You're doing what? Why?

Since almost everyone is going to ask me that question I'll put the answer here.

The "what" is joining the Navy Reserve. Not to be confused with Active Duty Navy. As a reservist I will keep my civilian job and "drill" one weekend a month, plus two weeks (14 straight days) per year. Of course, if the unit I belong to is 'called up' I'll be on Active Duty for that time. Usually this happens once every three years for a 'call up' of six months to a year. Obviously things may be accelerated a bit given the current national situation, but the draw on Navy personnel is not as large as the other branches.

Put simply the "why" is because it's something I felt I should do. I'll elaborate. Almost a year ago I was thinking of getting a new job. I had come to the realization that I was a) more or less 'coasting' having learned what I needed for my job and b) there wasn't much in the way of advancement in the department I was in. In addition I had been contemplating changing career dramatically towards FBI, Secret Service, or something along those lines. After having applications turned down (stupid low undergrad GPA), I began looking at a potential military career. After looking at the options I thought Naval Intelligence would be the way to go for me. Unfortunately, due to a rather odd restriction, I was unable to qualify for the highest level of security clearence which is required for Intel positions. Finding that out was a fair drawn out process of pestering as many people I could find. I was also talking to as many Active Duty military folks I could find to try to get an idea of what I was potentially getting into.

So after finding out I didn't qualify for the job I wanted, I contemplated the 'backup' options I had looked at. About this time I transfered to a new department at work that was challenging and had very good upward potential. I really couldn't rationalize what would essentially be "starting over" career wise for a 'backup' option. My recruiters were understanding (and tremendously helpfull along the entire process might I add), but asked if I had though about joining the Reserves instead of Active Duty. I hadn't, it was an 'all or nothing' proposition for me at the outset. So I did some more digging and more pestering. After all the people I talked to I found that performing some form of service was appealing to me, and something that I needed to do.

That is how I ended up joining the Navy Reserve. The address for this blog "usnr-et" stands for United States Navy Reserve - Electronics Technician. ET is the 'rating' I'm enlisting under. I'll be heading to Naval Station Great Lakes (north of Chicago, Illinois) for basic training (boot camp) and for my 'A' school (technical school for ET's). It will be 10 months total, and I head out on February 8th.

This blog will (hopefully) be updated by my dad whenever I write letters home, so people can keep up-to-date if they like. I'm certain I won't have internet access during the first 8 weeks of basic training, and I'm not sure how much access (or time) I'll have to update during 'A' school; so if nothing else I'm helping my dad practice by typing out my letters (of course he doubts I'll write that often; I have a rather dismal history when it comes to letter writing).

If you have quetions you can leave them as comments here. My dad will also put a post up with the address where you can send me (snail) mail.