by Derek—2004.08.19 @ 1616
The trip to Salt Lake City MEPS station was somewhat of an adventure. I arrived at the recruiter's office at 11 a.m. to take a quick drug test (don't worry, I passed) and then was driven to the St. George airport at 12 noon. The flight to Salt Lake City was aboard a small Brazillian prop plane and it was loaded. Apparently a group of retirees was taking a tour to Great Britain and had purchased every available seat. The Delta Connection, SkyWest, was asking anyone onboard to take a later flight to reduce the weight. What a great way to encourage confidence on an already scary flight.
Take-off and landing was rough and very bumpy. I usually do not get sick on flights, but on a small plane with lots of turbulance didn't help. Luckily, I made it through.
One thing I can say about the recruiting process is that you are well taken care of. Outside the airport in Salt Lake, I found a cab waiting for me--contracted by MEPS. Brief instructions to the cabbie and we were off (although the cabbie left the trunk open which delayed my rondesvous with Star Command a few more minutes).
MEPS is located in an industrial center on Redwood Road. The building is not marked, and except for the address, I wouldn't have recognized it. Since September 11, 2001, the security is much tighter at MEPS, including cement barriers protecting the parking lot. I buzzed the entrance and was soon let in, along with a few Navy Sergeants.
I was scheduled to take the Armed Forces Vocational Aptitude Battery, the Department of the Defense entrance and segmenting test. To be honest, I was a little worried about my performance, despite encouragement from family and the recruiter.
My worries were founded on my unfamiliarity with the test. You are given four hours to complete eight sections -- arithmetic, word comprehension, mathematical reasoning, paragraph comprehension, automotive knowledge, mechanical reasoning, electronic knowledge, and shop knowledge. On my first day with my recuiter I was given a sample test which I think reflected what to expect on the ASVAB. Although I passed, I didn't do as well on the mathematics, mostly because I was rusty with my equasions.
I stepped in at 3:00 p.m. to begin the test and breezed through most of the questions, especially the language and word comprehension. I know I missed a few on the math, but the more I did some of the equasions (e.g., (x+3)(y-2)) the easier they became -- I think I remembered how to do them! The math wasn't really that hard, but I was out of practice. In fact, I know that I could ace the math if I had brushed up on my algebra. None of the equasions used complex numbers, and I think you could solve most of them in your head if you could remember the basic "tricks" for solving basic algebra.
The aptitude tests -- shop, electrical, and automotive -- were fun and didn't really count towards the ASVAB score or military entrance, however, they do effect what jobs you may qualify for. Since I already had a job in place, I wasn't too worried, although I feel confident I did fine.
I took 1.5 hours to complete the ASVAB and the sergeant in charge said I did very well (she couldn't tell me my score directly). A van came and took me and another recruit to the hotel Shareton. The hotel was great and MEPS has their own lobby located inside. The MEPS lobby was like a small living room that was very well put together. Large leather couches, chairs, and recliners lined the room along with a large-screen TV and smaller TV's with video games, etc. It was impressive! We were received and well treated. I was given my room key, meal tickets, and a $10 phone card.
By 7:00 p.m. I realized I hadn't eaten anything all day and I was starving! Downstairs near the main lobby is a very fancy restaurant where we ate dinner. MEPS had their own special menu with about seven items. I chose the spagetti which was not a dissapointment. I was tired and went to my room at 8:30 and fell asleep by 9:30 p.m., although I really didn't get much sleep at all.