the recruiting process

I have a bad memory when it comes to times, dates, and the chronological order of a series of events. Therefore, the following story is written to the best of my knowledge and could possibly vary from what actually happened.

I'm sure some people are thinking thoughts along the lines of: "How did that sleazy, sneaky, slick Trent guy manage to talk Maria into signing her life away?!" Well, sorry folks, he had a little help.

Way back in high school, a Navy recruiter called constantly, trying to convince me to sign up with his branch of the armed forces. I don't remember if I attracted his attention by requesting information or not, but it took a long time for him to give up. Periodically after that, I would go online and poke around to see what kinds of jobs I could find. The military's recruiting websites always seemed to pop up, mostly the Navy's, because I was usually searching for photography and languages and they had those listed in their career fields.

The last time I did my little online searches was in the fall of 2002, in October, I believe. I always said if I ever joined the military it would be the Marines so this time I found myself at Marines.com. Since then they have redesigned the website (It's much better now!) but at the time, in order to get any information, you had to put in your name and address. So I did. I don't know why, usually I make up a name and a fake address but this time I didn't. I looked around the site but the content wasn't very good and I wasn't impressed at all by the listing of jobs.

I don't remember exactly what I was thinking at the time. I don't think I was seriously pondering whether to enlist but I wasn't saying, "No, never!" either. I might have put in my address to see what they would send me, but I don't remember if I really wanted them to get a hold of me or not. I guess I was just messing around online hoping to find a job. I also don't remember whether I got the packet of information before or after the phone call. I might have gotten the phone call, been asked about the information, and then dug it out of the neglected mail box.

Anyways, one day there was an odd number on my caller ID and a new voicemail message. The recruiter said something along the lines of "This is Staff Sergeant Trent with the United States Marines Corps calling for Maria to talk to her about the opportunities that are available for her with the Marines. Please call me at ::cellphonenumber::. Thank you and have a nice day."

I listened to it and did nothing. A few days later, he called again but this time I was actually awake at eight am in morning, which I wasn't the first time he called. I answered and briefly considering blowing him off when he wanted to ask me a few questions. Then I thought, "Eh, what the heck, it's just some questions..." He asked things like: "How tall are you, did you do any drugs, are you in school, how much do you weigh, are you a U.S. citizen, have you been convicted of anything?", etc. He was really nice and I had fun teasing him about calling me so early. The only thing I distinctly remember him saying during the call was something about "Well maybe if you answered your stinkin' phone!" I thought that was funny because it sounded undignified for a recruiter. He said I should come in to the office soon to talk more about the Marines but I told him I had to check my work schedule and that I would call him back.

I first talked to him on October 18, 2002. I believe it was the next week I called him back and set up a time for me to go to the recruiting office. It was in the evening and it took me awhile to find the old post office building in Rockville, which was hard to miss once you got near it because of all the Army and Navy recruiting materials plastered everywhere. I saw the Marines section through a window and a tall black guy in the office. I had to go through the back because the front doors were locked but once I got in, I poked my head in the office. The tall, black Marine asked if he could help me and I told him I was looking for Staff Sergeant Trent. I sat and waited, since he hadn't returned yet, while Gunny Babb talked to me and introduced Sergeant Lester and Staff Sergeant Ellin.

Eventually, SSgt Trent got his butt back in the office and got to work. He pulled out a little stack of 11 or so plastic cards which contained words like "Challenge", "Adventure", "Education", "Travel". I was supposed to pick the three that were the most important to me while he changed out of his dress blues. But I could only narrow it down to five or six. After he was done, he came to see which I had picked and explained how the Marines could fulfill those desires. Also that day I took a practice ASVAB, which was basically like the math and English portions of the SAT. I think my score was around 85 or 88. After awhile he said, "Are you hungry, because I'm starving!" I was too, so we went across the street to eat hamburgers and he continued talking and talking about the Marines the whole time. How I had nothing to lose, no reason not to join, lots of reasons to join, why I wanted to, what I was worried about, what job I wanted. He proceeded to shoot down every reason I could think of NOT to join.

I had no other real career plans, I hated college, and I was definitely starting to not like my job. I figured it wouldn't hurt to keep talking to him, to see what the whole Marines thing was about. As we finished up our hamburgers, he asked when I wanted to talk again. I said, "Call me in a week." SSgt Trent responded by telling me he would call in a couple days, but that I was more than welcome to call him anytime I had a question.

Little did he know! I called him maybe an hour after I left and every day for the next two weeks straight, plus I visited the office every few days to read everything they would let me read. I watched videos, read magazines, flipped through pamphlets, and examined the jobs manuals until I knew the books better than they did. I was there so often that practically ALL the recruiters knew who I was and started asking me when I was going to MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station) to officially enlist. "You haven't gone YET!?", "What are you waiting for?!", "You're here again?!"

Finally, one day SSgt Trent and Gunny Babb set up a date for me to go to the Baltimore MEPS. I was supposed to go Thursday evening, take the ASVAB, spend the night in the hotel, and do the physical and actual signing up on Friday. For various reasons, I ended up not going that day though.