Introduction to Shadowspear

navbud

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Joined
Jan 30, 2020
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2
Hello Shadowspear Community,



First of I want to say hello to anyone that views this post, I believe this is the only forum I have ever joined (to my knowledge), and I hope to be able to contribute more to it in the near future, but I digress, this is an intro post so I should stick to that. I will start off by my age, currently, 30 years old and will be 31 when I officially go-to basic. Some may be reading this and wonder why did I wait so long to join the military. To answer that I'll go back to when I was around 18-20 years old, around the time it was 2008 or so, many who are old enough would remember it when the world was in financial turmoil, the Great Recession if we will. Well that's when I moved from NJ to FL, and I finished up high school, being as the kid who was never good at school and always had an affinity to be in the military, I decided to head to a Navy recruiter's office to be a cool guy SEAL and enlist, not knowing what I was getting into. I took the ASVAB and I scored horribly, the recruiter told me I wasn't eligible to enlist with my score and to get an ASVAB study guide and come back when I could score better. So I did what I was told and started to study for the ASVAB.

Now also during this time my father had put all his eggs in a basket and bought a small business franchise and the store unit the business was going in. Also, remember this was during the Great Recession of 08, the store wasn't making any money and he needed to talk to me. He called his former boss and was able to get back his old job, but he had to move back up north as there were no positions available in FL. So that left me, his oldest son and his only option, in charge of something I never wanted or had any interest in. But I had an option, either go in the military and watch my family crumble financially over mistakes that happened, or stay, forgo the military and hope that I could help out as much as I can. So I chose to stay, a hard pill to swallow when your dad comes to tell his barley adult son he’s his only option so the family could still have a house to call home, but I know tougher decisions have been made.

Anyways, after about 10 years of hating what I was doing and the business was getting ready to renew with the franchisee, I told my dad I didn’t want to do it anymore, I couldn’t take it, not the way the franchisee was treating the owners and the amount of money he was to spend just to have another 10 years of BS. He understood and we closed the store, during this time I was sporadically going to college, as I thought college wouldn’t matter as I was going to be in this business till I hit the casket. I was also trying to go the ROTC route multiple times but it never panned out, so when I finally was able to get the BS details in my life tied up I went to the Army’s recruiting station and talked with a recruiter. Next thing I know I scored high enough on the ASVAB and was going to MEPS in Tampa. Originally I didn’t have a job yet, I was put in the DEP so I could finish my college degree which was about 9 months away. My recruiter told me just go and sign up, and if you didn’t want the job you can change that, I didn’t believe that enough but I put my faith in God for this one, after two days staring at the paint dry from sundown to sundown at MEPS, I was able to get the job I wanted, 68w with an option 40 contract.

After that long-winded intro let me say I’m thankful to have discovered this forum. I do not look for any shortcuts in life, I was never given one so I don’t expect to receive one. I come into this community as a humble spectator, knowing I’ll never be the smartest guy in the room, which I am grateful for, as I know I can never grow as an individual if I was. I am grateful for the ones who’ve lived it and willing to share their rights and wrong. In the grand scheme, I hope to be a Ranger Medic and compete for a position in IPAP, as I was always interested in the medical field.

Thank You,

NavBud
 
Welcome. Fantastic goals, I have worked with many Ranger Medics who went the IPAP route. Great guys and great soldiers.
 
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