h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Today, I enlisted in the Air Force Reserve as an EOD tech.

It was kind of strange. We made an appointment to meet today, but when I showed up, most of the base was closed. We needed to find a military officer so that I could be sworn in. We hopped in his car, and drove to the Base Exchange, which is a small department store for service members. We started walking around looking for an officer.

My recruiter spotted a colonel that he knew. It took some talking, but he convinced the colonel to swear me in. We went into the storage room. My recruiter had a table top US flag. Apparently the law requires that a flag is present during an enlistment. We put it on top of a stack of radios as I took the oath.

It was truly bizarre.

good luck

I had my first drill this weekend. I spent most of my time in processing to the unit. It was pretty cool. The people were uniformly nice. I was pretty stunned at how outgoing and welcoming everyone was. I mean stunned.

The organization of the Air Force is something totally alien to me, but it's starting to make sense to me.

My new squadron has some characters. The captain in my flight is a former marine. I ran into a firefighter in the unit who was complaining about the drug test, and told me about his plans for running for president.

Next drill, I should start training. It's time to get back in the swing of things.

I'd imagine that the whole squadron, group, wing thingie would be a bit odd to an old groundpounder.

Good job that.

After Iraq I looked into signing up, but was told politely that I'm too old! When did that happen?!?

In the UK the reserve forces have had a cut off for joining at age 30 for a number of years (with the exception of a few very hard to fill specialised posts)

What are your responsibilities then, two-bit?

I sit around and drink beer until a war happens. Oh, yeah, we're in one. I guess that wasn't sucha good idea.

There is an age limit for the reserves, but time in the reserves will push that limit back. Right now I'm 33, and I have 9 years of service. So tht wasn't a problem. The biggest problem was getting the physical squared away.

I'm an Explosive Ordnance Disposal technician. When explosive devices are found we make them go away or if that isn't safe, we render them safe and take them somewhere else where they can be safely disposed of.

I've been out of the field for three years, although I've done some training since then. I'm not sure where our mission lies. Right now, I study hard to get back in the groove.