11:05 a.m. - 2016-11-27
Operation Mulligan
On Saturday, November 5th, I was talking to my love on the phone, specifically about my time in the Army, and she had asked why I got out and why I don't just come back to the military, only this time to the Air Force.
I thought it was a crazy idea, but one that was crazy enough to work. I had been under the mistaken impression that the cutoff age for the Air Force was much younger and that they didn't take prior service. The cutoff age is 39, and they do, indeed, take prior service.
I mulled over this idea all weekend. I worked all day Monday, so I would have to wait until Tuesday to talk with a recruiter. But Tuesday came, and, having failed to do my homework, I found that all of the Summit County Air Force recruiting stations had been closed down and consolidated. I also found that they were closed for election day. Wednesday, before hosting my weekly quiz, I headed down to Canton early to find the recruiting station there. Although the Air Force has an office there in the all branches location, their main office is right down the road. Thank you random recruit for letting me know. I made my way down there only to find them closed. I texted one of the recruiters (the one recommended by an Army buddy*) only to find that because Veterans Day was the same week, they were actually out of the office all week.
[*So, part of mulling it all over was consulting with a few Army buddies, a few (current and former) Air Force buddies, and eventually, even a few civilian friends, most of whom were made aware of the situation during Tuesday's "Job Interview" post on Facebook.
I had expected a few of the Army buddies to just laugh in my face only to find that it's actually what they would recommend for me, that or the Navy. To anyone I haven't contacted yet, it's nothing personal. Or maybe it's something too personal. I just want to share it with everyone when it's a sure thing. Once I get sworn in, I'll share it publicly.]
That week was relatively wasted. The next week, however, I did make a small bit of progress, contacting and gaining access to my military records, to include my final LES (Leave and Earnings Statement, i.e. my paystub) from the Reserves, which I had just stopped attending due to a series of reasons that felt entirely out of my control. The one item I did not have was my Letter of Discharge from said Reserve unit, and I was still reluctant to contact the training office to inquire about it.
My final LES had me listed at 14 years of service with an ETS date in March of this year, which was the end of my contract date. Contacting the Reserves Human Resources Command (higher than just the training room) got me another promising piece of information: The Reserves don't give a Reentry (RE) Code because they don't issue a DD 214. This means we still go by my original RE Code from my original ETS date in 2004, which is a 1.
[They range from a 1, come back any time, to a 4, not just no, but fuck no.]
I texted the recruiter back with my previous MOS (Mission Occupation Specialty, i.e. job) and my RE Code. He replies that we might be able to get me a direct duty enlistment in the same/comparable field without attending tech school. To which one of my advising Army buddies had told me,"If they're offering you that, drop what you're doing and go for it!" Fair enough. I asked the recruiter what we need to do to make it happen, he replied that he'd have to contact that branch leader. Then I didn't hear from him for about a week.
He finally contacts me again (I had been warned not to come off as too desperate) this Tuesday to see if I'm still interested and to set up an appointment for next week, on Monday afternoon.
That night I worked to close at Pizza Hut, drove Uber until about 5am, and decided to call the IRS to set up an appointment to get my decade of unfiled tax returns. With it being Thanksgiving the next day, I was expecting to get an appointment for next week. Even better. It was a quarter after 9am, and the agent on the phone set up an appointment for me at 10am at the Akron Federal Building. I showered and shaved and headed down there.
Despite their bad reputation, the IRS agent was friendly and very helpful. She not only printed out two copies of the needed returns, she also gave me information on the monetary offset from my 2005 returns and who to contact about it, as well as providing me the information to contact a law firm right next door in the Chase Building to have my back taxes filed for free.
I'd also told her why I was trying to get my ducks in a row, that I'm trying to go Air Force, and I even admitted that it was at least partially for a girl. She was, like, "So? It's still a good idea, and you'll have military pay and benefits." I showed her a picture of the girl in question and she said, "Oh, she's pretty." She had told me about one of her sons bringing a girlfriend over and she'd called that girl "precious". He said, "So I gotta break up with her, then?" Apparently she never used "precious" to describe any of any of her sons' girlfriends before, so he knew he had to cut the girl loose.
I'd called to set up an appointment with the law office while Mrs. Malone was printing my returns. I then took the initiative to go to the law office in person to get onboarded face-to-face. With the confusion of the holidays, I was able to get my returns scanned into their system then.
I then dilly dallied a bit outside, conversing with my chief consulting army buddy, trying to decide what to do next. [If I'm ever elected president, I'll offer him a cabinet position. Maybe Secretary of the Interior.] I then headed to FedEx Office to print out that night's quiz packet and handouts.
While parked there, before going in, and still conversing with him, I called the Reserves training office. The Unit Admin's reaction was priceless:
Her: "350th PsyOp. This is Miss Racsic. How can I help you?"
Me: Long time no, hear. This is Specialist Repine.
Her: "Oh, shit!" *almost drops the phone* "What can I help you with?"
Me: Can you mail or email me my Letter of Discharge?
She gets my email and says she'll have it to me by the end of the day.
I go in to print my packet, and, before I leave, she's already emailed me back. I wait until I get back outside to read it, nervous that it's going to be bad...
...It says Honorable Discharge. Soldier was held beyond normal discharge date through no fault of the soldier.
Woohoo!
I relay this to my advisor. We had been worried that my RE Code would be a 3 or a 4, but it's still definitely a 1.
I headed home to finally go to bed. But the law office called to have me come sign documents. So I got dressed again and headed back down there. She said I wasn't kidding when I said I was right down the road.
Paperwork completed, I went to leave, but had a conversation with one of the maintenance guys painting the walls and trim around the elevators. He had been Air Force and definitely recommended it.
Once again I headed home to go to sleep, and sleep I did, like a rock. I woke up to my alarm, for a moment forgetting why it was set for that time or what I had to go do.
I'm dubbing this whole Air Force endeavor Operation Mulligan because it'll allow me to turn back time on a lot of bad financial decisions. It's what I was trying to do when I went back into the Reserves in 2010. I've just been spinning my wheels since I left active duty.
I wouldn't trade my active duty army experiences, but I definitely should have switched branches immediately afterwards.
Other concerns I still have to address include tracking down that debt information and taking the appropriate steps to tackle it, and, once I'm in (assuming I get in), finishing my psychology degree. I should be able to finish it online, even.
I estimate that I should have all of my debt paid off within two years, and that's just factoring in Air Force pay. I can still get a civilian job, of which I might even still be able to host quizzes if my schedule allows, and I can squeeze in some time Ubering.
I already have stuff, and far too much of it. If I manage to parse it down and transport it to a storage unit where I'm at, I won't need to rebuy things again, which is a big reason why I've amassed so much.
I'm going to take a few boxes worth of figures and such with me in my car to work and then my appointment with the recruiter so that I can then go to the nearby FedEx Office location to use their eBay Valet service to make a few bucks for it all, at just a 20% fee.
I can't say that I'm not nervous about tomorrow, but I can certainly say that I am hopeful. On paper, I'm still a model soldier, so hopefully that's all that matters. Wish me luck!
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