I met my recruiter in October of 2006 at a career fair at school.  I submitted my application for the first time in January of 2008 and was not selected.  I then submitted my application again in May of 2009, and on Monday, June 1st, I got the phone call that I was professionally recommended for the Baccalaureate Degree Completion Program for Information Warfare with the United States Navy!

I am very excited, to say the least.  Along with the excitement comes a good bit of nervousness, though.  For a good while the pro-rec seemed like an unreachable goal that I would be endlessly grasping at, especially after my non-select in 2008.  But now, thank goodness, I have the biggest hurdle of the application process behind me.

So what is next?

In the upcoming weeks/months I will need to take my Physical Readiness Test (PRT) (see http://www.navy-prt.com for details), and I will go through my Single Scope Background Investigation (SSBI) for a Top Secret (TS) clearance.  I signed papers yesterday allowing the clearance to begin.

I also have finger print materials coming in the mail that I will have to go to the police station (I will be going to my campus police station) to use to get fingerprinted, since my fingerprints from MEPS are no longer on file.

I was also curious if I was going to have to go back to MEPS, since my 2 years will be up this next December.  My OR said that I shouldn’t have to do another physical until right before heading off to OCS.

So basically right now it is more waiting.  I won’t get paid until I swear in, which is after the clearance.  My time estimate until my Final Select is about 3 months.  From following AirWarriors and USNavyOCS, it seems that 3 months is a typical wait period for Final Select.

Everyone that I have been telling about getting accepted into the Information Warfare community in the Navy has been what I consider “cautiously excited”.  They are happy that I am happy, but all seem to ask the question, “are you sure you want to do this?”  The only downfall, which is a big one, is the time apart from family and friends.  But I have never been one to think that I will spend the rest of my life in Cincinnati, OH.  Sure, I might end up here, someday, in the suburbs on the north side of Cincinnati, but I’m not ready for that yet.  Let’s see where the road takes me, first.

Life is good.