[durootrium]

And no, it's not just sign me up and the bus leaves in an hour... you first have to have an interview with your recruiter to determine your eligibility and if you're truly interested in joining that particular service branch. This is where all legal, medical, education, etc. issues are initially explored and discussed. Then you take a practice ASVAB test to determine roughly where you stand and what sort of military occupational specialties may be available to you. A few days later, you head off to Military Entrance Processing where you take the official ASVAB test and go through a bunch of physical tests to see if you are medically qualified for the military. This can be a long process as you will have to gather your medical history, may have waiverable conditions that may require quite a bit of legwork to clear, etc. Many people spend months at this stage. Medical is no joke.

Your ASVAB score determines what MOS's you are eligible for and you sign your initial contract at this point once you're cleared medically. You then enter the Delayed Entry Program until you ship to boot camp which will probably be sometime a few months later.

Then you go back to MEPS, get a final clear (for the Marines, you have to take an initial PFT ), swear in, and ship out.


The process for Marine officers is a bit different, though. The above applied to enlisted.