Pre-Basic 2: MEPS Physcial

I had to wake up at 0400 to go get my military physical. It was an all morning event. There was a big group that stayed over night at a hotel that the Army paid for that were also doing the physical. After being handed camouflage bible from a chaplain we started the physical process.

First was checking the blood pressure. The guy before me (another OCS named Gamble) had his so low, the lady said that if it was any lower he would be asleep. I asked him if he was tired, he said he was just super relaxed. He is a cool guy. I think he just graduated from ASU.

It was crazy seeing my high school star quarterback Mike Moreno at the physical too. We chatted and reminisced on old times. He is going into OCS too. He won't be able to board until next month though, so we probably won't be put into the same OCS group.

Next I had my eyes checked. The guy giving the test to me was pretty rude. I need to start getting used to that for basic training. I passed no problem. My left is perfect, and right has problem. I am not color blind either. They had me look at colored dots and one color would form a number. I had to say the number. One guy did not pass the color blind test. I thought it was super easy.

Then the part I was worried about came. The hearing test. My hearing is not very good. They have you put a head set on and you listen to beeps at different pitches and volumes. You press a button if you hear it. I think I was trigger happy and pressed it too much. I should have just pressed when I heard it. Needless to say I barely passed the hearing test.

We were then all taken into another room and filled out a lot of forms and were given a breathalyzer test. That was the first time I needed to do that. Don't worry I was not drunk. By this point I needed to go pee badly. I wish they had us pee in a cup earlier. If you are planning doing this physical, you don't need to hold your pee. There will be plenty of time for you to fill up with water and go later. Being in the bathroom with a group of young guys going pee tends to get a little immature. Luckily I was one of the first and went in and out.

The next part was a doctor check. This was very basic. I passed.

After that I gave blood. While waiting a girl joining the Marines was giving blood and fainted. I had to run to her and catch her before she fell and hit the ground. They had to let her sniff something to wake her up. She must have felt weird when she awoke and saw me holding her. Pretty crazy experience. I then gave blood and made sure I got the other person to take my blood. I don't think that was a better choice. She had trouble finding my vein and poked the needle and missed it. She then began to dig around looking for it. That was painful. The only thing I could think about was that I need to be tough because this will be nothing compared to an arm being blown off. I need to be strong. (hopefully I never have a body part blown off)

I then went into a room with about 15 other guys. We all had to strip down to our undies, we then were weighed and measured. I am 170lbs and 5'9". We then were given calisthenic commands. There were a lot of doctors in the room looking at us, which was kind of weird. We had to do all sorts of things. They were just making sure I body moved in the proper way. We had to waddle like a duck, kick legs quickly, turn ankles, and walk quickly using our heals. I can't remember all that we did, but it was kind of refreshing doing the exercises. I need to do more calisthenics.

Then it was just paper work that I had to do and I was done. Long morning, but for the most part the people I was surrounded by were good people. There was one boy (17) who had lost over a hundred pounds to join. He barely missed the body fat check. That means he has to wait one more month and do it again. I hear that sometimes they wait for everyone to leave and they let people like that through anyway. I got to give him props for losing that much weight.