Self Interview about Joining the Military Part: 2

What are you going to do in the ARMY?

--- My Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) is 68W (sixty-eight whisky is how it’s pronounced). A 68W is a Health Care Specialist (Combat Medic). I could do anything from being a line-medic, which is stationed with the infantry and goes out with them into combat, to being stationed in a hospital.

--- The above is an easy answer to what I’ll be doing in the Army. Much is unknown to me until I get through Basic Combat Training (BCT) and my Advanced Individual Training (AIT) and then get stationed with my unit.

--- The difficult part is telling people what I want to do within this MOS. What I would like to do and what I will be doing may or may not happen. What I would like to do, if I stay enlisted and not go into Officer Candidate School (OCS) after I finish my training, is be a line medic.

--- Within the MOS 68W there are several Skill Identifiers (SI’s). One of which is a flight medic. I would like to be a flight medic if I’m unable to be a line medic. There are qualifications you have to meet in order to even apply. You have to pass a physical screening, have served a minimum of one year as a certified 68W and have at least 24 months remaining in your service contract; just to name a few.

--- Let me preface these next sentences with, “I know I have a long way to go to meet these goals. However, they are my goals none the less”. My goal in the army is to meet all physical fitness requirements to do any job I choose. I don’t want to not be able to do something because I don’t meet the requirements. I want to not do something because I choose not to do it. What the recruiters and I are trying to get worked into my contract before I ship to basic training is getting me into Airborne School. Yes, that’s right… me, jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft. Another goal is to qualify for special forces/green berets. The only way I can make it into the Special Forces, because I’m color blind (according to the military), is going as a medic. This is one of the main reasons, not the sole reason, why I wanted to become a medic in the Army. Like I said previously, I want to have the option to do this not that I’m going to do it.

When do you go to Basic Combat Training? How long is BCT? Where is your BCT?

--- I ship out to BCT June 12, 2012. That’s two days before my 9 year anniversary with my wonderful wife. BCT lasts 9 weeks and 4 days. My BCT will be at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. It’s also effectually known as Fort Lost in the Woods because there is nothing but woods in this area. No cities, nothing. Just a lone fort. I guess people from the south would say it’s in the Boone Docks or in the Sticks.

When do you go to your Advanced Individual Training? How long is AIT? Where is your AIT?

--- I will go to AIT shortly after I graduate BCT. I’m not sure of how many days you have before you start but I think it’s a day or two after you graduate BCT. My AIT will last 18 weeks and 6 days. I will be at AIT for my daughter’s 5^th birthday. However, I don’t think I’ll be able to go home for Thanksgiving but I do believe we will have, what the military calls, Exodus for Christmas break. What this means is, to my knowledge, I’ll be able to go home for Christmas (Lord Willing!). But, I’ll have to return to finish up AIT. My AIT will be at Fort Sam Houston in Texas. San Antonio, TX to be more exact.

Self Interview about Joining the Military Part: 1

How long have you known that you wanted to join the military?

--- When I was younger, in middle school, I knew that our high school had a JROTC program and that I really wanted to join that and do JROTC in high school. However, when I mentioned this to my friends they all discouraged me and said, “Don’t do that! Those kids get made fun of”. For self preservation and not wanting to be ridiculed I didn’t join the JROTC and continued to play baseball instead.

--- I have wanted to join the military since I was 17 years old. When I was 17 I had a few friends that wanted to go into the military and one of them was going into the Marines. He referred me to his recruiter and that was the first time I actually considered joining the military. The recruiter even came over to my house and spoke with me and my father. The recruiter even took me to take the Armed Services Vocation Aptitude Battery (ASVAB). I spoke with my grandparents, mom, dad, friends and family about this decision and everyone, though it seemed, was completely against me joining the Marines. So, it was then that I decided to stop my pursuit all together and didn’t consider another branch of service. All the while, I would still have this strong desire to join the military. What I did next was what seemed to be a logical decision. I went to college to be a minister.

--- My life growing up consisted of going to school, playing baseball, and going to church. Growing up I’ve always wanted to play baseball for the Atlanta Braves. Unfortunately I gave up on that goal when I turned 16 and got a truck. When I got a truck, I got a job; logical choice. I continued to play baseball until I graduated high school but knew that the goal of being a MLB player just wasn’t going to happen. I didn’t know what I wanted to do and I knew I needed to make a decision about college. So I made another “logical” choice. I should go into the ministry. I’m a leader in the youth group and other than baseball and school; church is what I know best. I also thought to myself, “I should be a youth pastor! It’s so cool! You get to hang out with teenagers all the time and plan cool, fun trips like snow skiing and stuff”! Boy was I wrong! It took me to actually becoming a youth pastor (2003-2005) to find out that myth was wrong! I ended up going to the Baptist College of Florida(2000). I started as a Theology major and after a year and a half I switched my major to Church Music. I met my beautiful bride in the spring of 2002 and we were later married June 14, 2003. I was 21 she was 20! Other than surrendering to the Kingship of Christ, marring Jessica S. Foster was the best decision I’ve made in my life!

--- When I was in college I never really spoke to anyone (except Jessica) about wanting to join the military but the desire was still there. Because I was going to college for a Church Music degree I had briefly considered being a Chaplain but realized that’s not what I wanted to do in the military.

--- After I graduated college I got a job with the Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island as a Valet Parker. I worked with James and Mark Byrd. Two great guys! James is the older of the two and he served in the Army. While working with him I always enjoyed listening to his stories and he was kind enough to let me pick his brain about the Army and his service in it. Mark is closer to my age, just a year or two younger. Mark and I hung out a lot outside of work. One day he told me he was joining the Coast Guard and had already talked to the recruiter. He suggested that I should go with him to the recruiter station in Jacksonville, FL and speak to the recruiter with him. I did. I even went and took the ASVAB again. After I took the test it didn’t seem the recruiter really wanted me to join. And because I felt like they didn’t want me I stopped pushing to join. I settled for continuing to work at the Ritz-Carlton. Please, don’t get me wrong! The Ritz-Carlton is the best company to work for and I’m proud to work for them. It’s just that I know I don’t want to work there for the rest of my life and stay with them as a career.

--- While working at the Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island, after my friend Mark was shipped to Coast Guard Basic Training, either my mom or dad told me about a church looking for a music minister/associate pastor. I thought to myself, “I’m not sure I want to get back into the ministry just yet. But it would give me an opportunity to put my music degree to use and I can use this time to see if I should be a preacher instead”. However, I still had major reserves about going back into the ministry. So I spoke to my pastor Jackie Hayes and told him of this opportunity. He told me, “Well, you could always submit your resume and speak to the pastor and see where it all leads”. Long story short, I took his advice and ran with it. I submitted my resume; spoke to the pastor and then the music minister search committee. After that I lead a worship service on a Sunday morning and then that night I gave my testimony. They voted. I became their Associate Pastor/ Music Minister. While serving at this church, all the while working full time at the Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island as a Bell Man, I was still considering the military but was encouraged by others in the congregation that I should be a preacher. This is something I’ve been struggling over for a long time but I still wasn’t sure about it.

--- I’ve always been interested in languages. I did some research and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary has one of the best Biblical Languages in the country. And, you know what? There’s a Ritz-Carlton in New Orleans. So there was another logical choice for me. I could go to school for a master’s degree and work full-time at the RCNO. The RCAI was going to be going into renovation in the fall (which for me as a bell man the tips would be slim to none and I would still be struggling to provide for my family). This made the choice even more logical. I looked into the jobs available for the RCNO. I found they had a bell man position available. After an application and three interviews over the phone they offered me the job. I took it and moved my family to New Orleans in hopes of starting a Masters of Divinity in Biblical Languages… It still has not come to fruition.

--- Over the past two years I look back and ask the questions, “Was this worth it? Was this worth the heartache, time and money spent to move my family to a place that’s unfamiliar and unknown to not even accomplish the goal I had set for myself”? To answer these honestly and shortly, the answer is a resounding yes. However, has these two years been tough, stressful and full of doubt at times? Absolutely! It has by no means been fun to deal with struggling to provide for my family on a single income budget. And I won’t even mention having to deal with some of the local people in this area of the world! But there are a great handful of local people that have been helpful and supportive to me and my family! Not everyone in this neck of the woods is a Lune! LOL! At least, this is what I have to keep reminding myself of.

--- Because the past two years have been a struggle for me and my family it has put me in a situation where I realize I have some serious choices to make. Stay with the Ritz, look for another career, or go full fledged into the ministry because the way things are going I cannot support my family with the little income I get for working a job that any high school or college student could be doing. Now granted, there are no high school students in the position I’m working but, it doesn’t take a degree to be a concierge or be hospitable to guests. With those three choices I really considered the ministry but I just couldn’t bring myself to submit my resume for a ministry position. So, I went with option/choice two, I looked for another career.

--- The Lord knows I put my wonderful, gracious wife through a lot of stress over the last eight years of our marriage especially, when it came to trying to figure out what I was going to do to support our family. We have had MANY conversations about what I should do career wise. I have struggled with this ever since before we were married. It wasn’t until this past summer when I decided I’m going to lay everything out on the table one last time and have her help me with finding a career for which I was best suited. I told her all of the jobs I have always wanted to do from flying planes to being a cop, from being a doctor to being a charter boat captain/shrimper as my father is and take up the “family business” (which by the way, I’ve always felt like I should have been more involved in). But with all the jobs we talked about she said, “Ryan, the one thing I could see you doing is being a paramedic. You always handle stress very well and you’re really level headed when something bad happens”. And from that day forth I started searching into paramedic schools. I’ve always been interested in the human body. When I was in high school I elected to take anatomy/physiology. And in college I elected to take, one of my favorite classes in college, Anatomy/Physiology of the Vocal Mechanism; a class I wasn’t required to take. With all the searching for a paramedic school it brought me back to the reality I faced as to why I’m not in seminary working on a master’s degree: I can’t go to school, work a full-time job, support my family, and spend time with them. So, in October 2011 I decided to take one more shot at the military conversation with my wife. She responded, “Ryan, I’ve told you before, do what you want. I will support you in whatever you do. I just want you to make up your mind and DO SOMETHING!” So from that conversation last fall I began the process of the pursuit to join the military.