaping over the couches and landing in ninja rolls, destroying the hordes of enemies that had me surrounded. I would creep around corners and tiptoe through the hallways, trying to avoid the being seen by the enemy (mom and sis).

Now I would like to pause for a moment and make one thing clear. I'm not a moron. I don't expect to be Rambo and single-handedly destroy the entire Viet-Cong or Fedayeen or whoever the enemy may be with a bow and arrow. I understand that movies are for entertainment. War is not. War is hell. I am simply trying to paint a picture here that may answer the question, "What made you want to join the Army?"

Moving on.

My favorite video games were always the ones that involved combat. Like my movies, I liked my video games with guns, grenades, and big freakin' booms.

As I got older, I began my collection of things that go boom. I had my daughter at a very young age. I spoke with an Armed Forces recruiter and almost joined way back when I was about 18. But I wasn't married and therefore couldn't take my daughter with me. I felt guilty about leaving her behind for years, and in the end, I didn't sign. Later I had a son. As the years passed, I seriously considered time and time again about joining the US Military. Each time, the need to be there for my kids, or maybe the guilt of not being there, won out in the end, and I stayed home, working this job or that, and scraping by a living.

Still the desire to serve my country never left. I'm going to toot my own horn here. I am a very intelligent person. I can whoop your ass at chess or a battle of wits. If you're one of 99 people in a room taking the same test I am, my scores are higher than yours, and I didn't even study. I can also beat you to death in a fight, injure you, break your arm, restrain you, let you live, or stand there, let you beat your aggressions out on me, and take it all with a smile. I shot a pack of cigarettes from 100 yards out with a compact handgun. I shot a bird only slightly larger than a hummingbird from 30 yards out down an embankment from the hip! I can outplay you or outcoach you in any sport. I'm tough as nails - strike that - make it railroad spikes. I'm alot stronger than you might expect. Even at 5'10" 120 lbs I could pick a fucking couch up over my head. The point is, I have tons a qualifications that can make me a tremendous asset to our Armed Forces in any MOS (Military Occupational Specialty).

Another factor that played in my decision to join the Army was, believe it or not, the pay! Plenty of you out there are making $90,000, $120,000, or more a year. If that's your status, you may not think so highly of Army pay as I do. But try living (in Northern California) and supporting 2 children off of $1,404 a month, or $802 a month, or $615 a month. I have. It's hard. But we got by. The Army offers more than that to start off at E-1 (an entry level enlisted soldier starts of at E-1, or Private). But we don't get paid just Base Pay. Here's what's included in your pay and benefits package with the US Army:

• Base Pay - Yes, it's a job, and it comes with a salary. Each promotion in rank (E-1 to E-2, Private to Private First Class, PFC to Corporal, Corporal to Sergeant, etc.) also comes with a raise in your base pay and other allowances.
  
• Housing Allowance (AKA: BAH or Basic Allowance for Housing) - Now this isn't some sort of coupon you give your landlord. This is cash money direct deposited into your checking account every month if you choose to live off base or if there is no Army base housing available. An example of a Housing Allowance: Sacramento, CA, 2009 Housing Allowance for an E-1 = $1,498. That's $1,498 + my Base Pay!
• Separation Pay - Additional monies deposited into your account for separation from family members during training (such as BCT [Basic Combat Training] or AIT [Advanced Individual Training]) or deployment.
• Hazardous Duty / Imminent Danger Pay - HDID Pay is some more cash thrown in every payday for soldiers who are deployed to combat zones. Base Pay + Housing + Separation Pay + HDID Pay... we're rakcing them up here, and we ain't done yet!
• Food Allowance - Like the BAH, more cash in your bank account every payday.
• Clothing Allowance - Yep, you got it. More cash!
• Signing Bonus - Amount varies depending on your MOS, contract length, and ship status, but can be worth up to $40,000... yes, cash.
  

And let's not forget the benefits.

• Medical, check.
  
• Dental, check.
  
• Psych, check.
• VA Loans - 4% Locked interest rate on a mortgage.
• Montgomery GI Bill - Money for College (up to another $40,000 I believe).
• Tuition Assistance.
• Student Loan Repayments.
• ConAP - Schedule college enrollment to coincide with the end of your enlistment.
• The Commissary - Very cheap food (which you can buy with your food allowance, don't forget!), usually at just a shade above cost.
• The PX (Post Exchange) - Everything else you need to shop for... uber-cheap.
• Retire after only 20 years! Most people will start working around the age of 18 and retire around the age of 65 if they're lucky. A soldier who starts working at 18 can retire when he's 38. Imagine that. Retired at only 38 years old! That's a shitload of free time.
• Moving Expenses are covered. That's not the beautiful part for me. The sweet piece of this deal is that they will pay to have someone pack, move, and unpack your entire house, all the way down to putting your food back in the cupboards. Awesome!

It all sounds great, but what to do with the kids for the next 3 years?! Well things are so much simpler now. My kids are older now, and can comprehend and rationalize my absence. My wife is a natural. Her and the kids have a very close relationship, and I can 1,000% trust that they are in good hands for the 5 months or so that I'll be in training. Once I complete my training, I will be assigned my duty station, where my wife and kids will join me. We will all live together either on Base Housing or somewhere near base courtesy of the US Army's BAH. Even when I'm called on to deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan, I know that they will be safe and happy for the 6 to 15 months that I am away. Best of all, I am building a future for them and making a serious contribution to helping this world become a safer place for them to enjoy their lives.

So I guess that essentially covers "Why I joined the Army."

July 22, 2009 - I selected my MOS (my job) from the list of available jobs. I am to be trained to be a 13F, Fire Support Specialist. No, not a firefighter as most people think when they hear the title. Here's my understanding of what a 13F does. He remains invisible to the enemy and blows shit up. He uses field or naval artillery, CAS (Combat Air Support), missiles, bombs, helicopters, or whatever is necessary to rain hellfire down upon the heads of the enemy. I'm down with that.

July 28th, 2009 - Processed at MEPS and was sworn in as a Future Soldier in the United States Army.

September 2oth, 2009 - Scheduled to return to MEPS for final processing and head to the hotel for my last night in "the world."

September 21st, 2009 - Scheduled to depart via airplane for Fort Jackson, South Carolina. My first order is to report to Battalion for in-processing.

September 28th, 2009 - Scheduled to begin BCT (Basic Combat Training) at Fort Jackson.

And that's the general rundown, from here to there.

Between now and my ship-date, I will continue to share my experiences. I imagine that once I arrive at Basic, I will have very little time to write, and zero access to a computer. Perhaps my wife and my kids would be kind enough to post my letters I send home to them.

I will also continue to share my experiences after training and all the way through the US Army life. Enjoy the ride. Thanks for tuning in. Till next time.