Introduction - Johnathan

[Anjunadeep02]

Hello Rangers, veterans, other military personnel, and fellow members of the board:

My name is Johnathan and I am finally in a position to enlist in the U.S. Army. I will be 25 years old in a few weeks and have been trying to join the Army since I was 18 years old. MEPS has continued to shoot me down, but I have finally conquered them. 3 full MEPS physicals and 7 years later, I am finally in a position to carry out my dream and goal of serving.

I required a medical waiver for a "fake" ankle problem that the MEPS CMO misinterpreted. During the underwear olympics, the MEPS CMO insisted that my range of motion was not adequate in my ankles and PDQ me, giving me a 3 in the lower extremities of the PULHES profile. I went to an orthopaedic specialist to start building my waiver packet and he found no limited range of motion and no congenital issues and prettied up a document for me to send in the medical waiver workflow and it ended up paying off. I received my medical waiver from the USAREC surgeon last week.

While trying to enlist over all of these years, I have stayed busy in school. I am a NREMT-P and have been working in EMS since I was 18, so I have about 7 years of experience. Most of my family and friends insist on me enlisting as a 68W because of my background and the potential to go in at a higher rank, but I am looking for a change. When I initially wanted to join, infantry was in my heart and it still is in my heart. While I hate that I will probably lose the NREMT-P certification that I worked so hard for, I feel like I will have made the right decision to enlist several years down the road.

My big term goal in my army career is to attend RASP and be selected for service in the 75th Ranger Regiment. I am projected to enlist this Friday (all I have to do is inspect and then talk to MEPS counselor and swear in), so it's starting to become a reality now. My recruiter has already pulled 11X for me and I ship within two months. From what I've read on the internet and ArmyRanger.com, because I require a medical waiver at MEPS, I am not eligible to receive airborne school or RASP in my initial contract. This breaks my heart to a degree, but I will push through just like I've pushed through MEPS. I am hoping that I can get a slot out of OSUT because it's my only chance since I can't get it in contract. I am also curious as to what the medical waiver has changed my PULHES profile to. I will forever be a 113121 per the MEPS CMO, but with the received medical waiver, I hope that the 3 in lower extremities has turned into a 1. I would suspect that because my recruiter has been able to reserve 11X for me, it has changed to a 1, because the PULHES requirement for Infantry and most combat MOS's is 111221. One can only hope.


I look forward to the interaction within this discussion board and hope that everyone is doing well.

Thanks,
Johnathan

[Lefty]

Your determination appears to be good, which is going to be the primary factor in whether you make it to RASP and selection or not. You have not stated your physical condition or any PT numbers, which must be excellent for you to succeed.

Others will be along shortly to address your situation.

Good luck.

[Jim]

Welcome, Johnathan, If you want to learn about earning a place in the 75th Ranger Regiment, you came to the right site. We at armyranger.com take a great deal of pride in the young men who pass through here on their life journey. Most of the questions you might have can be addressed by using the search feature, located on the top right of this page. Please read the FAQs, as well as select stickies and threads. I am curious why you chose 11X; your background would suggest 68W. Please self-administer a PT test within the next 72 hours and post the results on this thread. Never, never quit!

[Anjunadeep02]

Ranger Jim:

Thank you very much for the warm welcome and instructing me how to navigate the site.

As to why I chose 11x....When I first tried enlisting at 18 years old, I wanted to go infantry at that time. When MEPS denied me back in 2008, they told me that I could try to reprocess in 2 years provided I had no other medical problems. Since I had 2 years to kill, I wanted to learn a skill that I could potentially transfer to the army to benefit my fellow soldiers. I've never been interested in law enforcement, but I have always been interested in medicine, so I elected to go the EMS route. I did the traditional path of EMT-B, EMT-I, and have been a paramedic since I was 22 years old. I've gained a lot of great experience while working as a paramedic. I spent most of my time in a metropolitan city in North Carolina.

I went back to MEPS in 2010 to try and reprocess like I was instructed to do, but got denied for a second time and my medical waiver also got disapproved. At this point, I figured there was no chance that I was going to be granted an opportunity to serve in the army. I have shifted from the ambulance and into the classroom. I am now a full time paramedic instructor at a community college. I have an associate's degree and am probably a year and a half away from finishing a bachelors. My civilian plan is to keep working toward PA school if the military thing doesn't work out.

While I enjoy teaching, I just couldn't get the army off my mind; I just couldn't give up. I went into a recruiters office earlier this year to see if I could try to reprocess for a 3rd time. He was hesitant to let me retry because I was still PDQ in the system and my chances of getting approved was very slim. However, I stayed on him and he let me process and I had to get two medical waivers. He sent up the prescreen and the MEPS CMO wanted to DQ me just based on that, but the army actually granted me a waiver to process, so that was the first waiver. Once I was allowed to perform the MEPS physical, I got through the physical and ofcourse got PDQ again, but the MEPS CMO recommended the waiver. I found out the waiver got approved last week. Everything seems to be finally falling in place in my life and I actually have a shot of enlisting, which I'm projected to this Friday. Regarding 11x, I am interested in doing this because I want to become more well rounded, learn more skills, and get into the infantry mindset. I feel like I'm a strong medic and I have some irreplaceable skills with this, and I just want to broaden my skills and knowledge.

I am going to talk to the MEPS counselor this weekend and see if the ACASP program is still avaiable for NREMT-P to 68W. To my understanding, this could guarantee me E4 and I could skip a portion of training. I'm certainly not trying to take shortcuts, but E4 would be a nice start to my army career and I'll take any extra benefits I can get. Unfortunately, I won't be able to reserve airborne in my contract, which automatically gives me no chance for option 40. I am really hoping that I will have an opportunity to go to airborne school shortly after OSUT, but I know that this is not guaranteed and I could easily get stationed in Ft Drum or Ft Hood. I'm at a point in my life now I feel like I should be thankful for the opportunity to finally enlist.

My apologies for the length of this reply, I just wanted to paint a more specific picture of how strenous my processing has been and why I am interested in 11x vs 68W.

Thanks,
Johnathan

[Jim]

Well, I'm confused.
a. Have you taken an enlistment oath?
b. What MOS did you enlist for?
c. Why did you not address the PT task I assigned you?
Never, never quit!

[Anjunadeep02]

Ranger Jim:

I have not taken an enlistment oath yet - that will be this coming Friday. I am, however, done with my MEPS physical, so the "hard" stuff is over. The only thing I have left to do is an inspect (height and weight) and then talk to the MEPS counselor and then enlist. My recruiter had to reserve a job in order to project me into MEPS. I don't know if this is something new that the army is doing or what, the system is constantly changing. I have been dealing with MEPS for 7 years and there has been so many changes throughout my processing over the years.

2. I have not signed any job contracts yet, but I will this Friday - if everything is under my terms, ofcourse.

3. My apologies for not addressing the PT information, I responded on my lunch break in between teaching my class. I do know that I need to start running before because I have neglected this over the years while working in EMS. I know for a fact, though, that I can do 60 push ups in 2 minutes and 89 situps in 2 minutes. I don't know what my 2 mile run time is because it has honestly been probably 2 years since I have timed myself running. I know that running is very important in the Regiment and I've already started working on my run this week. I will take the full AFPT probably Saturday and will update you with more accurate results. I can't take it tomorrow or Friday because I'm basically working a double shift tomorrow and will be at MEPS all day Friday and then im scheduled to precept my students at the hospital Friday night. I will be running on 3 hours of sleep between now and Saturday, basically.

Thanks,
Johnathan

[Anjunadeep02]

Rangers and everyone else reading this thread:

I have a great update! I enlisted this past Friday as an 11x. I did speak with my MEPS counselor, though, about my options as a 68W considering my background. He made copies of all of my certifications and I ended up getting approved for the ACASP program from NREMT-P to 68W. He informed me that I could enlist as an E4 with this MOS and skip a large portion of AIT. However, I declined this offer and ended up enlisting as an 11x with E3. I know that many people will question this decision, as my of my family and friends are. I have wanted to be infantry since I tried enlisting in the Army back in 2008, even before I became a paramedic. While I enjoy being a medic, I'm simply wanting to broaden my skills and I feel that my unit will benefit best if I have multiple skills. I really want to develop the infantry mindset and hone my skills as an infantryman - it is where my heart is and where it has always been.

Unfortunately, I was not able to get airborne in my contract because I required a medical waiver, so I had to settle for 11x -there is no way around this. I'm hoping that I can perform well in OSUT, stand out, and hopefully an airborne recruiter will swing by and some slots will be open. Maybe if I'm lucky, a Ranger recruiter will be there as well.

I was also able to self administer a PT test yesterday.

My PT test:

Sit ups: 98
Push ups: 64
2 Mile Time: 16:27

Admittedly, my run time sucks. It has been several years since I have seriously ran, but with practice and consistent conditioning, I know that I will achieve my goals. I ship in early January (Don't want to post specific date due to OPSEC), so I only have about a month and a half to prepare. I do believe that this will be an adequate amount of time for me to chisel down my run time because I'm committed to doing this and this lifestyle. I will take any additional tips though that anyone can offer. I want to go into OSUT with a high PT score and want to be in A group. I can achieve this, I just have to put in the time and work.

Thanks to everyone for the continued words of wisdom and support.

Johnathan

[Anjunadeep02]

Rangers:

My apologies for the extreme delay in the SITREP, but I wanted to give up an update of my status. I enlisted back in November of 2014 and have had a month and a half to prepare for Infantry OSUT. I finished strong at my job (I was a paramedic instructor at a community college) and my last day was December 8, 2014, so I have taken this last month and some change and made every minute count. I have performed constant PT and gave 110% in everything that I have been doing to prepare, both mentally and physically.

I will be shipping in 16 days and am ready to start my army career and path to becoming a Ranger. I have also picked up an Army SMART book and have thoroughly reviewed the Winning The Board book authored by MSG Skinner (Ret). I feel that I am both mentally and physically prepared for OSUT at this point, although my run time needs some massive improvement - but I am seeing great results with it. I have put my main focus on improving my push ups and sit ups and various other exercises and it has definitely paid off. I have been doing some 60/120s as well and I feel strongly that I will get my 2 mile run time down to at least 14:00 before I ship. Although I know 14:00 isn't a max score for my age group, it will have been a great improvement from my initial 16:30 scores. I have literally been doing PT everyday - even Christmas and New Years I was pushing!

I self administered the APFT yesterday and here are my scores:

Push ups: 78
Sit ups: 86
2 Mile Time: 15:49

I also did pull ups:
Pull ups: 9

Again, my apologies for the delayed SITREP - I have been extremely focused on PT, reading, and studying in preparation for basic training since I didn't have a lot of time to prepare. I have the warrior ethos, general orders, army values, army history, soldier's creed, and have also began studying the ranger creed. I picked up a Ranger handbook from General Jackson's in Fayetteville.

Thanks again Rangers for the continued advice to not only me, but all aspiring Rangers. I appreciate it very much. I hope that everyone has had a great Christmas and New Years.

[Jim]

Johnathan, please keep us informed about your progress. When you depart for OSUT, please open a note in the letters from school thread so that we can monitor your activities. Never, never quit!

[Anjunadeep02]

Ranger Jim:

Thank you very much. I'm continuing to hit the PT hard this week and early next week until I ship next Wednesday. I will make another post the evening I'm at the hotel the night before shipping from MEPS.

Never, never quit!

Johnathan