Medical Physical

So today I went to MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station)

This was my first military physical. I had heard a bunch of rumors about how invasive and intimidating it was, so I was a little nervous. However, living in Europe made me feel like I was probably going to be less stressed than others.

First things first:
I arrived at 5:30, and entered the building after a baggage and body scan. I went up to the correct floor, and met with the Air Force liaison. He thought that I was taking the AFOQT, and I had a brief panic moment when he asked me for a document that I didn't have. All was well though. I waited in line, signed in, and was taken immediately to the medical area. I checked into the medical area, and right after that I was taken to get my eyes and ears checked.
They have this interesting machine where you take off your glasses, tell them what is blurry and what is not, and then the machine scans your eyes and spits out a rough "prescription" based on that. I was correctable to 20/20, which is what I need to be. Then, I was taken to do a depth perception, color blindness, and heterophoria (my dad explained it to me, I still don't really get it) Anyway, I already knew I had a little vertical heterophoria, but apparently that's not a disqualifier.

Depth perception was HARD!!!! I was given groups of 3 rows with five dots across labeled A through F. A "set" looked like this:

A.  o o o o o
     o o o o o
     o o o o o

So basically, I was asked "which dot in the first row appears to be standing out?" and so on and so on, for each set. So I did it about 15-20 times. I had to blink A LOT, and often times I really wasn't sure if I was giving the right answer. By the time I got to set F, I couldn't see the second row, but I could get the 3rd row. I told her that, and she said "that's alright, you already passed, so try your best". WHEW! That was really nice to hear.

The color blind test was easy, I just read numbers. I know I'm not color blind, and as a girl, it would be VERY rare that I be color blind.

Then, I got tested for hearing. This made me supremely nervous. My hearing in my left ear is not as good as in my right, and I could kind of tell, not just by the test, but by the results. For the test, I had to sit in a teeny room with three other people. We had headphones on, and a clicker. We clicked every time we heard a tone. My right ear went quite well. I felt like I heard every tone I was supposed to hear. However, with my left ear, there were much longer gaps where I could hear the tones. I'm certain that I missed some tones that I should not have. I don't know what the numbers mean, but I can see that they are different for my left and right ears. I know that I don't need perfect hearing to be a pilot, and I hope that's true. My guess is that if I had not met thresholds for hearing and vision, I would have been sent home and not gone through the rest of it.

After vision and hearing, we were sent to a classroom type thing. In there, we filled out a questionnaire type thing asking about our medical history. We also got a questionnaire that asked about depression and speeding tickets (natural combination, no?)
We signed, dated, and then did a breathalyzer test. I know, it seems stupid, but it's an easy way to weed out people who shouldn't be there. I mean, if you're irresponsible enough to show up drunk at your MEPS medical physical, you're probably not cut out for the military. After that, we went to get blood drawn to test for HIV and other diseases that you can tell only with a blood draw.

Then we got pulse checked and blood pressure checked. My blood pressure was annoyingly higher than usual today, but still well within the limits. Then we went in for an individual consult. Air Force requires everyone (especially pilot candidates!!!!) to read a passage to see if they have a stutter or lisp. I read it absolutely fine. Then we discussed my history. I had to tell her about all 4 of my speeding tickets (embarrassing) and everything else. I think I did well.

I then waited with the other girls, and then all 5 of us girls (there were 60 guys. Ha!) went to the "FEMALES ONLY!" area. We first did urine tests. They check for drugs, pregnancy, etc. The Sargent was in the room with us and the rest of the girls were outside an open door, so there wasn't too much privacy (I really didn't care). We then took our own urine samples to the urine sample counter and watched the technician pour the sample into another cup and seal it with red tape over the cover. It was very official! I kind of had to laugh at the fact that my pee was being treated with such care and security!

We got checked for height and weight...I am not allowed to be below 121 lbs, and I have to be less than 175 lbs (huh? That is OBESE!) We then had an individual physical exam. Another Air Force gem that only I (as Air Force) had to do was "popping" my ears. Fortunately, since I have a scuba license, I learned how to pop my ears for that, so I told her no problem. The doctor (she had been a prior Air Force doctor!!!) said "You are definitely an adrenaline chaser, aren't you?" I said "Yes ma'am!"
We also had a cursory physical. Making sure we all had lady parts (apparently a girl came to MEPS one time with a strap-on...). It wasn't a big deal. Unfortunately, the doctor noticed a scar on my back from a mole removal, and said I had to send in the pathology report from it. I mean, it makes sense that they don't want to take me on if they think I'm going to be dilapidated with cancer early on. Still, a bummer. Apart from that, I'd be totally cleared to go.

After the physical came the hilarious part. We all stripped down to bra and underpants, and did a bunch of motions based on a video. We had to point our feet, do a kind of "fake" march, move our hands, kneel down, stand back up without using hands (easier than you'd think!) and then what we all had heard about and wondered about: THE DUCK WALK.

Imagine this. The duck walk is when you squat very low, so you're up on your medi tarsals, and you do a squatting walk for about five steps. It looks goofy. I pulled this from youtube. Some very mature army dude doing the duck walk with his gun:



So, my friends, that was it! Then we had lunch. It was just a sandwich, but we were all RAVENOUS. We'd all been awake since about 5, and by 11:30, when we were allowed to get lunch, it felt like 4pm. Partially because it was grey outside, but mostly because we'd had a fairly productive day. There was less waiting then I had anticipated, and I felt like I had done a ton in just a couple of hours.

An interesting thing that happened actually was that ALL the other girls were marked down for having flat feet. I was not. Woohoo! ALSO!!!! I can't believe I forgot to mention this:
Most people, including the guy drawing my blood asked what I was going in for, and when I said "pilot" they all said "Oh! Good luck! That's awesome!" The guy drawing my blood was a coast guard employee, and said:

"You know, I'm not a recruiter, but if you find out that the Air Force isn't treating you well, the coast guard needs female pilots. We have way too many guys! If you want to fly, we have planes that we fly out over the Caribbean to scan for drug boats. It's really fun."

I said, "Hmmm! That doesn't sound too bad!" GOOD to know that I have another option for flying. And as usual, it felt really awesome to have people supporting me.

I found out some more things, and I'd like to write about them too, but I think this post is long enough so I will save it for another day. Perhaps tomorrow :)